An Afternoon with "Fèro"

Alchemist of the Forests

As part of the Dandelion Weeks, we had the pleasure of welcoming Ferruccio Valentini to Zum Hirschen – known to many simply as “Fero”. A forager of wild herbs, self-taught, and author of the book Alchimista dei boschi.

An afternoon that felt less like a traditional book presentation and more like a lived narrative.

“If you want to live well and long, eat plenty of dandelion.”
This is how Fero recalls his great-grandmother – and the moment when dandelion became part of his way of living with nature.

Fero grew up in the Brenta Dolomites, spending his early years as a shepherd, dairyman, beekeeper, and forager. Over time, forests and meadows became his habitat – and his teacher. A knowledge not shaped by books, but by experience, observation, and proximity.

Beyond his work with wild plants, Fero is also known for a remarkable paleontological discovery: a site dating back to the Permian period, with more than 60 fossil plant species, 13 of which were previously unknown to science, dating back around 280 million years. One of them now bears his name: Ferovalentinia.

His home – built with his own hands from simple materials – resembles the workshop of an alchemist: jars, bottles, tools of transformation. For the “òm dal bósch”, the man of the woods, nature is everything at once: school, pantry, and pharmacy.

South Tyrolean naturalist Michael Wachtler describes this path with a simple and clear thought: “Give the wilderness back its wildness.”

A sentence that accompanied the afternoon at Zum Hirschen.

Fero spoke of a nature in transition. Of a climate that is shifting. Of plants that are moving – from wild asparagus to larch, gradually appearing at higher altitudes. A quiet change, only visible to those who observe over time.

At the centre of his reflections was the dandelion.
Not only as a spring plant, but as a companion throughout the year.

Roots, leaves, and flowers can be transformed and preserved in different ways: in brine, sweet-and-sour, roasted as a coffee substitute, or fermented. Methods that not only extend shelf life, but maintain a connection to the plant across the seasons.

Other perspectives opened up as well: masterwort (Imperatoria), whose root can be turned into a surprisingly clear ice cream. Or the knowledge surrounding wild plants – and the figure of the forager itself, which has increasingly become the subject of studies and regulatory efforts that, as he recounts, were not pursued further.

And then there was the act of doing.

With just a few gestures, Fero prepared a simple pesto from wild leek – known as “aglio delle streghe” or “aglio della regina” – and shared it with the guests. Not a recipe in the conventional sense, but a moment of sharing.

Perhaps this is the essence of his approach:
not to explain nature, but to make it tangible again.

A way of looking at forests and meadows that reminds us how often what is closest to us is also what we understand the least.