CHIANTI CASHMERE is the brainchild of Nora Desmond Kravis, who grew up on Long Island, NY, had a horse-crazy upbringing, and discovered Italy as a Fine Arts student during her junior year abroad at Tyler School of Art in Rome.
After graduating from Temple University in Philadelphia, Nora was hired as a guide in the early ‘70’s to take tourists on horseback through the yet-undiscovered Chianti countryside outside of Radda in Chianti.
It was here that she discovered a tumbled-down farmhouse with the breathtaking view that she decided to make her new home. It was 1972. Chianti was still unknown to foreigners, and tourism had not taken hold.
Nora attended and graduated from the Università di Pisa as a veterinarian, and became the local small-town vet, but a seemingly insignificant graduation present from a schoolmate of two goats was the starting point of a spectacular adventure that is still unfolding
THEN With a childhood dream to live in the country surrounded by her animals, Nora soon became the owner of little more than a precarious pile of rocks, in an area of rural Tuscany that noone had ever heard of, abandoned except for the Sardinian shepherd and his family across the valley ...... but it meant a 'roof' (so to speak) over her head and shelter for her horse and brought new meaning to 'star-gazing from your bed'. She began rebuilding the little farmhouse, stone by stone, and six months later enrolled in Medicina Veterinaria all'Università di Pisa ...........alternating mixing cement with medical exams, wielding a scythe while practicing emergency medicine, the “farm” took shape: a job that would take a decade to complete and provide sometimes unsurmountable hurdles to overcome.
The animals arrived by twos: 2 sheep ('Betty & Boop’), two pigs ('Pyg’ & ‘Sty’), two dogs (‘Pucci & Sbaglio‘), numerous ducks and chickens and hens and a rooster (‘Big Red’), and the horses: first two and then four (Dorio, Desireè, Nescafè, Carlos Primero)……..and the goats (‘Bella & Bestia), tied in the shade of a tree…................
But that was THEN
NOW The little farm house is still there, perched on the side of the hill, now cosily remodelled over the years to become a popular ‘VACATION RENTAL. The first two goats tied to a tree have become a group of genetically superior Cashmere Goats, with wide-spread origins and exotic names (Eugenia, Darlin’, Festa, Satana, Chatterbox, Mr Magoo, Pied Piper, Calico Kid, Ruby, London Fog, James Bond, and Cappuccino), who produce the raw material for a unique line of exclusive, hand-woven Italian Cashmere accessories, home textiles and our own SUSTAINABLE CASHMERE yarn for the knitter who knows and wants quality yarn.
From its origin, the goat herd has become a reality now recognized nationally and in other countries of the EEC: not only is it the first privately owned Cashmere goat herd in Europe, it is the genetic data base and source for reproductive animals across the continent. Years of daily contact and interaction with the goats in our herd have allowed us to develop expertise of the entire cycle of breeding, harvesting and transformation of the raw cashmere into finished yarn and thus the unsurpassed quality of our handwoven accessories
In an era that has marked the destruction of the small farm, abandonment of acreage once dedicated to farming and grazing, and reduction of the number of herds in central Europe, ……. CHIANTI CASHMERE GOAT FARM, is an exception to the rule, and a model for small-scale agricultural enterprise
