Equimilk
Equimilk is represented by Dr. Tatjana Falconi, a veterinarian specialized in equine medicine. She developed the idea of producing mare’s milk for human consumption, inspired by a personal interest that began with her thesis on the subject in 1993. This interest led to several visits to mare milk farms in Germany and the Netherlands, where the product has been known and consumed for decades.
Dr. Tatjana Falconi mainly works in equine sports medicine. She also holds a diploma in veterinary acupuncture and has deep expertise in laser therapy and laser acupuncture. In recent years, her skills have been sought internationally, in Europe and the United Arab Emirates, and she has been invited by the University of Veterinary Medicine in Milan to teach specialized classes in the postgraduate course in Equine Medicine.
For over twenty years, she has overseen the breeding of Haflinger mares at the social cooperative "Ai Rucc e Dintorni", where the Solidarity Milk Project was born. This project, co-financed in part by Caritas, aims to produce mare’s milk for human consumption.
The project required three years to meet all the structural, procedural, and hygiene standards necessary to obtain the EC certification granted by the local health authority (ASL).
Thanks to her veterinary acupuncture expertise, the mares are treated, when necessary, without the use of pharmaceuticals, ensuring milk free of drug residues. Laboratory analyses conducted at the Istituto Zooprofilattico Sperimentale in Brescia have consistently confirmed the milk’s high hygienic standards over time.
Sentieri e Verbena Solidali Social Cooperative
Founded in December 2009, the “Sentieri e Verbena Solidali” social cooperative aims to promote the employment of disadvantaged individuals through the creation of small, local social enterprises.
Ai Rucc e Dintorni Social Cooperative
The "Ai Rucc e Dintorni" Cooperative, active in Vobarno (BS) since the early 1980s, supports and rehabilitates individuals in difficulty. Its headquarters in Via Ronchi 36 includes rooms, bathrooms, kitchen, common areas, and dining facilities.
Adjacent structures include a cattle barn with a dairy processing lab, a pig farm for cured meat production, a workshop for maintenance, and storage for tools and machinery.
On other nearby lands, the cooperative has a stable with 16 horse stalls, a tack room, a large hayloft, and outdoor spaces for horse movement. These agricultural and animal husbandry activities are essential to its mission of rehabilitation through work.
A New Idea
Over time, the idea emerged to build a new structure with a milking room for equines, a processing and bottling lab, and a packaging and sales room.The facility includes a milking room with two restraint stalls: one for the mare and one for the foal, a lab for processing and bottling the milk, and a separate room for packaging and direct sales.
It also features a large -20°C cold storage room, a refrigerator for fresh products, and a spacious area for preparing packages.
