Valeria Margherita Mosca

Valeria Mosca, shopping into the wild

What about taking a bag and going in the mountains with beautiful landscapes to do shopping of wild food instead of taking a car, driving into a traffic road, finding a place into a busy parking area and buying the food in a supermarket? Ok, I know supermarket is handy and convenient but collecting wild fruits and vegetables directly into the wilderness is now a recognized activity: the foraging.

And there’s’ a girl who turned  this beautiful way to do “shopping into the wild” in a job: Valeria Mosca. She’s a forty years old woman from Valmalenco,  an amazing valley in the Lombardy Alps (Italy). Since she was a child she was used to walk with her parents in the mountains and in the woods learning to observe and to savor the beauty of the wilderness. Fruits, vegetables, mushrooms and other spontaneous  products of the ground and the trees were her passion and now are the object of a new kind of profession: the foraging. 

When she was younger she worked in the kitchens of famous chefs all around Europe but she couldn’t forget her mountains in Valmalenco. That’s why Valeria created a lab where she studies and collects wild food taken from her trips into the woods. But she did more. Now her business has grown up and she has brought her intuition on a higher level. She has created in fact “Wood*ing”, a society focused on foraging, studies about wild plants, business consultancy for restaurants, menù creation, catering, chef training and … a farm!

We know that in North Europe this activity, the foraging, is now common in many Michelin starred restaurants. Someone could say that is a fashionable primitivism return but Valeria gave a new value to the foraging: an eco- sustainability way to get food and an answer to the ecological problems of the world. Be conscious of what you eat and pay attention on the edible landscapes of the wild side of the world: that’s what shines through the new profession of people like Valeria. 

After reading this article maybe you’d like to take a walk on the wood to collect some plants or wild fruits: pay attention, you need to follow some rules and practise and to be very aware of what you are picking up. Foraging is an amazing activity but it has to be done by trained and experienced hands.

Wood*ing

Valeria Margherita Mosca

Wood*ing

Wood*ing