The woman who saves endangered fruits. Isabella works in a garden of 580 plants. Precious (photo)

GROWING ANCIENT FRUITS

His job? Fruit archaeologistAnd in reality if by archaeology we mean the science that studies the civilizations and cultures of the past, we can certainly define Isabella Dalla Ragione an archaeologist. But her fieldwork in the Upper Tiber Valley, in Umbria, goes far beyond the history of ancient roots, and leads to the present day, allowing the rescue of important crops at risk of extinction. And thus avoiding a deadly waste, for example, of precious and ancient fruit varieties. In the village of San Lorenzo di Lerchi, in fact, carean estate where plants from the past grow luxuriantly, producing extremely rare fruits. A place where a forgotten part of our heritage biodiversity continues to live even though most of us have never suspected its existence. This is the Arboreal Archaeology Foundation, born from the commitment of Isabella and before her of her father Livio.

ALSO READ: Ron Finley, the gardener who transforms wasteland in Los Angeles into urban gardens

EXTINCTED PLANTS

La Scosciamonaca plum, the Florentine pear, the apple ox-nosed, the lemon cherry, fico giant of the clogs or that swallow of San SepolcroThese are just some of the species that the plant archaeologist, as Isabella Dalla Ragione likes to call herself, has discovered and planted. Today the estate boasts 580 extremely rare fruit plants and 130 endangered varietiesThe research began with Mr. Livio Dalla Ragione thirty years ago and gave rise to this study process, reproduction and a new diffusion in a real work of safeguarding our heritage of biodiversity.

This extraordinary result is the fruit of a huge amount of work by book and field research. The Dalla Ragione family, in fact, has ranged from the ancient forgotten archives and the old Latin manuals of agriculture, like those of Varro and Pliny, to real expeditions to abandoned farms or to the old gardens of monasteries, especially cloistered ones. The greatest results, however, the "Indiana Jones of fruit" achieved were by going to look for the old farmersThe latter, in fact, were able not only to indicate the forgotten plants, but also to transmit popular knowledge to reconstruct their cultivation and Story.

SOME OF THE FRUITS GROWN ON THE ESTATE

The photos are taken from the Facebook page of the Arboreal Archaeology Foundation

PEASANT ARCHAEOLOGIST

All these years of research and sowing have allowed us to establish within the estate of S. Lorenzo di Lerchi, in Città di Castello, a “orchard collection” to visit, smell, taste, which today includes 600 specimens of plum, fig, cherry, apple and many others. The plants inside are grown with the traditional systems and inserted in an agricultural landscape of ancient wisdom. Today this museum of plants has deservedly gained the right notoriety so much so that it has become the destination of numerous celebrities who have taken the good habit of adopting a plant after their visit. Gerard Depardieu, for example, has decided to take care of the drunk pear.

WHEN TRADITION IS WORK AND FUTURE:

• Sustainable craftsmanship and urban and social redevelopment: Studio Superfluo's activities
• Graduates with permanent jobs quit their jobs to grow saffron in Monferrato.
• The return of the shepherds: two thousand young people under 40 choose sheep. And they earn...