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Local products

Res Naturae

Giovanni Mazzuccottelli and Maria Cazzaniga met at university and decided to join forces, bringing together the passions and interests that they had in common, to create gardens filled with special plants that were not only beautiful to the eye but also good to eat. So it was that in 2013 Res Naturae started life, a farm located on sloping land between the mountains and the lake above Lecco.

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They specialised in Italian rhubarb, growing seven varieties, and unusual edible plants and vegetables. Res Naturae, at Introbio, is a small corner of paradise for lovers of natural growing methods. All the plants are cultivated in the most natural ways, free from pesticides and without the use of herbicides. “It has been our great desire to make the very most of the land”, they say, “going back to the growing of crops on all that uncultivated land that nobody is interested in anymore.

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That is why all the plants we have, whether planted in the land or grown in pots, are species that are well-adapted to the cool but never harsh climate we have here between the shores of the lake and the mountains”. They are eager to talk about plants from the north of Europe, such as kale and the previously mentioned rhubarb, as well as plants from northern Italy that often grow wild here but which people often no longer fully appreciate or make use of in the kitchen. In spring and summer they organise events and workshops for children, as well as staging concerts and aperitifs evenings right there among their crops.

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Over the years they have received some major awards, including the Oscar Green 2018 Lombardia award in the Creativity category; a prize for “ingenuity in bringing innovations to the food field, and the best exploitation of the potential of the local area’s land” won at Golosaria in 2017; as well as a special merit mention at the Orticolario exhibition of 2015.