L’Alpe 9 - Prodotti della montagna

Eating the mountain. Buckwheat and potatoes, barley and corn, cheeses and sausages, apples and small fruits, i.e. mountain products, are founding elements of Alpine culture. They characterized its evolution and, above all, its virtuous "contamination" with the culture of the plains. In fact, corn (and polenta), potatoes and buckwheat are not typical mountain products at all: local populations suffered the introduction of exotic species as an obligatory choice to overcome periods of food crisis. Then the selection of taste and culture modified the products to the point of making them indigenous, beyond the geographical origin of the raw material. This is the underlying theme of "L'Alpe": to dispel the misunderstanding of Alpine typicality, but to underline the indispensable need to valorise the assets now culturally linked to the mountains, removing them from the meshes of the global market which tends to level every product, killing its quality and origin. We are the tradition. How does today's Alpine culture appear to us if we approach it by considering its products as current cultural assets? Seize the mountain. For the peoples of antiquity the mountain was a reservoir of forest wealth. Then came the livestock and wild fruits. The adaptation of the different. The people of the Alps did not look for new foods, but subjected to exotic species as an obligatory choice to overcome the crises. The civilization of the hoe. Why do we have to turn the land to cultivate? Why are cereals the basis of the Alpine diet? Why corn, why polenta? Not from potatoes, it's from family. How the tuber fortunately imported from America defeated the worst nightmare of the Alpine populations. The gold of the mountain pastures. There is no "according to nature" mountain pasture. The fate of Alpine cheeses has always been linked to local and national political choices. The exquisite uselessness of mountain cheeses. “Is it so important that mountain cheeses survive? In fact it is a useless production, just as Mozart is useless...". Question of degrees. A daring viticulture with very high costs, apparently crazy when compared to the times and costs of the plains: but in Valtellina it is possible. Not, the valley of apples. An Alpine "miracle" based on the collaboration between local farmers and the high quality of mountain fruits. The rebirth of sausages. In Valle d'Aosta the tradition has been relaunched on an industrial scale, with great attention to the quality of the meat and processing. Of plants and knowledge. The almost symbiotic relationship between humans and the wild plants of Valais. But who, between man and plant, took the first step?