To fans of Italian history, the town is mostly known for its imposing castle, Palazzo Madama, the French title that the inhabitants gave to Madame Carlotta Denham Bousquet, mother of two Garibaldian volunteers in the revolts of 1860 and 1867 who had received the castle in lease from his father in the mid-nineteenth century.
In fact, the original name of the castle was Monaldeschi from the name of the family who transformed a previous manor house into a mighty fortress in the 400s.
Let's talk about Onano, a town of not even a thousand souls, in the Viterbo area which had the honor of hosting Giuseppe Garibaldi, and which gave birth to Marcantonio Pacelli, an illustrious lawyer, grandfather of the future Pope Pius XII, whom Pope Gregory XVI appointed as a lawyer of the court of Sacred Rota, and who was a political consultant of the Papacy during his exile in Gaeta during the period of the Roman Republic.
So far the 'cultural' history of Onano. Then there is another which has taken on the task of making this town famous in Italy and in the world, nestled in the Volsini mountains, in an area located on the border between Lazio and Tuscany, a few kilometers from Lake Bolsena.
An ancient history testified by the Statute of 1561
And it is the story of its historical product, which has characterized its economy since ancient times: the Onano lentil. Very precious, with large seeds, but with a very delicate taste, a precious commodity for the farmers of the area, the Onano lentil is mentioned for the first time in the "Orders, statutes, municipal laws of the community and people of Onano" of 1561, according to reports Bonafede Mancini, chapter 63 provides for the sanction for anyone who has been caught stealing or damaging other people's leguminous crops. Fine set at ten baiocchi, to be paid not only in the event of flagrance, but also when the suspect under forced oath had admitted the furtive origin of the vegetables.
A century later, in the letter that the Duke Sforza wrote in 1616 to the Council of the Community of Onano to issue authorization to hold the weekly market, he attests to the need to supervise so that excessive quantities of legumes are not taken out of the Duchy from the land of Onano and one bushel (approx. 18 kg) the exportable quantity as the maximum limit for each person.
Coming to the 800th century, we have clear the economic importance that the onano lentil has for the local agricultural economy from a manuscript of 1802, "Memorie Istoriche" by Father Epifanio Giuliani in which it is hypothesized to increase development and raise the standard of living of the inhabitants thanks to the "trade with the industry in particular of the legumes that the territory of Onano produces in excellent quality and to induce an abundance of every kind necessary for life in the town".
Andreotti and Pope Pius IX's consolatory lentils
It is worth closing this historical overview of Onano's lentils by quoting "The charade of Papa Mastai" by Giulio Andreotti In his book, Andreotti describes a Pius IX, the Pope who with the breach of Porta Pia had to cede the Papal State to the Kingdom of 'Italy, secluded in the Vatican city and afflicted on New Year's Eve of 1871, who consoled himself by eating lentils: “Tomorrow at his table he would always have the good Onanesi lentils from Cardinal Prospero Caterini. That's what he could compare lost power to, a plate of lentils."
Certainly, the Onano lentils had a great diffusion at the beginning of the 900th century thanks to a local merchant Alberto Alfonsi who until the last war exported Onano lentils all over the world, also bringing them to the international fairs of Rome 1910 where they took the medal of gold, of Buenos Aires 1910 (gold medal) of London (grand prize and gold medal), of Paris 1911 (grand prize and gold medal).
In 1966, all this historical heritage and agricultural memories fascinated a young pharmacy graduate Marco Camilli.
I wonder if he knew the Compendium aromatariorum with which Saladino d'Ascoli, in the mid-fourteenth century, gave ethical indications on the conduct of the pharmacist who “must be educated, to interpret recipes and scientia medicoe well. He must not be too young, arrogant or vain, nor a womanizer, "mulieribus deditus" (a wife is recommended instead). He must abstain from gambling, wine, parties, and rather be “studiosus, solicitus, placabilis, & honestus, timens Deum, et conscientiam suam. Lui sit rectus, iustus, pius, et maxime ad pauperos… quia habet tractare de vita hominum ”that is, the most important thing in the world (fol. 252r). He must not speculate on the price, must not administer abortifacient or poisonous medicines, either out of love or fear or for money, must not make adulterations, for example by using honey instead of sugar ”.
