Saving Them for Posterity

QATAR TRIBUNE Publication Thursday ‘We have some wonderful female directors. It would 06.10.2016 be wonderful to work with them...’ Bollywood Saving them for posterity 0ZHILSSH+HSSH9HNPVULW\YZ\LZHWLYZVUHSTPZZPVU·ZH]PUNHUJPLU[ MY\P[[YLLZMYVTL_[PUJ[PVU·^P[OHZ[YVUNZLUZLVM\YNLUJ` COVER PGSTORY 2&3 02 Thursday, October 6, 2016 COVER STORY Almonds growing at Isabella Dalla Ragione’s farmstead in San Lorenzo di Lerchi, Italy. Dalla Ragione works to save ancient fruit trees from extinction on her farm. Forgotten fruit is grown, and a culture is preserved 0ZHILSSH+HSSH9HNPVUL»Z ELISABETTA POVOLEDO she adds. “You can’t preserve it.” Isabella Dalla Ragione, 59, began tag- NYT SYNDICATE In that race, she picked up the ging along as a child, studied agronomy PUP[PH[P]L[VWYLZLY]L baton at a young age from her father, at a university to bring technical knowl- HERE are probably few Livio Dalla Ragione, who began scour- edge to their enterprise and, after her K^PUKSPUN]HYPL[PLZPZUV[ places as tranquil as the ing the surrounding countryside dec- father died in 2007, continued to main- \UPX\LPU0[HSÌ\[:HU languorous hills that sur- ades ago, searching for neglected fruit tain the orchard. round Umbria’s Città di trees that no longer satisfied changing They called their collection of old 3VYLUaVHUKP[Z Castello in Italy. But on her agricultural trends, market demands fruit varieties “arboreal archaeology.” Tfarm, Isabella Dalla Ragione pursues a and modern tastes. “When he started, people didn’t speak Z\YYV\UKPUNZOH]L personal mission — saving ancient fruit He collected branches with fresh of biodiversity or genetic erosion,” Dalla WYV]PKLKHULZWLJPHSS` trees from extinction — with a strong buds and grafted them onto rootstock to Ragione said, even though the loss of sense of urgency. create an orchard of endangered cher- varieties was already a documented fact. ]P[HS[YV]LVMKP]LYZP[` Rescuing vanishing varieties is a ries, figs, apples, pears, peaches, quinces Fruit farming treatises at the begin- race, she says, “and lots of times we and other sundry species in a farmyard ning of the 19th century noted about 100 arrived late.” belonging to an abandoned church that varieties of apples. “If a plant dies, basta, it’s finished,” he had bought in 1960. One hundred years later, the number 03 COVER STORY Thursday, October 6, 2016 had declined to around 50, and today, turesque farmhouse, dating to the 12th three varieties make up 80 percent of century, that brings classical fairy tales to production in Italy, she said. mind — Dalla Ragione picked up a rather “In this historic moment, diversity is bruised, longish yellow fruit very much seen as a defect. In this moment, people resembling a pear. seek homogeneity,” she said of a market- “In reality, it’s a muso di bue ap- driven momentum to get fruits to adhere ple,” named after its similarity to an ox’s to a specific aesthetic. “In the United snout, she said. States, if an apple isn’t crunchy, it’s not The once popular and widely culti- even considered. It doesn’t matter if it vated apple, which lingers on in only has no flavour as long as it’s crunchy.” a few family homesteads, has tricked Dalla Ragione’s initiative to pre- legions of scholars. A closer look at serve dwindling varieties is not unique Albrecht Durer’s Virgin and Child With in Italy, but San Lorenzo and its sur- Pear, at the Uffizi Gallery in Florence, roundings have provided an especially for example, reveals a clear misnomer, vital trove of diversity. Dalla Ragione said. The Upper Tiber Valley was for “If it were a pear, it would show a centuries a crossroads of travellers and stalk on top,” she said. “Mary is clearly pilgrims, “a place of arrivals and depar- holding a muso di bue apple.” tures and exchanges, and like all areas Dalla Ragione has several muso di of passage, the biodiversity is extraordi- bue apple trees in her 8-hectare farm, nary,” Dalla Ragione said. Map of Italy. along with 40-odd other apple varieties. To find and collect their forgotten There are about a dozen cherry varieties varieties, for decades she and her fa- and nearly 30 pear trees among about ther chatted up farmers and motley lo- 500 trees in all, which she lovingly tends. cals in the Umbrian and Tuscan coun- It is backbreaking work, which she tryside. They gathered branches, and does mostly alone, hauling water from a with them the traditions and chronicles cistern in the valley below, pruning trees, tied to the fruits. grafting new plants even as she tries to “I understood that our work was also keep deer, boars, squirrels and birds at important for safeguarding traditional bay. knowledge, rural culture and oral his- “Scarecrows do nothing,” she said tory,” Dalla Ragione said of her long talks wryly. with the last direct