Ancient, wild, and in general “forgotten” fruits: the garden hosts well-known fruit trees that were grown in the past but today are rarely present in orchards or on our tables, like quince (Cydonia oblonga), sorb (Sorbus domestica), or medlar (Mespilus germanica). It is important to rediscover the cultivation or variety of ancient fruits that experienced rapid evolution over the centuries with great differences even regionally; that is why the wall of pear trees enclosing the garden is made up of Martin Sec and Madernassa varieties, well-known since the 1400s in Piedmont. Another topic of interest are small fruits and wild species, which were widely used in the past because they could be found in forests and fields growing freely and today are rarely grown if not totally absent: these include gooseberries (Ribes uva-crispa), black currants (Ribes nigrum), and chokecherries (Prunus spinosa) while wild fruits form bushes that are greatly appreciated by birds, butterflies, and insects and color the garden especially in the summer and fall months with hawthorn (Crataegus monogyna), cornelian cherries (Cornus mas), and azaroles (Crataegus azarolus).
