There is the lumachedda, light brown in color with dark brown veins; The weeks, from the black seed; the ucchittu santanciulisi anducchiuttu of Saint Lucia, then there are the whites: the gaddu buttuna, rosé and black and the pinuttaru, pink with purple veins. And then three ecotypes called crucchittu, grown in the upper valley of the Naso stream: they range from a vinous red to dark purple streaked with pink.
Nine ecotypes for a name that encompasses them all”Beans from Carrazzo dei Nebrodi” nine qualities that are characterized by the almost total absence of peel, a particularity that makes them highly digestible, the most genuine expression of the agricultural tradition of the Nebrodi.
Their elective area is in fact in province of Messina. The name Carrazzo derives from the Nebrodi dialect which means "creeper", because they grow wrapped around stakes made with reeds, with hazelnut shoots or with nets, while maintaining different shapes and colors from each other, as well as naturally a very precise identity also made clear by the name.
To give quarters of nobility to these beans which for generations have represented the food basis of so many poor peasants has now come theinclusion in the list of Slow Food Presidia.
Of the approximately sixty beans surveyed, nine are recognized as a Slow Food Presidium. The choice, explains the Slow Food representative, fell "on the ancient ones, i.e. those whose presence is attested further back in time, and on those with the best organoleptic characteristics, most appreciated by the market".
According to the stories of the elders, in the Nebrodi, the mountain range whose name derives from the Greek nebrós, "fawn" an area rich in vegetation and humid environments that favor the development of flora and fauna where it is practiced, in a not very intensive way, cattle breeding, beans have been grown at least since the mid-nineteenth century, in particular near the springs, between 600 meters of altitude up to 1200 meters. An area characterized by steep slopes and, precisely for this reason, not very suitable for intensive production. Easier, so to speak, to sow the beans in flat plots of land obtained from terraces: small surfaces, which guaranteed the farmers a production just enough for family consumption, perhaps in the most typical and simple recipe of all, boiled and seasoned with a drizzle of extra virgin olive oil (a flat, as they say in dialect). But also cooked with Nebrodi black pork rinds, sautéed with tomatoes and added to potatoes, courgettes, celery and onions in vegetable minestrone or even in salads or with pasta.
Starting in the 60s, following the crisis that affected a large part of Sicilian agriculture, the presence of vegetable gardens on the Nebrodi underwent a slow and irreversible decline and the old cultivars often remained only in the memory of the elderly. Where the agrarian transformations were less incisive, as in the Nebrodì Mountains, some autochthonous varieties were preserved in small family plots.
Salvatore Granata, Slow Food coordinator of the Presidium explains how Carrazzo's beans were chosen. «Everything was born from the collaboration between the Nebrodi Park and the Department of Botanical Sciences of the University of Palermo, which together gave life to the Living plant germplasm bank in Ucria, a place intended for the conservation of biodiversity and the protection of the natural and environmental heritage of various plant species, both forestry and agricultural, and the adjoining "Giardino dei Semplici", a vegetable garden for the reproduction of seeds».
Over the years, the germplasm bank studied the traditional cultivation of beans in the Nebrodi area, collecting and cataloging the seeds of different varieties: in the end, their number was close to 60. «As a community we thought that keeping the seeds wasn't enough - continues Granata - but that it was necessary spread them, inducing local farmers to valorise these species by returning to cultivate them». The objectives? "To act as a barrier against the homologation of intensively grown beans, to prevent the loss of variety and, of course, also to generate income."
There are eight producers who adhere to the Slow Food Presidium of Carrazzo beans. Theirs referent, Stefano Lembo, is less than 40 years old and a passion born on a day in September 2008: «It was the first year that beans were planted at the Germplasm Bank and there were already 43 varieties – he recalls -. That day my father, who worked there, asked me to accompany him and help him move the boxes. When I got there, I found an explosion of shapes and colors in front of my eyes that left me speechless: dozens of varieties of beans, all different... and I, up until then, was thinking only of borlotti beans and cannellini beans! It was at that moment that I unconsciously decided that I wanted to do this job». The times, however, were not yet ripe: «In 2014, together with the girl who has now become my wife, I planted 40 varieties of beans in my home garden. It was a difficult period for me because I couldn't find work, and after some time we asked ourselves why not try to start marketing our products. This is how it began and then, as often happens, from one thing to another, until it was recognized as a Slow Food Presidium: I am convinced that, for many kids like me, this production can represent a road, an outlet, even a professional one».
Sowing traditionally takes place in April at lower altitudes, on the hills in June and in the first days of July. The harvest, manual, takes place after about 70 days. No synthetic chemicals are used. To make the seedlings grow, braces are used with reeds, with hazelnut suckers or with nets. A little curiosity. In some mountain areas, such as that of Floresta, the cultivation of beans is often associated with others. In the same post, beans, squash and corn are sown, the latter as a stake.
