Agro-pastoral plants

Name: Agro-pastoral plants
Start: 2027-01-04T00:00:00+0000
End: 2027-04-12T00:00:00+0000
Location: In front of the Tourist Office

Bessans

On the outskirts of the village, we will observe the plants—edible, medicinal, veterinary, and others—that were part of daily life for the people of Maurienne in their agro-pastoral way of life. By the author of BJA magazine, Issue No. 87, “Recueil de cueillette.”

Description

Animation having been selected by the call for projects "Envie de Vanoise 2025".

The (ethnobotanical) knowledge that will be passed on is the fruit of hours and hours spent with elders, collecting plant-related memories and transcribing and analyzing them.
Based on the observation of plants in their natural or cultivated environment (gardens, hay meadows), their various uses (medicinal, culinary) are discussed in their traditional context. From young shoots (knotweed, silene, nettle, goosefoot) to supplement soups, to roots (bunium) and stems (salsify) nibbled, to berries gathered from shrubs.
Ethnobotany is also about the various herbs that were used as remedies in the days before social security (children's ailments, childbirth, toothache...), as well as symbolic uses (alpine alchemilla), and utilitarian uses (birch, black currant).