Lentils of Castelluccio di Norcia: Earthquake Solidarity
As all Castelluccio has been evacuated, I wonder where Derna is staying – and if her sacks of lentils are with her, salvaged from the rubble of the October 26 and 30, 2016 earthquakes?
Signora Derna and her sacks of lentils
As we wandered Castelluccio summers ago, tour guests and I had stopped to chat with elderly Derna sitting in a plastic chair in the garage below her house, sifting through mounds of the family lentils – just harvested on the “Great Plain” (Piano Grande) below the village.
Derna sifting through her family’s just-harvested lentils
The lentil plant
Lenticchie di Castelluccio
Harvesting the lentils on the Great Plain below Castelluccio
Lentils scythed on the Piano Grande below Castelluccio
Medieval mountain gem perched over the vast expanse of the Piano Grande (1500 m), Castelluccio is famed for the world-renowned IGP (“indicazioni geografiche protette” i.e., only from that area) lenticchie di Castelluccio. In this town, about sixty farm families – lentil growers, shepherds, and breeders of cattle, pigs – are united in an agricultural co-operative but following the Oct 26 and 30th tremors, houses as well as animal stalls crumbled. Farmers wish to stay near their animals and are opting to live in pre-fabs or campers rather than accept temporary lodgings in Adriatic seaside hotels (as have many of the homeless). Numerous farm families have sustained damage to homes and/or to stalls and about fifty of them will be living in tents.
Farmers and breeders in quake areas are opting for campers or tents – to stay close to their crops and animals
The facilities for the packing and then storing of the lenticchie were compromised after the August 24th quake; all the packaging production of the summer harvest was moved to a warehouse near Rieti. That warehouse was damaged in the October 30th quake. New facilities must be found. Lentil producers and their families are now feverishly racing to sift through and re-package lentils after the seismic hit, hoping to get their product back on the market as soon as possible.
…and thanks to Marco Francalancia for his photo of the lentil harvest near Castelluccio
How to best help all the farmers taking an economic wallop after the earthquakes? Buy – and eat! – Castelluccio lentils, Norcia prosciutti, capocollo, salami, ciauscolo (soft salami) and the Valnerina area pecorino (sheep’s milk cheese). And not to forget: black truffles and saffron (of the Cascia area, near Norcia).
I have my Castelluccio lentils and will make a lentil soup in tribute to Castelluccio, to the lentil-producers there. But I wish I could taste that steamy zuppa di lenticchie once again in Norcia – at the Locanda de’ Senari….
Locanda de’ Senari, July , 2012
What goodness we shared at Locanda de’Senari – and cook, Mariella, joined us
Ah…that zuppa di lenticchie!
Alas, the entrance to the Locanda de’ Sedari, post-October 2016 earthquakes…
…and I hope to taste the goodness again one day at Agriturismo Monte Veletta (enjoyed lunch there last summer with California friends), where the owners also raise the lentils they serve up – and not only:
View of Castelluccio from the terrace dining area of Agriturimo Monte Veletta
Serving up pecorino at the agriturismo
Davide and his father raise the lenticchie di Castelluccio that they serve
Davide with their lentils and legumes, on sale at the agriturismo
Davide serves up the lentil soup goodness (made with lentils the family raised)
…..and Castelluccio, devastated by the October, 2016 earthquakes
…..and if we do a benefit dinner, la zuppa di lenticchie di Castelluccio must star as co-primo piatto with pasta alla norcina. An ode to Derna….and all the Castelluccio lentil farmers.
Click here for full information on le lenticchie di Castelluccio and how to best cook them
At the end of this note, a list of producers selling the goodness of the quake-hit areas
Read about a recent visit to Castelluccio – to see the flowering splendors of the Piano Grande
See the recipe for pasta alla norcina (a possible earthquake-benefit dish)
Read about Norcia – and earthquake damage
Read about Norcia..and la norcineria
Read about Castelluccio and the famous lentils
Read about Castelluccio majesty
Read about earthquake damage in Castelluccio
Read about the curious history of Preci (near Oct 30 2016 quake epicenter) – and earthquake damage
Click here for news on the glorious Benedictine abbey of Sant’Eutizio (outside Preci)
Read about the earthquake trauma of missing cemetery visits on November 2nd
Click here to read about the August 24, 2016 earthquake damage in Umbria
Read about earthquake benefit dinners
Read more on the benefit dinners following the earthquake
Click here for news on our benefit dinner starring pasta all’amatriciana
Read about San Pellegrino near Norcia, damaged in the August 24th, 2016 quake
Read about – and see – damage to Visso
Read about San Salvatore, near Norcia, lost: che tragedia
Peppa’s home had damage, too, though light damage
Read about Norcia’s norcinerie, needing a comeback
Read about Cascia and earthquake concerns there
Read about the famous Castelluccio lentils – and how to cook them
Privacy Policy
Privacy Italian Legislative Decree n° 196/2003 Under Article 13 of the Italian Legislative Decree no. 196/2003, regulations with regard to the Protection of Personal Data, this is an informative report to all interested parties on the modality of the treatment of personal data, arising from interaction with our website www.annesitaly.comTHE PRINCIPAL FOR DATA TREATMENT During site consultation, personal data referring to identified or identifiable persons can be processed. The principal for data treatment is Anne Robichaud Pian della Pieve Assisi 06081 (PG) Italy. The data will be mainly processed at the mentioned head office by the people responsible for the website or by other people appointed for occasional maintenance operations, provided that their actions conform to of the guarantees enshrined in the Legislative Decree 196/2003.
TYPE OF DATA TREATED
Web navigation The information systems and software procedures required for the functioning of this website, acquire some personal data during their normal service, the transmission of which is implicit in the use of web communication protocols. This information is not collected with the purpose of identifying interested parties, but due to its very nature, the information could lead to user identification through processes and relations with data held by third parties. In this data category there are IP addresses or domain names belonging to computers used by users who connect to the site, addresses with URI (Uniform Resource Identifier) notification of the requested resources, time of the request, used method in submitting the request to the server, dimension of the file obtained in replying, the numeric code mentioning the reply status given by the server (successful reply, error, etc?) and other parameters referred to the operation system and to the user’s information environment. This data is used with the sole purpose of obtaining anonymous statistical information on the use of the site and to check the correct functioning; immediately after processing, the data is erased.
Data voluntarily supplied by the user The voluntary optional and explicit e-mail transmission to the addresses mentioned in this site implies the subsequent acquisition of the sender’s address, necessary to reply to the queries, as well as the other eventual personal data registered in the message.
OPTIONAL PERSONAL DATA SUPPLY Except for the above mentioned navigation data, the user may be asked to supply his own personal data through queries or messages to the email addresses shown in the contact pages. Failure to provide such data may be the cause of the inability to obtain the requested information from the company.
TREATMENT MODALITY The personal data is treated in compliance with the Legislative Decree no. 196/2003 and held only for the time necessary to achieve the aim for which it has been collected. Specific safety measures are taken to prevent any data loss, illicit or incorrect use and unauthorized access.
RIGHTS OF THIRD PARTIES The data subjects are at any time entitled to obtain confirmation as to whether or not data relating to him are held, to know the contents and the origin, to check the correctness, to ask for integration, updating or change (art. 7 Decree Law 196:June 2003). In accordance with the same article, they are entitled to obtain the erasure, conversion into anonymous form or freezing of all data used in breach of the law, to object, on legitimate grounds, to the processing of data relating to him. All requests have to be transmitted to the e-mail address anne@annesitaly.com