Who we are
ErbeLuna, explained
ErbeLuna is a very small Farm, with one goal: to distill fantastic Essential Oils.
The face (as well as the arm and the mind!) of ErbeLuna is Nicolò, born in 1986, from Lombardy. After years of wandering the World, he lands in the tiny village of Carbonare di Capriana, sixty inhabitants in Val di Fiemme, one of the most beautiful valleys in Trentino.
Here he met Carlo Signorini, a herbalist known throughout Italy. Carlo lived in Carbonare most of his life, always cultivating Officinal Plants, entering into communion with them. In addition to the studies of a lifetime, it was precisely the plants, through experience, intuition and dream, that transmitted him Wisdom and Knowledge: in his Spiritual life, in his ability to get in touch with the plant that he is observing or with which he is working, in the Humility to accept a change guided by a Plant Life.
Carlo decides to give this treasure to Nicolò, together with the basics of distillation, and an initial initial equipment.
For Nicolò it is love at first sight: he is instantly passionate, and he is a student so attentive that he quickly finds his way and develops a knowledge that, regarding Essential Oils, goes beyond those of his Master.
But this is not the only gift that the Fate had in store for him, right there in Carbonare: in Selene, Carlo's daughter, Nicolò finds the love of his life. (By the way, to those who wonder why the name ErbeLuna, try to think how was the goddess Luna - the Moon - called in Greek ...!)
Nicolò and Selene got married on 25 June 2016, with a beautiful ritual - officiated by Carlo - in the Larch woods of near Carbonare.
The same woods that are witnesses, collaborators, and raw material of a work that has been going on for 40 years, two generations, two people, linked by esteem and affection, so close and similar, but also very different.
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In 2017 - always under the watchful eye of his Master - Nicolò began to make Essential Oils his profession. He brings with him his scientific preparation and his pragmatism, working with attention and method; but always remembering that, first and foremost, he is an Alchemist. One of the greatest teachings that Carlo has transmitted to him is precisely this simple phrase: "You think you are distilling the Wood, but it is the Wood that distills you".
And it is precisely the Wood that supplies the raw material of almost all the Essences of ErbeLuna, in particular the Conifers, magnificent trees that Nicolò has searched everywhere. From the Moroccan Atlas to the Himalaya, in the Conifer woods he has always found something more, he has been fascinated since he was a boy: some of his most beautiful memories are related to these trees, he has studied their history, evolution, properties , chemistry and pharmacology.
They also represent for him a symbol of continuity and tenacity: they appear on earth about 300 million years ago and from about 180 million they are substantially the same, from needles to pine cones. Indeed, it seems that the
intense scent and the abundant secretion of resin were originally a way to try to keep away the large herbivorous dinosaurs, which were fond of their branches! They are also fundamental in the history of Man: just think of wood, pitch, turpentine ... not to mention all the traditional medicine remedies that use their active ingredients.
But even the best cannot be perfect, and the Conifers are no exception: they lack the straightforward perfume of a flower! It is for this reason, in order to also offer the Joy of this scent, which from the beginning - with the help of Daniele, Selene's brother - ErbeLuna has planted hundreds of seedlings of True Lavender. And now, the latest project (to be honest it's a madness for some!) are the queens of plants, the Roses. Year after year Nicolò is planting dozens of Gallic and Damascene Roses on the sunny lawn under the old house he shares with
Selene, their two dogs (Rover and Rasa) who follow him everywhere and three magnificent red cats.
The lives of Nicolò and Selene are now marked by the Exhibitions and markets in which they participate almost weekly, by the distillation and the rhythms of the Sun and Moon. A simple life, in which bread is earned with sweat but also with study, full of freedom and always on the move - just like the Plants, apparently immobile year after year but in reality not a minute the same!