Semences Maralpines

More than a hundred varieties have been identified, collected, or brought back into cultivation, and are now kept alive by the collective. This sourcing work, carried out with long-time gardeners, farmers, families, and in the sometimes forgotten gardens of the valleys, helps safeguard a precious cultivated heritage.

For the MSPM, Maralpine varieties are not limited by the administrative borders of the Alpes-Maritimes, nor by a static vision of so-called “heirloom” varieties. We understand them on the scale of a living bio-region, open toward Liguria, Piedmont, and neighboring territories, where plants, seeds, expertise, and practices have always circulated.

For us, a local variety is not just a variety from the past: it is a variety with territorial roots, a history of use, and a progressive adaptation to local soil and climate conditions, farming practices, and the food cultures of the region.

Because seeds have always traveled, migrated, and evolved alongside human communities, we advocate for a flexible and non-fixed approach to cultivated heritage. Preserving local varieties is not about locking them in the past: it is about actively participating in their evolution, to write the history of tomorrow’s traditional varieties with them.