The chestnut “bread tree”, is a plant found throughout the Serchio Valley and the Garfagnana where they grow different varieties: Capannaccia, Pontecosi, Carpinese, Pelosora, Rossola, Verdora, Mazzangaia and Nerona.
The chestnut cultivation in antiquity was one of the few sources of livelihood for the small mountain communities and there were established so that offices and specific regulations protected their productivity. With the increase in population during the 1400s, the importance of the chestnut tree grew and production increased until it reaches its peak around 1800.During the twentieth century, migration and the development of certain diseases of the plant it reduced the cultivation in a drastic and diversified the type of production preferring the fresh fruits rather than flour.
The forests of Lucca are arranged on terraces and are pruned in the spring. In late summer the undergrowth is cleaned and gatheredthe fruits in autumn.
After harvesting the chestnuts are dried in “metati”, small buildings consisting of two floors, the floor, where the culture is placed and the ground floor, divided by a wattle through which smoke passes for drying, so that the flame (developed in the lower part) does not touch the crop.
Here chestnuts dry out for forty days and then beaten to remove the peel and ventilated to remove the last scraps light.
The bags are then transported to the mills where the grinding takes place and thus the production of flour.
They can then be prepared necci, polenta and chestnut. farinaneccio The chestnut flour is presented with a color ranging from white to yellow and a sweet taste characterized by a slight bitter aftertaste. Since 2004, the flour Neccio Garfagnana obtained the labelDOP (Protected Designation of Origin).
