Forgotten legumes and recovered biodiversity. The recovery of old and forgotten local species of agricultural interest is essential for the conservation of a unique and precious genetic heritage from an agronomic, food and cultural point of view. And that is the case with midwife bean, also known as the bean fertility, which until recently risked extinction but was officially recovered thus avoiding the danger of seeing it lost forever. All this thanks to the tenacity of the very young Carmine Valentino Mosesso, born in 1994, owner of the company Inland agriculture, located in Castel Del Giudice, a small village in the province of Isernia.
Carmine, also known as the peasant poet because he loves writing poetry and spends his days dedicating himself to the family farm, has earned one of the Oscar Green (in the Guardians of Italy category), the prize of Coldiretti reserved for young entrepreneurs who have chosen healthy agriculture for their future.
The Story of the Midwife Bean
The bean recovered by Carmine has an ancient and fascinating history. This legume arrived in Molise in the first half of the 900s, thanks to a midwife originally from Emilia-Romagna who used to distribute a bag of these legumes to women who wanted become mothers and in a short time it spread to all gardens. Over time, however, this bean disappeared from these lands until Carmine celebrates its return by bringing to the fore a reality that was disappearing. About 5 years ago he wanted to recover the seed of this legume from the hands of the last custodian of the country, Mr. Marcello, and began to cultivate it, managing to give it a new life and to bring back to the tables of his fellow villagers the aromas and taste of once.
With the loss of seeds not only are varieties lost but a slice of our history and our cultural identity is lost.
