Italian fruit detective racing to save forgotten varieties

Isabella Dalla Ragione hunts in abandoned gardens and orchards for forgotten fruits, preserving Italy’s agricultural heritage and saving varieties which could help farmers withstand the vagaries of a changing climate.

The 68-year-old’s collection of apples, pears, cherries, plums, peaches and almonds, grown using methods of old, are more resilient to the climate shifts and extremes seen increasingly frequently in the southern Mediterranean.

The Italian agronomist-turned-detective seeks descriptions of bygone local fruits in centuries-old diaries or farming documents, and sets out to find them.

Others she identifies by matching them to fruits in Renaissance paintings, where they often appear in depictions of the Madonna and Child.

Of the 150 or so varieties collected from Tuscany, Umbri