Testa: A Lifetime of Tending the Ligurian Land

'The moustache is always there, ever present, guarding a kind face, eyes smiling and attentive, the eyebrows retain multiple degrees of brown and greys which the moustache seems to have lost. Singular hairs creep over the lips as if a gentle poke is needed to remind the face she’s there, a youth emerges from this face through its pores and seasoned skin, a face which has seen first hand the earth its plants and its fruits for over seventy years, and made it its life’s work for over sixty; this is Giovanni Testa, artist, player, lover of Grenache wine. He's a farmer, a bon vivant and a total dude; he’s his own ecotype.'

I wrote this piece after one of our visits in May of 2016. It was a time when I began to realise the connection between the human bonds we created and the quality of the product we sourced. And whilst an exceptional tomato undoubtedly is a measure of our supply chain, its full appreciation is only possible by feeling the expression of the artists, of the farmers who embody it.

After 12 years of working together, this was Testa's last season. It is a mixture of happiness and sadness. Sorrow of what will no longer be. This is a first for me, for us, to see a farmer and friend retire. It speaks to our longevity I suppose, but it is nonetheless full of emotion, ushering a time of reflection on the exceptional privilege it's been to share his work, and eat his food.

"He has the most beautiful hands of all the growers we work with. They could belong to Hulk if not for the fact that he’s earned them, he’s moulded them."

Giovanni has been tending the Ligurian land for a lifetime, as his father and grandfather did before him. At just fourteen, he was working alongside his father, breaking rock with a pickaxe to carve the terraces he would continue to farm for the next 70 years.

He has the most beautiful hands of all the growers we work with. They could belong to Hulk if not for the fact that he’s earned them, he’s moulded them. At fourteen his father had him chip rock with a pickaxe, those soft hands which were in full development toughened up, the bones bulging to handle the stress, twisting and bending. The skin is crackled and coloured, tinged with nature’s eminent colour, green; these are not mere hands, they are tools welded onto his forearms, there is no industrial farming here, these hands cannot operate a modern hydroponic tomato farm, his fingers are so thick they’d touch two keys.

From those steep coastal slopes came his Bull’s Heart Tomatoes and Baby Black Aubergines, varieties so deeply tied to Liguria. Thanks to Testa, they’ve reached beyond their boundaries, and their seed has been protected from extinction.

Every season, his knowledge of the land, his seed and his surroundings was there in the flavour: aubergines so tender they can be eaten raw, tomatoes with a depth only possible when grown fully outdoors, under sun, sea breeze, and rain.

Testa’s retirement marks the end of an era and leaves a legacy that will continue to shape the future. As we look to the future, we want to share some of the beautiful past. Open up this artist's home, his canvas and his magic for it allows us to revalue real food. It reminds us of the importance of connection, both to nature and ourselves, our land, our soils and the food that enriches and nourishes us. I leave you with the emotions and appreciation I had ten years ago, in the hope that you can capture some of Testa's spirit and may it nourish you with hope.

"Outdoor grown plants have more guts, more balls, more character. You lose consistency, gain unpredictability, and acquire physical scarring.."

The position of the land is gorgeous, on the inside slope of a crevice, where two hills come together to head out onto the sea. The land has all been terraced using that pickaxed rock, layered like a pancake stack built up with mud and thin slices of rock. In some areas where the terrace had collapsed, plastic produce boxes have been used in place of the stone, once again erecting the growing platform.

Here everything grows outdoors, no greenhouses, no poly-tunnels, no sheeting of any kind, just pure unadulterated old school growing.

Outdoor grown plants have more guts, more balls, more character. You lose consistency, gain unpredictability, and acquire physical scarring, which just like Giovanni’s hands, is not born out of a protected, controlled, predictable environment. The depth of human beauty that possesses Giovanni, his astonishing physicality after over seventy years on this earth, his charm, serenity, sincerity, and his sexiness are all a product of his outdoor life. We love that; it reaches us, so why on earth do we not see the beauty in the perfect imperfections of nature? It’s a disassociation with plant and animal life.

We’ve been sourcing his tomatoes for many years now and they’re capable of reaching levels of excellence few can muster. A purity of flavour no other variety can match – tomatoes are an incredibly varied bunch, their consumption is so pervasive humans have developed a range of flavours and typologies that is wild.

Trying to capture the purity of “tomato” flavour has become futile and irrelevant; that said appreciating tomatoes that excel for their masterful complexity, their ability to embody the terroir, mix it with sweetness and acidity is oh so special.

Grades of maturity add to this melee, especially with the winter varieties, yet in my view a summer tomato needs maturity, it begs for adulthood.

Colour is important, far more important than most people can perceive, with each variety expressing itself in different tones. The Ligurian Bull’s Heart, or Testa’s Bulls Heart to be more precise, matches its purity of flavour with its purity of redness; a scarlet red. No hints of excessive sweetness, no over-acidity, no profound depth through salinity, just simple purity, an ultimate perfect balance.

In contrast a Vesuvian Bull’s Heart is blueish, and these hues are a demonstration of sweetness, of intensity that overburdens – in a most magical way – the acidity and tricks the mind that sees bull’s blood red, into flavours of deep, lush red fruits.

Testa’s are colourfully so different when ripe, dictionary red, smack in the centre of yellow, orange and purple. The flavour is right there in the middle – perfect tomato flavour.