witnesses of a now Dalla Ragione created a nonprofit past rural culture. “That’s what we’re los- foundation, the Arboreal Archaeology ing most rapidly.” Foundation, in 2014 “because it made Every plant conserved at San Lorenzo it easier to give a future to all this,” has a history — deeply rooted links to the she said. Through the foundation, territory and to its long-gone inhabit- whose main proviso is to preserve the ants — that Dalla Ragione is labouring to collection, she has access to funding pass on. from the European Community and “These plants are significant because other sponsors. they are saturated with culture and Local governments and other history,” she said, “and you have to tell public financiers have all but ignored that story, because otherwise you don’t her, she said. “We think it’s important understand their importance” — why Muso di bue apple to have public involvement because this they were selected by farmers, why they is a public memory, not a private one,” continued to be cultivated. she said, but public funds have dried up In her hunt for forgotten fruit, amid Italy’s long economic drought. Dalla Ragione also began combing To support the foundation, Dalla estate archives, convent records and Ragione sells small trees from a nursery ancient books. on her farm, and donors can adopt trees. But because fruit was not always One Australian fan recently visited the described in detail in written records, she farm and asked to adopt the culo d’asino also began to examine the works of Ren- apple, so named because it resembles a aissance and Baroque painters working donkey’s backside. in Umbria and Tuscany at a time when There are still elusive varieties to find, “artists had close relations to agriculture” like the fico rondinino di San Sepolcro, and were sensitive to the seasons and a fig Dalla Ragione has yet to identity. local varieties, she said. “Maybe it just changed name,” she said. Dalla Ragione spent four years study- “Maybe we’ll never know.” ing the work of Cristofano Gherardi, In the meantime, she continues to also known as il Doceno, who painted chronicle her finds for posterity, as best palace frescoes for two families in Città as she can. di Castello and nearby San Giustino. She “I joke with my colleagues that now recognised several varieties from his they’ll have to save me,” she said. “Lots decorations in her collection, effectively of things are still preserved only in my dating them. mind and memory.” She also came across some bloopers. “Art historians, alas, don’t ask agrono- mists, and they’ve made some terrible blunders,” she said. Sitting at her kitchen table — in a pic- Dalla Ragione cooks pasta with vegetables from her garden in San Lorenzo di Lerchi, Italy. 04 Thursday, October 6, 2016 Healthy lifestyle can prevent heart disease TRIBUNE NEWS NETWORK ARDIOVASCULAR diseases are the number one cause of death worldwide and this is projected to remain so unless effective preventive Cmeasures are taken by the society, said Dr Anees Thajudheen, Consultant at the Heart Hospital of Hamad Medical Corporation. Delivering the keynote address at the World Heart Day programme jointly organised by Mediaplus and Friends Cultural Centre, he observed that 80 percent of cardio vascular diseases can be prevented with medi- cation, diet control, life style modifica- tion and exercise. Dr Anees Thajudheen, consultant at the Heart Hospital, HMC, delivering the keynote address. Physical inactivity, inadequate Habeeburahman Kizhissery intake of fruits and vegetables, be- steps towards preventing heart dis- tion’s message, he said, “This World ing overweight, high blood pressure, ease, he pointed out. Heart Day, we want everyone to un- cholesterol and glucose level, smoking A healthy lifestyle is the corner- derstand what they can do to fuel their and lack of proper healthcare are some stone of heart disease prevention hearts and power their lives. Your of the major factors for the spread of which revolves around good habits, heart is at the heart of your health. cardio- vascular diseases worldwide. diet and exercise. Lifestyle changes And it’s easy to give it the care it de- Changing your habits is the single such as these have proved to lower the serves”. most effective way to stop cardio- risk of heart diseases, he added. World Heart Day was instituted by vascular disease in its tracks. You can Executive director of Friends the World Heart Federation to inform modify many of the major factors that Cultural Centre Habeeburahman people around the globe that heart put you at risk of developing this life- Kizhissery chaired the function. disease and stroke are the world’s threatening disease, he said. Abbas Oolikkara, finance manager leading cause of death.

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