Chestnuts in Italy: The trend reversed, it is now possible to grow

There was a time, not too far away (a century ago), when Italy was a world leader in the production of chestnuts. Today, the Belpaese occupies only the fourth place in this special ranking (source: Fao), but there are still excellent prospects for making a modern chestnut cultivation. This, in a nutshell, is one of the themes that emerged during the online meeting dedicated to chestnuts within the review "Archiginnasio Wednesdays. The Odyssey of food from field to table ", organized by the National Academy of Agriculture, Bolognese delegations of the Italian Academy of Cuisine and the Medical and Surgical Society of Bologna. "Bread tree", the first was Xenophon. Renzo Panzacchi, president of the Consorzio Castanicoltori Appennino Bolognese, took stock of the situation on chestnuts from prehistoric times to today, who in his detailed report also dispelled a false myth. The expression that wants the chestnut as "bread tree", so dear to the older generations, was not coined by the ...