sapori-saperi
  • Home
  • About
    • About Us
    • Resources
  • Tours
    • Small Group Tours >
      • Celebrating Sardinia
      • Tuscan Heritage
      • Giants of Sardinia
      • Autumn in Tuscany
      • Tastes & Textiles: Woad & Wool
      • Tastes & Textiles: Hanging by a Thread
      • Tastes & Textiles: Wine to Dye For
      • Tastes & Textiles: Sea Silk in Sardinia
    • Tastes and Textiles
    • Day Adventures
  • Courses
    • Advanced Salumi Course Tuscany
    • Advanced Salumi Course Bologna-Parma
    • Art & Science of Gelato
    • Artisan Bread Course Tuscany
    • Theory & Practice of Italian Cheese
    • Mozzarella & its Cousins
    • Mozzarella Consultancy
    • Olive Oil Tree to Table
    • Truffle Course
  • Booking
    • Enquiry
    • Booking Conditions
    • Covid-19
  • What people say
  • Blogs
  • Contact

9 Ways to Celebrate Chestnuts

11/10/2013

0 Comments

 
I’ve just received an email from Ponti nel Tempo (Bridges in Time), the tourist organisation for the Alpi Apuane, notifying me of NINE chestnut festivals, one starting tonight and eight on Sunday. You can tell these are for locals because they don’t give you much warning; they assume you live here and are ready to go at a moment’s notice.
Picture
And they do — in droves
Here’s what’s on offer:
From Friday 11 to Sunday 13 October
Autunno Apuano, Loc. Bosa (Careggine)
Picture
Summer sagra at Careggine (no chestnuts)
Sunday 13 October
Fiera di ottobre, Castiglione di Garfagnana
Castagnata del CAI, Fortezza di Mont’alfonso (Castelnuovo di Garfagnana)
La Castagna e i suoi sapori, Convalle (Pescaglia)
Mondinata con la Befana, Pegnana (Barga)
Castagnata in piazza , Cascio (Molazzana)
Festa della Castagna, Trassilico (Gallicano)
Festa della Castagna alla Selva del Buffardello (San Romano in Garfagnana)
Festa del Borgo della Poesia , Castelvecchio Pascoli (Barga)

Details of each event can be found at www.pontineltempo.it.

What’s most surprising to me is that despite being a sagra (festival) junkie, I’ve only been to one of these, the Fiera di ottobre at Castiglione, where they serve a delectable lunch including porcini mushrooms and black truffles. Highly recommended! Although every single sagra is tempting, I’m going to Convalle, because that’s where my friends Nada and Romeo live and weave the most beautiful household linens. To read more about them see my blog Weaving a Life of Happiness, and to visit them come on my Tastes & Textiles tour next May. But I’m digressing.
​
Chestnut festivals are attractions for the whole family. The children enjoy the roast chestnuts.
Picture
One way to roast chestnuts. Even the young have a go.
Picture
Castiglione method of roasting chestnuts
So do their parents and grandparents, but the latter are especially nostalgic about the necci, chestnut-flour pancakes cooked between flat stones or steel plates over a burner and often used as wraps for ricotta. Some of the grandparents ate dishes prepared with chestnut flour for every meal when they were young.
Picture
Cooking necci between hot stones and chestnut leaves
Collecting, drying, shelling, sorting and milling chestnuts is a whole story in itself, a story of nourishment and social cohesion. You can read about how my village does it in my blogs Getting Under the Skin, To the Mulino,  At the Mulino.
Picture
Community of Casabasciana sorting dried chestnuts
Sadly, we haven’t lit the metato, the chestnut drying hut, for the last two years, because there haven’t been enough good quality chestnuts.
PictureA metato

The enormous, centuries old trees are under attack from a teeny weeny Chinese wasp with a long name, Dryocosmus kuriphilus, which was first spotted in the Piedmont in 2002. The female lays its eggs in the leaf bud (no male fertilisation is required) and the first year no damage is detected. The following spring galls are visible on the affected leaves and the presence of the larvae causes the leaves to be smaller and deformed. Photosynthesis is inhibited, the tree becomes weaker and produces fewer and smaller chestnuts. The most effective control found so far is a Japanese wasp, the natural predator of D. kuriphilus, which has been released in limited numbers, and should result in a good battle. Australians will shudder and think of the cane toad.
Picture
Hugging a chestnut — will affection help?
I don’t suppose attending a chestnut festival will help the poor chestnuts, but we’d better enjoy them while we can.
0 Comments

Your comment will be posted after it is approved.


