Noce Bleggiana
Bleggiana Walnut
A small walnut, very aromatic, sweet and spiced. It is odd in more than size: oval and round at the base, thin-shelled, the shell cut by deep furrows with prominent ridges along the suture. Walnut trees have shaped the Giudicarie Esteriori for centuries and the record shows what they were worth, particularly in wartime, when the crop was both food and cash.
Designation
- Certification
- Slow Food Presidium
- Category
- Fruit, vegetables and cereals, fresh or processed
Where it is made
the Bleggio, Banale and Lomaso, Giudicarie Esteriori, Trento province
How it is made
Until the late 1960s the Bleggiana was wanted by confectioners, and thousands of quintals a year went to the Neapolitan market. Then the plantings shrank: farms moved to more profitable crops and replaced it with the French Lara and Franquette, which could be bought ready-grafted.