We collaborate with The Volcanic Garden LUPA (Vegetable Garden and Nursery for the recovery of ancestral vegetable seeds)
“Natural agriculture is a cultural expression, it is rebellion and it is life”
The filmmaker most involved with natural farming in recent years is working on his latest film, The Last Worlds, which was filmed in five different parts between Europe and Asia.
Even so, I will not speak of this film, but of its more natural project: a project of life in which I am happy to have been able to collaborate.
Earlier this month, I had the opportunity to participate in a unique project in the hills that dominate lake Bolsena, on the border between Alto Lazio, Umbria and Tuscany, in the heart of the Etruscan civilization, highlighted (not only by its military capacity) among the ancient peoples, but also for their affinity with agriculture, crafts, art and the richness of their exchanges with all the peoples of the Mediterranean.
This project is as wonderful as it is simple: Jonathan Nossiter, writer, farmer and filmmaker, recognized worldwide for directing “Mondovino” (2004) and “Natural Ressistance” (2014) and Massimiliano Petrini, professor and farmer in permaculture, artisan and fisherman of Bolsena , they seek to recover and give life to the ancestral organic plants and fruits of diverse origins, which the insurgent farmers have brought in recent years to natural wine and ancient grains.
The Volcanic Garden La Lupa, extends into lands never touched by chemistry, on the shores of lake Bolsena, where Jonathan found a piece of land abandoned for 30 years and previously cultivated naturally. We can say then that this is a fertile and clean field of synthesis products, where the richness of the history of horticulture of the Italian center will be gathered and at the same time the opportunity to make a trip through other regions and other countries through of the diversity of their ancentral plants.
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In a greenhouse installed very close to the farm, we were invited to put our grain of sand by planting seeds that were sought and shared by seed banks of different universities in Italy, by organic / biodynamic farmers and by wine growers from around the world. In an open field overlooking the lake we plant horticultural trees from old seeds; live seeds, not manipulated by the agrochemical industry.
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Thus, among friends, we started this year of crops: among them pioneers of natural agriculture in Italy. Stefano Belloti from Cascina degli Ulivi, founder and president of Renassaince des Appelations Italia, Giovanna Tiezzi and Stefano Borsa de Pacina – well known worldwide for their natural agriculture and their biodynamic and natural wines -, Enzio Cerruti, master of free moscato in Piemonte, Mina del Prete, pugliesa natural winegrower, Juan Pelizzotti biodynamic Argentine viticulturist and more people who collaborated before and after my arrival.
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We all contribute with seeds: in my case I had the honor of bringing with me seeds of ancient catalan species donated by Joan Salicrú Giralt.
There are excellent exchange networks and seed banks around the world, dedicated to safeguard horticultural biodiversity, but instead, there are very few realities of cultivation of old seeds that also deal with their transformation into nurseries of horticultural plants.
In the La Lupa nursery there will be a double culture. On the one hand, a living museum: an implementation of the historical memory of the Italian horticulture and of other countries too and on the other, an agricultural entity that will offer everyone the opportunity to populate the fields of plants from seeds that were not touched by the agrochemical industry. In fact, even in the vast majority of organic vegetable nurseries, “eco” plants come from hybrid or genetically engineered seeds. What is the use of organic agriculture if the origin is already unnatural?
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La Lupa will try to continue in the spirit of the work of Jean-François Berthellot, who grows in the south-west of France where a living grain museum is located – an experimental field in which 300 varieties of old grains recovered during 40 years grow years of research. For example, in La Lupa, the classification will not be made by variety of species but by the region where it belongs. In this way the relations between the vegetables and the native varieties will be considered in a mainly regional context, in which the regions are not the administrative divisions, but the cultural and agricultural diversities.
3 intense days, an extraordinary experience to share a few days with friends and people who moved from different parts of the world to plant a unique forest and share the same feeling, what happened while passing through healthy wines, shared in a full table, smiles, life experience, spontaneity and insurrection.
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Given the scientific ambiguity of what can be called “ancestral seed”, “ancient” or “authentic”, placards were made to recognize the work of all farmers, people, institutes or universities that provided or acted as a conduit to transmit these ancestral seeds, that were cabbage in the place of plantation, in the nursery and with placards next to each section of variety of each plant.
In the words of Jonathan:
“these seeds will tell human, cultural and historical stories: highly personal and subjective, each plant will bring the history of these people, an elastic and democratic authenticity. Because the aspect of transmission between people is part of the beauty of the cultural heritage of each vegetable. “
