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Parco di Archeologia Arborea di San Lorenzo di Lerchi

Arboreal Archaeology Foundation in San Lorenzo di Lerchi

An ancient hermitage immersed in the green countryside of the upper Tiber valley, and a very special nursery focused on the history of our countryside and kinds of trees that, not many years ago, characterized the land of Umbrian farmers: is this the Parco di Archeologia Arborea (Arboreal Archaeology Park) in the countryside between Umbria and Tuscany. Its creator and curator is Isabella Dalla Ragione, agronomist and landscape researcher, who since the death of her father Livio, has carried forward this project, first as an Association and now as the Foundation of Archaeology Arborea based in San Lorenzo di Lerchi, in the municipality of Città di Castello.

Searching through abandoned fields, in the gardens of ancient convents, orchards, forests, and listening to stories of older farmers, Isabella has managed to recover and plant about 400 varieties of fruit trees while maintaining traditions, customs and cultivation systems. And so these fruits with original and forgotten names: briaca pear, curate's pear, donkey's ass apple, lemongrass apple, convent apple, green plum, irritable fig, raisin grape and many other varieties of plants have come back to life, reproducing tastes and perfumes of the past.

The Foundation has members from Italy, all over Europe, and beyond; by paying a small contribution it is possible to adopt one of the plants in the collection, thus being able to consume its fruit, except for three pieces: one for the sun, one for the earth and one for the plants, according to a local tradition.
Among the members are notables such as the actor Gérard Depardieu, who adopted a briaca pear, with flesh is sweet and red as if it were soaked in wine; the journalist John Seabrook of The New Yorker has a roggia apple, and actor Bill Pullman, who actively collaborates with Archeologia Arborea, has adopted a Florentine apple.


The park is open by appointment and is visited by people with a professional intersest, associations, individual citizens as well as school groups of all levels. At the end of the visit Isabella shares tastes of honey and delicious jams prepared with the fruits of the park, all accompanied by the unparalleled flavour of smoked Vinosanto, a Slow Food presidio of Umbria, produced with the best grapes from the vineyard of the Archeologia Arborea park.

 

For more information:

Isabella Dalla Ragione 
www.archeologiaarborea.org  
info@archeologiaarborea.org
tel.+39 335 6128439 

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