Activities begin during March when the land after being plowed, is levelled. In the past, the fields were flooded and the water surface was used as level: the exceeded soil was removed and any holes were filled. Today this operation takes place with the aid of advanced technology. In fact, we use a scraper driven by a laser beam that allows to obtain a maximum height difference of 0.5 cm every 500 meters.
In autumn rice matures, the paddy is emptied from water and the soil begins to dry: harvesting can begin. The percentage of moisture located in the grain, determined with special instrumentation, will indicate the precise moment of the maturation of rice in which the collection can begin. The humidity should be between 18% and 30% and we are at about 155 days after sowing.
Normally the task of rice farmers ends in this phase, Cascina Fornace instead continues in processing. To work directly our rice is a very clear choice: in our area only few (3 or 4) companies have production cycle completely closed. We chose this way to focus on total quality, because by taking care of all stages of the production process we can control each step and achieve the best result.
Once refined, the rice should only be packaged. We make it still by hand, for both the under vacuum and for the traditional canvas bag. Since 2009, we introduced the Modified Atmosphere Packaging (MAP), a procedure which involves the replacement of the oxygen present in the package with a weighted mixture of gases such as nitrogen and carbon dioxide.
