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Farro, or emmer, is a grain that has been cultivated for thousands of years in the Mediterranean basin and is the progenitor of all wheats known today, including soft wheat and durum wheat. Its cultivation dates back at least 7,000 years BC. It was the staple food of the Assyrians, the Egyptians and all the ancient peoples of the Middle East and No...

836

In 1450, a few decades after the spread of rice throughout the Po Valley, the first documents appeared that mention the presence of this crop in Polesine, particularly in the area of the Po delta, as this crop was closely related to reclamation and was the first stage in the agricultural use of the new land. The nature of the dried soil became cruc...

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The “rose that you eat” appeared towards the end of the 19th century as a cross between Treviso red radicchio and endive (escarole): its shape is reminiscent of a head of lettuce but its characteristics are typical of chicory. Thanks to continuous improvements by skilled horticulturists and two centuries of seed selection, today the product is one...

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The history of the Nocellara del Belice olive is 2,700 years old. Sicily, particularly the Belice Valley area, has been colonized at various times over the course of the centuries. The land was subjected in turn by the Sicani, Elymians, Phoenicians and Greeks, followed by the Romans, Normans, Arabs and Spaniards. The reason for this is simple. Loca...

834

Castelmagno DOP is named after the town of the same name, situated between the Maritime and Cottian Alps in the province of Cuneo, its main commercial centre and the area in which it was first made centuries ago. The origins of Castelmagno are very ancient. The earliest official document mentioning its existence and appreciation is an arbitration a...

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The origins of the salumi tradition in Calabria probably date back to the times of the Greek colonisation of the Ionic Coast and the cultural and artistic splendour of Ancient Greece. It is a three thousand year old tradition, though the oldest written account comes courtesy of Varro, a Roman intellectual. He wrote of “minced meat, stuffed into cas...

1687

Tomatoes first arrived in the Po Valley in the 16th century, along with other tubers and spices, after a voyage in the holds of the galleons of Hernán Cortés, Conquistador of the Aztec empire. The tomato received a very cool reception from rulers, scientists and clerics, who labelled it as a harmful fruit. Its fortunes revived, however, in the 17th...

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Grana Padano first appeared around the year one thousand, in the countryside surrounding the Po. It was a time of hunger and famine, when nothing could be wasted. The monks therefore researched a method to transform milk into a non-perishable cheese. Their experiments in maturing created a hard cheese that could be stored for long periods and which...

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The first evidence of olive growing in Abruzzo date from the period of Roman domination, when the protectionist measures adopted by Rome favoured an expansion of olive-growing and the olive oil industry.  Virgil speaks of olive trees in the Marsica, near Lake Fucino, while Ovid documents their production in the Peligna Valley. With the fall of the...

701

Various historical and bibliographic sources attribute the introduction of the onion in the Mediterranean basin, and especially Calabria, before the Phoenicians and after the Greeks. The plots of land adjacent to the coast of Calabria had the ideal soil and climate conditions for this unique ecotype, a lover of cool soil overlooking the sea. Citati...

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