Parco Nazionale del Gran Sasso e Monti della Laga

The bean cultivation in the area of Paganica, a village belonging to the municipality of L'Aquila, is proud of a centuries-old tradition thanks to the fresh and deep soils of alluvial nature and to the presence of water courses fed by many springs...

History Already during the Roman period, the vegetable gardens in the surroundings of Amiternum were known in Rome for different products, among which the onion called amiternina.

History Chickling is a leguminous plant coming from the Mediterranean basin. Its use is documented in the 17th century soup recipes. This leguminous plant, once cultivated in every family vegetable garden, has undergone a fast reduction, although recently,...

The history The chickpea Cicer arietinum L. is one of the most ancient and mostly used legumes. The areas where the chickpea cultivation is mainly entrenched are the territories around Camarda and Castelvecchio Calvisio near L'Aquila. Here there are...

History The presence of the cultivation of beans in the whole territory of the Park has always represented, for the mountain populations, a source of sustenance and income, especially in the places overlooking the waterways. The characteristic of cultivation...

The History The cultivation of the lentils "Lens culinaris Medik" in the Abruzzi is only residual. In the Gran Sasso's southern area, at an altitude between 1,000 and 1,600 meters between the towns of Castel del Monte, Castelvecchio Calvisio, Barisciano,...

History Chickpea is one of the first legumes cultivated in the eastern area of the Mediterranean. The varieties with small seeds and bent integument are more primitive than the ones with larger seeds and lighter color. In Navelli (L'Aquila), chickpeas...

The History In the Abruzzi's mountain zones potato has represented for a long time an important sustenance source for the locals who differentiate the cultivated varieties. This happened because the difficulties to cultivate in the mountains were...

History In the historical town of Rivera, every family used to cultivate celery and salad in the past. According to the legend, celery has aphrodisiac powers. Moreover, it has diuretic and digestive properties.

History The Latin name of lettuce, Lactuca sativa L., derives from the words lac, meaning milk and referring to the white lymph, and sativa, meaning cultivated. This ancient lettuce variety is the result of a long selection linked to the historical vegetable...

History This pea variety was already widespread in the markets of L'Aquila since the 15th century. According to Miche Tenore (1831), one of the greatest 19th century Italian botanists, Robiglio pea, as far as the Kingdom of Naples was concerned, was...

History In the history of the human diet and the development of civilization, the lentil has always played an important role because it has been one of the first species to be domesticated, although there are still many questions on how it happened. Some...

History Characteristic variety of the mountain and piedmont areas. It is a more recent variety than Turchesa Potato, another kind of potato that has been recently recovered by the Park Authority. As a matter of fact, it spread around the 20th century....

History Tortarello is a variety of non-sweet melon Cucumis melo L. var. flexousus (Stepansky et al. 1999). In Italy it is known by the name of tortarello, presumably for the shape of the fruit which is elongated and twisted, flexuous or serpentine. It...

History In Gran Sasso National Park, an ancient potato variety has been rediscovered and recovered: the so-called turchesa potato. This potato has been named after the color of its skin. Many elderly people remember it, but it has disappeared from their...