Surely it is not for all these onerous commitments that Marco Camilli thought well of abandoning the world of recipes and albarelli but for the desire to live his life in the open air, immersed in the beautiful nature that surrounds this area and to devote himself to the creation of an organic farm, a precise environmentalist choice of safeguarding natural resources and wholesomeness of the products, a philosophy of life which in hindsight was in a certain sense in line with his university studies.
He had no agricultural family traditions, just a small plot of land. Only the blood of his maternal grandfather Domenico Bocchini, trader and friend of Alfonsi who had done so much to spread the name of Onano lentils, could count in his DNA.
And surely the memory of his grandfather had prompted him to live the life of the countryside and its fruits. Thus it was that the young Camilli immediately focused on legumes which have a long local tradition due to the quality of the soils which are particularly light and suitable for this type of product.
In great vogue at the beginning of the 900s, then it was abandoned
Unfortunately, however, Camilli appeared in this world when times had changed considerably. If at the beginning of the 900s 600 quintals were produced a year, production in the 70s was restricted to six to seven quintals, supplanted by a small Canadian lentil, the Heston, with a high production yield per hectare and by the introduction of chemical fertilizers. The historic lentil so dear to Pius IX was in danger of disappearing.
Camilli began to sift through the whole Viterbo area in search of peasants who still had the original seed of the Onano Lentil, he found fifteen of them all over sixty, who kept them for personal use and began to sow them again.
He asked everyone for advice on cultivation and harvesting, he even got in touch with a researcher at the Icarda Institute, an international center for crop improvement, and climatic conditions for the development of agricultural production technologies for both high- and low-lying agroecosystems. potential, in Syria and then in Morocco.
Gradually he took over more land and the necessary machinery. It was consequent, also for his professional training, to come into contact with the Faculty of Agriculture of the University of Tuscia in Viterbo and with ENEA. Thus it was that in 2000 he started a collaboration of an experimental nature with the Department of Vegetable Production of the Faculty of Agriculture of the University of Tuscia in Viterbo and with ENEA (Casaccia Research Centre) setting up some experimental fields on grain legumes with project of the Ministry of Agricultural, Food and Forestry Policies.
Four years later, another important step for its growth: it realizes the project "Development of organic production from ecotypes of grain legumes of Upper Lazio, PROBIOLEG" in collaboration with the Department of Vegetable Production of the Faculty of Agriculture of the University della Tuscia di Viterbo and with ENEA (Casaccia research centre). Project funded by the Lazio Region (PRAL).
The "Marco Camilli" organic farm is today a consolidated reality that occupies about 36 hectares in the territory of Onano (Vt). The altitude and the loose volcanic soils, sandy loam and poor in mineral elements, give the legumes particular qualities of rapid cooking and excellent taste. Particular attention is paid to the aspect of food safety and respect for the environment. This means that herbicides, synthetic chemical fertilizers, pesticides are not used in the cultivation and that the elimination of weeds is done only mechanically and manually. Furthermore, the post-harvest disinfestation of legumes is performed with natural means such as cold and not with gas (phosphine) as usually occurs in conventional agriculture.
The company's mission is the recovery of biodiversity
The main production of the company, whose mission is the recovery of "biodiversity" and the consequent enhancement of the cultivation area, are the native varieties: in addition to the Antica lenticchia di Onano, there are 5 ecotypes of beans, the Purgatorio, the Verdolini, the ciavattoni , the solfarinos, the yellows, protected by the Lazio Region within the Rural Development Plan as typical species at risk of genetic erosion.
Particularly demanding was the recovery program of the traditional "Antica lenticchia di Onano", which in October 2004 obtained the Slow Food Presidium at the Salone del Gusto in Turin and is now part of the Arches of Taste.
Of large size, the Lentil of Onano is characterized by having a very tender skin, it cooks quickly in 20 minutes without the need for preventive soaking over medium-low heat, its flavor has hints of hay and chamomile, the paste is velvety and creamy.
The advice to fully savor their taste is not to drain them immediately after cooking because the passage from high temperature to the colander risks peeling them. Better to keep in the cooking water until use bearing in mind that stored in their water they can be kept in the fridge for two to three days. It is water rich in mineral salts that can be used to flavor soups and soups.
For the record, together with these excellent products, Camilli's company also produces coconut beans, chickpea Cèrere, chickpea Flora, chickpea Otello, grass peas, pearl spelled, broken spelled, pearl barley and barley semolina .
