When the warm weather arrives we get the desire to change. Change our diet, change our wardrobe, change our habits and… change our skin. How can we get rid of the winter greyness of our skin, using ingredients that are natural and don’t cost too much? Here’s a recipe for a home-made exfoliating scrub that will illuminate your skin.

A risotto that makes the most of the vegetables from your garden. The recipe is by chef Gabriele Ferron, rice Ambassador to the world with his prestigious family business, the Riseria Ferron, who loves to show everyone the thousands of diffeent ways of cooking this precious and versatile food.

White, purple and green, asparagus are the sentinels of spring. The part we eat is the turion that sprouts out of the ground – to be picked before it becomes a stem - in fact the name comes from the Greek word aspharagos, which means sprout or shoot. Cultivating asparagus is not easy, it requires loose soil and lots of patience, you need to wait at least three years before harvesting the first spears, in order not to weaken the plants. The initial effort will however be rewarded: your asparagus bed will remain productive for a long time, with a cycle that can last for as long as fifteen years.

Self-tanning, refreshing, capable of giving your skin light and vitality… so many advantages from carrots! Remember to include the frequently in your diet, but if you’d like some extra help for your skin, here are some face masks that you can prepare at home, quickly, easily and without spending a lot of money.

Balanced, packed with healthy fibers, hydrating lettuce, detoxifying dandelion, vitamins and healthy oils (or even superfoods like hemp), this salad is perfect for a quick spring meal, a picnic or lunchbox (make sure you add the salt and oil only just before eating, so the leaves stay fresh).

On our journey through edible wild plants, I’ll leave those to be eaten raw on one side for a while and tell you about two that are mainly used for cooking.

The first one, as requested by many of you, is borage (Borago officinalis): an annual plant which has hairy prickly leaves that however don’t attract attention as much as its beautiful – and unmistakeable – blue flowers, which are star-shaped and have five petals Borage is widespread throughout most of central America and Europe, found in flat countryside and on hillsides.