{"id":2789,"date":"2020-09-10T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2020-09-09T22:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dev.gigadesignstudio.com\/shop.wildenherbals.com\/wilden-tales-the-wilderness-within-us\/"},"modified":"2025-05-30T15:52:44","modified_gmt":"2025-05-30T13:52:44","slug":"wilden-tales-the-wilderness-within-us","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wildenherbals.com\/en\/wilden-tales-the-wilderness-within-us\/","title":{"rendered":"Wilden Tales: the wilderness within us"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Moving is never easy, you know. Especially in the case where the choice falls on a half-abandoned hillside, in a tiny hamlet of a small village in an Abruzzo valley. Yet, attracted by a healthier and wilder<\/em> life, enriched by a sense of seeking<\/strong> the unknown, we soon took possession of what would soon become our new home. <\/p>\n\n

After a week, the lockdown<\/strong>. Like everyone else, we were not at all prepared for this eventuality: the lack of knowledge of the community, mixed with the enchanting solitude of the hill, ended up generating a sense of deep disquiet. <\/p>\n\n

The house of almond trees<\/h3>\n\n

The “almond tree house” soon became the abode of a surreality in which we became trapped. Privilege silently gave way to anguish; loneliness ambushed us. The same questions came back to haunt me: ” What does wild mean? And where is it found? <\/strong>“. After these initial moments of disbelief, there was a realization and nature with all its power extended its hand to us. <\/p>\n

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Serena in the Tirino Valley<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n

Zuzzurellare in nature<\/h3>\n\n

So I began zuzzurelling-as<\/em> some native suggested-in the meadow around the house, which has been uncultivated for many years and has given us a variety of vegetables. I continued on, then, along a rocky slope to pick the first wild asparagus<\/strong>, until I reached the banks of the river, where horsetail shoots<\/strong> and water celery<\/strong> with its peculiar flavor, with balsamic notes of celery, fennel and hints of licorice, stood out. I observed nature and how in a few kilometers it changed its appearance and the vegetation with it. The days were enriched by small gestures<\/strong>, such as going out into the wild garden at home and noticing how a plant evolved as it grew. This gave me strength in facing the distancing from humans. I felt that an exchange of energies was taking place between the plants and me. I began to feel less loneliness and tried to grasp the essence of living with nature. <\/p>\n

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The Tirino, one of Italy’s cleanest and most beautiful rivers, is thickly populated with carpets of water celery, trout and crayfish<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n

Herb harvesting<\/h3>\n\n

During herb harvesting, a careful reading of nature<\/strong> takes place with one’s eyes on the ground. What might have seemed to the distracted eye to be just an expanse of blades of grass adorning the valley suddenly became a multitude of raw materials<\/strong> that Mother Nature had taken complete care of. The jagged outline of dandelions<\/strong> and poppies<\/strong> alternated with the contours of silene<\/strong> and plantain<\/strong>. The first flowers to appear during the warm days of quarantine were those of mallow<\/strong> and chamomile<\/strong>, which with I picked and left to dry in anticipation of the cold winter evenings. This was followed by elderflowers<\/strong> and locust<\/strong> tree, which we consumed fresh during our meals and some preserved in flavored vinegars and kombuche<\/em>. Next came the mulberries<\/strong> and wild black cherries<\/strong> and then the harvesting of green walnuts<\/strong> for the traditional nocino on the night of June 24. <\/p>\n

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Mulberry fruits <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n

Wilderness Awareness<\/h3>\n\n

This period of approaching and recognizing wild plants was more than foraging<\/em>, it was getting in touch with the land<\/strong> I was treading and finding a nonverbal language<\/strong> with which to communicate with it. Was this perhaps that sense of wilderness<\/em>? Of wildness? As William Cronon says in his essay \u201cThe Trouble with Wilderness; or Going Back to the Wrong Nature\u201d we should note that true wilderness<\/em> is found within us<\/strong> and not outside. <\/p>\n\n

It is nothing more than a certain kindness<\/strong> that allows you to find a guiding spirit<\/strong> in the nature that surrounds us. We can no longer think of the wilderness as a boundary between us and the world or as a product to be consumed: wilderness <\/em>is not distance, but is an intimate sense<\/strong> that allows us to rediscover our role in everyday life and heal our wounds. <\/p>\n\n

Words by Serena Tornusciolo for Wilden<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Moving is never easy, you know. Especially in the case where the choice falls on a half-abandoned hillside, in a tiny hamlet of a small village in an Abruzzo valley. Yet, attracted by a healthier and wilder life, enriched by a sense of seeking the unknown, we soon took possession of what would soon become […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":2679,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"inline_featured_image":false,"_mbp_gutenberg_autopost":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[333],"tags":[],"partner":[],"class_list":["post-2789","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-tales-from-nature"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/wildenherbals.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2789","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/wildenherbals.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/wildenherbals.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wildenherbals.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wildenherbals.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2789"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/wildenherbals.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2789\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":40695,"href":"https:\/\/wildenherbals.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2789\/revisions\/40695"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wildenherbals.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2679"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/wildenherbals.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2789"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wildenherbals.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2789"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wildenherbals.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2789"},{"taxonomy":"partner","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wildenherbals.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/partner?post=2789"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}