Around the grove in Vulci, the land does most of the work. Ten plants, one season at a time.

Spring

Wild asparagus · Asparago selvatico

Hunted in the brush from late March. Thin, much more bitter than the cultivated kind. Picked at dawn before the sun softens the bitterness.

Wild mint · Mentuccia (also called nepitella in Tuscany)

First leaves appear by late April, the herb carries through summer. Cooked with artichokes, mushrooms, beans, white fish. The Tuscan herb that holds a dish together. Stronger than regular mint, with the bite of oregano underneath. There is no real substitute.

Borage · Borragine

Blue everywhere in April. Leaves cooked into ravioli filling or salad. Flowers scattered on plates that need a small surprise.

Stinging nettle · Ortica

Gloves until it hits the pot. Then it turns sweet and earthy in a soup.

Late spring

Wild chicory · Cicoria selvatica

Up by May. Much sharper than what you buy at market. Boiled, dressed with our oil, salt, and lemon. Useful for the liver, what the contadini have eaten on Sundays for centuries.

Dandelion · Tarassaco

Same season, same treatment as the chicory. The leaves before the flower, when they are still tender.

Plantain · Piantaggine

Narrow leaves from late March through May, picked young before the flower spike. Slightly grassy, slightly bitter. Boiled and dressed with our oil (it has a mushroom taste), or chopped raw into a salad. The Maremma's old remedy for sore throats and bee stings.

Wood sorrel · Acetosella

Grows in the shade. Lemon-sharp. Used as garnish on fish that needs lift without lemon juice.

Wild rocket · Rucola selvatica

Available most of the year, sharpest through late spring and early summer. Much more peppery than the cultivated kind, with a bitter edge. Eaten raw with bresaola and Parmigiano. Wilted at the end on a pasta with sun-warmed tomatoes.

Mallow · Malva selvatica

Soft round leaves and pink-purple flowers from April through summer. Mild, slightly mucilaginous. Cooked into soups with grains, steeped into infusions after heavy meals. The Tuscan grandmother's plant for digestion.

Summer

Wild dill · Aneto

Mid-May into late summer. Soft fronds with a sharp anise note. Used on raw fish from the coast, in summer ferments, with cucumbers and broad beans. Grows in profusion around the grove, more than anywhere else we know.

Wild fennel · Finocchietto selvatico

By July, everywhere. Fronds for fish, pollen collected at the flower stage for finishing pasta. We collect ours by hand from the field next to the grove.

Sea fennel · Finocchio marino

Grows on the coastal rocks. Crunchy and salty. Pickled in vinegar, used through winter on raw fish.

Purslane · Portulaca

Succulent leaves with a lemony, slightly salty bite. Up in June, holds through high summer. In tomato salads, with cucumber, in fritters with eggs. The wild green richest in omega-3.