Erika Manfredi is a young Calabrian entrepreneur, owner of the farm "Il Colle dei Mirtilli", located at the foot of the Crista d'Acri, in the province of Cosenza, an enchanting green spot that extends over an area of ​​60,000 square meters to an altitude of 850 m asl. The magnificent place is perched by Silan pine trees that form a gigantic hedge useful to protect the plants from cold and frost. Erika, after high school studies, devoted herself to the humanities and wrote at the Faculty of Philosophy and History at the University of Calabria. After obtaining a three-year degree in "philosophy and human sciences", with full marks, based on the figure of Aristotle, he continues with a master's degree in philosophical sciences.

Erika's choice to devote herself to agriculture was not immediate while she was immersed and strongly engaged in her studies, her parents decided to buy land to create what is now a wonderful reality: the company "Il Colle dei Mirtilli" farm. Colle dei Mirtilli produces two qualities of American giant blueberry: DUKE, which ripens in June and BERKELEY, which ripens in July. In addition to direct sales, Erika ships this small fruit throughout Italy. It was 2012 when Erika began to plant the first seedlings of Vaccinium Corymbosum, between the desire to see these small blueberries grow and the fear of creating and investing for a company in the area. But Erika treasures the Horatian phrase “carpe diem” and decides to support the family project, staying in Calabria and choosing to accept the challenge of enhancing the territory and showing that her land can give so much.

Today Erika is proud of that choice and leads the company with passion, constantly trying to combine historical-philosophical knowledge, never abandoned over the years, with cultivation. First of all, high-quality cultivation of the small fruit, cultivation that Erika defines as "moral cultivation" because it is carried out with strict respect for the fruit, nature, the soil and the consumer. man to nature to rediscover and appreciate natural beauty, moving away from the oppression of everyday life, re-appropriating the "luxury of natural contemplation" now left aside in the frenzy of everyday life. An idea, the latter that arises from the analysis of a text by an American philosopher HD Thoureau who in the text "The blueberry or the importance of little things" in addition to analyzing the plant, dwells on the centrality of living in contact with nature.