Born in the Italian alps, Federica was raised by a grandmother who survived two world wars, and was therefore skilled at turning simple, ordinary ingredients into fabulous meals made from scratch. Federica’s childhood was passed cooking northern Italian food with her, making strudel with apples from the family’s orchards, and foraging for radicchio, wild asparagus, mushrooms, hazelnuts, chestnuts, and figs.  

As an exchange student in the San Francisco Peninsula, Federica fell in love with her husband and the state of California. Together, they proceeded to run a series of successful small businesses together in the Bay Area, where Federica would inevitably end up overseeing the organizational, financial, HR, and taxation side of operations. Two years at Mills College in Oakland formalized her self-taught education with a degree in economics and accounting. Visiting her in-laws in Davis, she was charmed by the Central Valley, where the summers are hot and the nightshades thrive. In 2000, she and her husband acquired a 60-acre ranch in Winters with a small orchard and pastures where they could grow their own food and livestock.  

Since then, Federica has been freelancing, teaching other small business owners how to navigate the challenges of doing their own bookkeeping, taxes, and business planning. Through the Center for Land-Based Learning, she developed a series of classes specifically on bookkeeping for farmers as well as a collection of videos on bookkeeping tailored to the small, organic grower. Her favorite clients have become farmers because most of the time they pay her in fresh, organic farm products. Joining KTA allows Federica to do what she already loves, but with the support and expertise of a great team. When Federica is not working, she teaches English to farmworkers’ wives in Winters, grows her own food, makes cheese, wrangles chickens, and hikes in the Sierras.