Since 1850 the history of the Mileti family has been linked to secular horticultural tradition and production handed down from father to son, since when the great-grandfather Leonardo begun to produce and sell nude-root vegetable plants destined to local markets and to the family food requirement. Mr Leonardo Mileti grew his produce in seedbeds that were directly prepared on the soil and then he ventured as far as High Salento area to sell it, with the only help of a donkey pulling the cart.
Il nonno Angelo continuava in questa attività tanto da trasmetterla al figlio Leonardo che con mezzi come un motocarro “APE”, vendeva queste piantine nei diversi paesi delle province limitrofe. The grandfather Angelo continued this tradition handing it down to his son Leonardo who was used to pass by all the surrounding little towns with his three-wheeler truck APE to sell his plants. In 1983, with the arrival of the new generation - repository of the same tradition but at the same time with an eye to the future – Angelo Mileti decided to found ORTOFLORA producing different kitchen garden and flower plants. Finally the farm, managed by the one who mostly had incited and who mostly believed in this project, begun to develop technologically becoming an important reference in the field of modern flower and horticulture and gaining more and more importance locally and then nationally; its main characteristic was, and still is, the high skills of its employees and the quality of its produce and processes.
Proud of this MISSION and always searching for new challenges, in 2000 the farm was provided with technologically advanced and heated green-houses so to start the production of aromatic herbs which, together with kitchen garden plants, belong to our Mediterranean and local tradition.
Today we are able to provide both local and wholesale markets with high quality products in pot or in trays for direct consumption. Few years ago our label Le Erbe Dello Chef, has been registered and our product has been provided with a TREACEABLITY LABEL.