It all dates back to 1870, when my grandfather Ausilio's father, Alfieri Potenti, began working as a sharecropper, cultivating a few hectares of land around the Poggio all'Avvoltoio farm in Riotorto.
a small fraction of Piombino (LI) e
strip of land of the Val di Cornia, owned by Count Giuli Rosselmini Gualandi Ferdinando Giuseppe and with whom he used to participate in his hunting trips.
Despite this it begins though
to show a lot of interest in bees.
This is how he builds hives and frames, creating families of queen bees, supported by his son Ausilio, who inherits this passion from him.
Great inventor and "failed engineer", Ausilio Potenti manages to make himself known not only at the weekly markets of Follonica and Piombino, but also in various parts of Italy, to the point of being appreciated even in Germany and Switzerland, so much so that Apitalia writes a beautiful article by visiting his workshop.
Thanks to his proven beekeeping and inventive skills, and supported by the constant help of his wife Dalma, he accelerates the process of transformation and processing of honey, creating a new boiler and a new honey extractor (whose industrial patents we still keep carefully guarded today) , thus increasing sales with other products of his beloved bees:
royal jelly and pure propolis in pieces.
Around 1985, Ausilio tried to mix cocoa powder in a jar of wildflower honey to try to sell it on the market: unfortunately the idea did not give the desired results and decides not to offer it to its customers, since not only does it not reveal itself. good but after a short time he noticed that the cocoa separated from the honey.