Green hills, lines of grapes, great old trees.
This was the landscape which I could see while going to “Herbae Volant Fructus Manent” at Santa Maria in Valdiponte Abbey, between Perugia and Montelabate. An outlook which takes you with your thoughts and your soul directly to the right mood to face this little step back in time.
A step back that tastes of old flavors, of new scents, of knowledge, of renewed traditions.
What Herbae Volant Fructus Manent is exactly?
An event that’s unique in its kind, realized by GAL Media Valle del Tevere and attended by ErbEventi. Unique because it is itinerant, first of all: it changes its location with every new edition, taking visitors each time in a different part of Umbria.
Unique because it is dedicated to officinal herbs and to ancient fruits, two mostly forgotten things but to which we owe a lot. It is indeed time to rediscover them… and to do so I recommend a visit to Herbae Volant Fructus Manent. We need to value our past, rediscover the old remedies, the tastes we forgot.
Another good reason to be there is the free entry, as free are all the activities you can experience here: visits, educational and workshops.
I learned how to make soap with “L’Ape Contadina” finding out how easy it is: anyone can do it: you just need the good will.
I also learned to taste the honey with all of the five senses, and to know its differences thanks to the beekeeper Luca Galli… I don’t like honey, yet I loved the one made by cardoon!
I even discovered vegan cuisine thanks to the veganchef Letizia Berruti, tasted the seitan and the vegetable mayonnaise, tastier than the regular one (and way better for your health)!
All of this in the suggestive frame of the Benedictine Abbey of Santa Maria in Valdiponte, already wonderful on its own, but all decorated with the event’s ornaments was truly a unique spectacle. Fruit in straw baskets were in the corners here and there, in the cloister an alpaca was “modeling” for the pictures, while the stands, all selling wine, food, plants, flowers, Eco-susteinable herbal-therapy umbrian products, colored the inside.
In the crypt there was something really rare: the pomological exhibit of Isabella dalla Ragione, that in her agricultural business in Città di Castello, is cultivating fruits which were at risk of extinction.
The event took place under a sun that warmed the two days, giving a mild heat, making view’s colors turn bright and even more pleasant the staying at the event… which anyway deserves a visit with good weather or even under the rain.
