MAGICAL BITTERNESS
In our land, close to an ancient woodshed where we store our wood production (we have several fireplaces), there was a small tree of visciole that since childhood I appreciated for its unique flavor. As a boy I noticed that eating them and abandoning the seeds on the ground, made new plants grow every year.
Then, I never understood why the plant that produced so much goodness began a long illness, and when I realized that his death was near, I was disappointed, the tree (we thought) was wild, where ever we could get one? My wife Mina tried (last resort) to dig around a young seedling and replant it. The strike was successful and now we have again a wonderful visciolo. Since then we started to eat them and to produce limited quantities of the mythical Sacone visciole jam. Collection of the product must be done manually, and of course this leads to a considerable increase in costs and slowness but I also believe that the gluttony of eating them while you collect them makes everythnig more enjoyable!!
Visciolo is one of three existing varieties of prunus cerasus: sour cherry tree, marasche tree and the visciolo. To recognize them you need to taste them in addition to the sight, while the cherries are bitter and sour, marasca almost black and very bitter and sour ( from them it is made the maraschino liqueur), visciole (red) are a mixture of bitter and sweet that melts in your mouth.
I’m thinking of cherries (which I love) but these (prunus avium) are relatives but not very close. The drought of 2003 took away all the cherry trees and after a fair share of years we replanted but before they returns in abundance it will take years. Black Cherry which we all know is in fact a plant takes a very long time before becoming ready for a sustained production.
Visciolo is not like that. The plant grows quickly (already produces the fruits when it's young) adapting to climate and it is practically not cultivated (some small pruning can help you control the over-production), keeps its wild nature, does not suffer from cold or drought. The large quantity of flowers and auto-fertility make visciolo often plentiful. I mean is just a strong and generous plant beyond almost anything and gives the fruits very soon; sure the fruit is not like the cherry but has its particular taste that is very much appreciated (I love it) with curative substances, often useful for the prevention of many diseases. How we arrived to visciolo? The visciolo is originally from Asia Minor, there is no certainty whether even before being introduced in the Western Mediterranean had not an Eastern origin (Armenia, the Caucasus or Central Asia).
Lucius Licinius Lucullus (117 BC and 56 BC), Roman Consul and General; is the Lucullus well-known by the adjective "luculliano".
Lucullus in short, in his adventurous life, he travelled to Asia Minor, where he fought many battles and won very important ones. He conquered the Kingdom of Pontus (North-Eastern Anatolia, along the southern shore of the Black Sea) therefore it is no coincidence that the visciolo is called Prunus Cerasus, Cerasus is identified with the agricultural zone from the Greek era developed around the Greek Kerasunta, Latin Cerasunta the current Giresun. Regarding Lucullus, what made him famous, until today, is the fact that after returning from such campaigns, retiring from politics, he used his great wealth to create villas and gardens to accommodate friends with lavish dinners and rich like quality and quantity of food.
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