Federico from Biella, a man in love with the mountains who has chosen Valle d’Aosta as his home, and Federico from Valle d’Aosta, a tenacious mountaineer, born in 1987, speak with one voice. Since 2014, Paysage à Manger has been growing exponentially: in 2019, its cultivated fields extend over one and a half hectares and around sixty ancient and rare varieties of potatoes are grown here, 35 of which are already being sold on the market. These tubers have curious names and shapes, their skins and pulps come in extraordinary colour shades. The skin of the Cerisa variety, for example, is so red that makes the potatoes look like cherries, while the pulp is bright yellow. Corne de Gatte has an orange-pink skin and an elongated shape. Among the most interesting ones in terms of colour and shape are the Blu di Valtellina, with its dark purple skin and bright purple flesh, and the Blue Belle, characterised by yellow skin with blue-purple hues.

A milestone in the business’s development was Federico Rial’s participation in the first edition of ReStartAlp the “on-campus” course organised by Fondazione Edoardo Garrone and Fondazione Cariplo for young aspiring entrepreneurs in the Alps. “The call for ideas was issued in January 2016. Fede (Chierico) was leaving the visitor centre to become a full-time farmer – recalls Rial – We talked about it and we drew up the project together. I was the one who attended the course because I was freer – at that time, besides working in the fields, he had a little girl to take care of. The opportunity to take part in ReStartAlp was vital for us, because I needed to gain awareness of what it means to do business and to receive training to that purpose”.