Leave a Reply.

    Email Subscription
    Click to subscribe to this blog and receive notifications of new posts by email.

    RSS Feed

    Subscribe

    Author

    Erica Jarman

    Categories

    All
    Advanced Salumi Course
    Agriculture
    Artisans
    Baking
    Beer
    Boat Tour
    Celebrating Sardinia
    Cheese
    Cheesemaking
    Chestnuts
    Cooking
    Courses
    Festival
    Food
    Gelato
    Giants Of Sardinia
    History
    Italy
    Italy Vacation
    Life
    Lucca
    Makers
    Milk
    Mozzarella
    Music
    Olive Oil
    Olives
    Prosciutto
    Salumi
    Sardinia
    Seafood
    Slow Travel
    Small Group Tours
    Textiles
    Tours
    Tradition
    Travel
    Tuscany
    Wine

    RSS Feed

    Archives

    February 2023
    January 2023
    December 2022
    November 2022
    August 2022
    June 2022
    May 2022
    April 2022
    March 2022
    February 2022
    January 2022
    December 2021
    October 2021
    August 2021
    July 2021
    June 2021
    May 2021
    April 2021
    March 2021
    January 2021
    December 2020
    November 2020
    September 2020
    August 2020
    June 2020
    May 2020
    April 2020
    March 2020
    January 2020
    December 2019
    September 2019
    January 2019
    December 2017
    November 2017
    August 2017
    June 2017
    April 2017
    January 2017
    November 2016
    July 2016
    May 2016
    March 2016
    February 2016
    January 2016
    December 2015
    November 2015
    August 2015
    May 2015
    April 2015
    January 2015
    December 2014
    November 2014
    October 2014
    September 2014
    August 2014
    July 2014
    May 2014
    April 2014
    March 2014
    February 2014
    January 2014
    October 2013
    April 2013
    March 2013
    February 2013
    January 2013
    December 2012
    November 2012
    October 2012
    September 2012
    July 2012
    June 2012
    May 2012
    April 2012
    March 2012
    January 2012
    December 2011
    November 2011
    September 2011
    May 2011
    March 2011
    September 2010
    April 2010
    February 2010
    January 2010
    December 2009
    November 2009
    October 2009
    September 2009

Subscribe to Newsletter
Enquire about Tours
Picture
We acccept
Picture
Read about us
Picture
International passenger Protection
Picture
contact us | terms & conditions | privacy policy 
copyright 2017 sapori-e-saperi.com | all rights reserved
Website by Reata Strickland Design
  • Home
  • About
    • About Us
    • Resources
  • Tours
    • Small Group Tours >
      • Celebrating Sardinia
      • Tuscan Heritage
      • Giants of Sardinia
      • Autumn in Tuscany
      • Tastes & Textiles: Woad & Wool
      • Tastes & Textiles: Hanging by a Thread
      • Tastes & Textiles: Wine to Dye For
      • Tastes & Textiles: Sea Silk in Sardinia
    • Tastes and Textiles
    • Day Adventures
  • Courses
    • Advanced Salumi Course Tuscany
    • Advanced Salumi Course Bologna-Parma
    • Art & Science of Gelato
    • Artisan Bread Course Tuscany
    • Theory & Practice of Italian Cheese
    • Mozzarella & its Cousins
    • Mozzarella Consultancy
    • Olive Oil Tree to Table
    • Truffle Course
  • Booking
    • Enquiry
    • Booking Conditions
    • Covid-19
  • What people say
  • Blogs
  • Contact