This post is also available in: Italiano (Italian)

Maria Cazzaniga and Giovanni Mazzucotelli – young people in love with their life and plants – have opened the small, quaint Res Naturae nursery on the slopes above Lecco. The nursery is specialized in edible wild plants. The very aim of this nursery is to enhance the territory by cultivating neglected areas that nobody seems to care for anymore.

The crops, in the ground or in a pot, are well suited to the cool but never too harsh climate of this area set between the lake and the mountains. For instance, there are several nordic plants such as Kale cabbages and Rhubarb (Rheum rhabarbarum) available in different varieties. There are also some wild plants of northern Italy, which usually grow on the roadside, often forgotten, but blessed with true natural beauty and surprisingly excellent properties…

As for rhubarb, in no more than 24 hours from placing an order, customers will receive both the plants to grow (from November to March) and the fresh stems (from April to October), as well as any jam or juice produced by Maria Cazzaniga. Anything on sale can be bought online or at the nursery. Res Naturae regularly attend spring and autumn shows, selling all their products also at several fairs and trade exhibitions.

Their website reads: “Today in Italy rhubarb is still little known, associated with Nordic recipes, or confused with the bitter taste of candies made from its root. Those who know it, have tasted it abroad, mainly in the UK, France or Germany. But our grandparents remember having grown it in their vegetable garden, with great results, especially in the mountain areas. They’ve told us that back then rhubarb was highly appreciated as an ingredient for special types of jam. People then stopped cultivating it…until today!”

This post is also available in: Italiano (Italian)