ORTOgrafia

As part of the Alba UNESCO Creative City for Gastronomy projects, the city of Alba, in collaboration with Sinergia Outdoor and the Piazza Duomo restaurant's Orto di Crippa, has launched an educational course aimed at children to bring them closer to vegetable growing and help raise awareness about the origin of ingredients.

The project is named ORTOgrafia (in Italian “orto” means vegetable garden), because the vegetable garden has literally written the history of our food and has skilfully designed the physiognomy of the rural and urban landscape.

The project, presented on Tuesday 1 June 2021 at the headquarters of the Associazione Sinergia Outdoor in Loc. Sigola Alta, 36 in Baldissero d'Alba, will involve the following nursery schools in Alba in a pilot project: "N.S. del Suffragio", "Città di Alba" and "Maria Ausiliatrice" during the summer activities, but will continue in the next school year 2021/2022 involving the primary schools.

ORTOgrafia aims to actively introduce children to the natural cycle of the products they eat on a daily basis, presenting the feasibility of sustainable management of the energy needed to produce those products, the technique of decomposing organic material to be used as a natural fertilizer and, last but not least, guiding children through the process of creating their own small balcony garden.

The children will be able to experiment with planting vegetables on specific grow tables, observe a small wind/solar plant to produce electricity, and make compost bins to recycle organic waste to be used as fertiliser.

The educational trips include a visit to the vegetable garden and greenhouse of Enrico Crippa's Piazza Duomo restaurant, workshops at the "Le colline di Giuca" educational park in Baldissero, games with natural materials from the woodland and, finally, the preparation of recipes at the municipal canteen, using the vegetables grown there.