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-sifts-her-lentils-last-years

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-papa-ottavios-roveja-beans-and-lentils

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.