Discourse Dinner 01

For Earthsource’s first discourse dinner, we invited people to think and sit with Water. On Saturday, November 1st we gathered at Valleponci to sit at the table with water both as discourse subject and elemental living force. Water holds memory; it’s a vast medium to think with. We came together to honor water and to share the aquatic histories and stories that flow within our culture and ourselves.

After all, aren’t we all bodies of water?

That night we tuned into her intercellular touch and asked her guidance so that we may remember how to listen to her melodies. We started to remember, together, more of Water’s phases and faces. People shared in an intimate, candle-lit space, the voices of water that they have heard as well as a memory or experience with a body of water.

This dinner was organized in collaboration with the wonderful team at Valleponci, who welcomed us and invited us to connect with the special territory they lovingly steward. Lorenzo Costa and Gianluca Demarchi guided us onto an immersive hike through the valley’s rich and intimate history with water, following ancient maps carefully reconstructed by artist and cartographer Giovanni Pazzano.

In the interior of this young Ligurian Alpine forest, the traces of an intricate relationship with water is revealed; dry stone walls holding up and partitioning pieces of earth for agricultural terraces, stone passageways for water, old cisterns from the seventeenth century, ancient dwellings, springs that were active until the nineteenth century, a Roman Bridge–all hidden below the canopy.

Ancient settlers of the valley knowingly tuned into and guided water’s flow through the landscape. Valleponci is defined by water. The presence of our species in Valleponci dates back to the neolithic. The dry memory of a flowing river that once glided through the landscape is why our species evolved a water culture there. There is more to be discovered, recovered, and remembered. It was an honor to witness and partake in Valleponci’s process of reconnecting with water. Summoned there by water, we listened to what she had to say. We offered her a meal and a seat at the table. 

Aly Beveridge of Radikal Hospitality developed an unforgettable menu inspired by water. The food responded to the autumnal offerings of what was growing on the land and the shape-shifting nature of water.

Bodies of water 

Whey, Hamachi, Borage, Citron melissa, tororo kombu

Dampness

Persimmon, Blue cheese, Nasturtium, Cabbage, Carrot seed oil

Nutrient life source vascular system pumping (water as messenger) 

The fruits of Valleponci

Being deep (roots storing water), roots hold soil

Sunchoke olive oil icecream, chestnuts, fig leaf oil, hazelnut

We are very grateful to Pietro, Valentin, Gian Lucca and the living organism of the Valleponci community. Special thanks to the Valleponci water spring and to Lorenzo Costa.