MUSHROOMS IN THE WOOD MANFERRARA, POMARICO (ITALY)
Typical of the woods of Basilicata and Pomarico, so named because they grow near wild thistles (cardo in Italian).
This mushroom is typical of the Murgia. It is wild and it is called cardoncello because it normally grows under thistle bushes (thistle is cardo in italian). They are very good, I reccomend them and I wouldnt translate the name because it is so typical that it is impossible to do so.
It also seems that many food factories grow these mushrooms, therefore the term "wild" might go depending on the quality of the brand.
Pictures taken By Spera Gerardo at Pomarico (Italy)
Wednesday, September 24, 2008
ROSES
A rose is a perennial flowering shrub or vine of the genus Rosa, within the family Rosaceae, that contains over 100 species. The species form a group of erect shrubs, and climbing or trailing plants, with stems that are often armed with sharp thorns. Most are native to Asia, with smaller numbers of species native to Europe, North America, and northwest Africa. Natives, cultivars and hybrids are all widely grown for their beauty and fragrance.
The leaves are alternate and pinnately compound, with sharply toothed oval-shaped leaflets. The plants fleshy edible fruit is called a rose hip. Rose plants range in size from tiny, miniature roses, to climbers that can reach 20 metres in height. Species from different parts of the world easily hybridize, which has given rise to the many types of garden roses. The name originates from Latin rosa, borrowed through Oscan from colonial Greek in southern Italy: rhodon (Aeolic form: wrodon), from Aramaic wurrdā, from Assyrian wurtinnu, from Old Iranian *warda (cf. Armenian vard, Avestan warda, Sogdian ward, Parthian wâr).
Attar of rose is the steam-extracted essential oil from rose flowers that has been used in perfumes for centuries. Rose water, made from the rose oil, is widely used in Asian and Middle Eastern cuisine. Rose hips are occasionally made into jam, jelly, and marmalade, or are brewed for tea, primarily for their high Vitamin C content. They are also pressed and filtered to make rose hip syrup. Rose hips are also used to produce Rose hip seed oil, which is used in skin products.
Roses are subject to several diseases, such as rose rust (Phragmidium mucronatum), rose black spot, and powdery mildew. Fungal diseases in the Rose are best solved by a preventative fungicidal spray program rather than by trying to cure an infection after it emerges on the plant. After the disease is visible, its spread can be minimized through pruning and the use of fungicides, although the actual infection cannot be reversed. Certain rose varieties are considerably less susceptible than others to fungal diseases.
The main insect pest affecting roses is the aphid (greenfly), which sucks the sap and weakens the plant. (Ladybirds are a predator of aphids and should be encouraged in the rose garden.) The spraying with insecticide of roses is often recommended but should be done with care to minimize the loss of beneficial insects. Roses are also used as food plants by the larvae of some Lepidoptera (butterfly and moth) species; see list of Lepidoptera that feed on roses.
The rose has always been valued for its beauty and has a long history of symbolism. The ancient Greeks and Romans identified the rose with their goddesses of love referred to as Aphrodite and Venus. In Rome a wild rose would be placed on the door of a room where secret or confidential matters were discussed. The phrase sub rosa, or "under the rose", means to keep a secret — derived from this ancient Roman practice.Early Christians identified the five petals of the rose with the five wounds of Christ. Despite this interpretation, their leaders were hesitant to adopt it because of its association with Roman excesses and pagan ritual. The red rose was eventually adopted as a symbol of the blood of the Christian martyrs. Roses also later came to be associated with the Virgin Mary.
Rose culture came into its own in Europe in the 1800s with the introduction of perpetual blooming roses from China. There are currently thousands of varieties of roses developed for bloom shape, size, fragrance and even for lack of prickles.
Roses are ancient symbols of love and beauty. The rose was sacred to a number of goddesses (including Isis and Aphrodite), and is often used as a symbol of the Virgin Mary. 'Rose' means pink or red in a variety of languages (such as Romance languages, Greek, and Polish).
The rose is the national flower of England and the United States, as well as being the symbol of England Rugby, and of the Rugby Football Union. It is also the provincial flower of Yorkshire and Lancashire in England (the white rose and red rose respectively) and of Alberta (the wild rose), and the state flower of four US states: Iowa and North Dakota (R. arkansana), Georgia (R. laevigata), and New York (Rosa generally). Portland, Oregon counts "City of Roses" among its nicknames, and holds an annual Rose Festival.
Roses are occasionally the basis of design for rose windows, such windows comprising five or ten segments (the five petals and five sepals of a rose) or multiples thereof; however most Gothic rose windows are much more elaborate and were probably based originally on the wheel and other symbolism. A red rose (often held in a hand) is a symbol of socialism or social democracy; it is also used as a symbol by the British and Irish Labour Parties, as well as by the French, Spanish (Spanish Socialist Workers' Party), Portuguese, Norwegian, Danish, Swedish, Finnish, Brazilian, Dutch (Partij van de Arbeid) and European socialist or social democratic parties. This originated when the red rose was used as a badge by the marchers in the May 1968 street protests in Paris. White Rose was a World War II non violent resistance group in Germany.
The main constituents of attar of roses are the fragrant alcohols geraniol and l-citronellol; and rose camphor, an odourless paraffin. β-Damascenone is also a significant contributor to the scent.
Pictures taken By Spera Gerardo at Pomarico (Italy)
CHURCHES POMARICO
Pomarico (Greek: Pomerikon) is a small town of 4500 inhabitants in Southern Italy, in the region Basilicata. It is about 30 km far from Matera, the capital of the province to which Pomarico belongs. The town was founded about 850 AD by Greeks. An old castle was built but only few ruins of it remain.
The mother church, whose restoration ended in 1994, has a Baroque facade and contains within it paintings by Pietro Antonio Ferro and Andrea Vaccaro, a wooden statue of San Michele dating back to 1400 and a valuable antifonario the sixteenth century. The edge of town stretches for 500 hectares, the forest of "Manferrara".
The Marquess Palace, built in the 18th century, and still standing in the centre of the town.The Main Church dedicated to St. Michael, also built in that period. It has a baroque façade and contains a beautiful wooden statue of St. Michael (1400), as well as paintings of Pietro Antonio Ferro and Andrea Vaccaro.
The church of St. Anthony of Padua (18th century). It lies by a former convent, that was transformed into the City Hall.
Location: 3 km. by the river Basento around the town of Pomarico (province of Matera) Major periods . 1) The human presence on the plateau of Pomarico Vecchio has testified during the sixth century. aC by furniture and artefacts from a necropolis located at the source S. Giacomo. Giacomo. 2) Starting from fourth century. aC stands on the same plateau inhabited a broad and articulated, with a mighty walls and a regular plant, which will remain alive for a relatively short time, until the second half of the third century. aC . It also relate a necropolis, located on the south-eastern hill. 3) In the Middle Ages (XII-XIV century AD.) Attending resumption of life at the site, witnessed by the discovery of artefacts and furniture to an island grave pit.
The excavations conducted in 1989 by the University of Turin, in collaboration with the Archaeological Superintendence of Basilicata, have helped to shed new light on this important site of indigenous ellenizzato internal Lucania. Before then, in fact, were known only some of the walls and a small strip of the necropolis.
The new explorations have led to the discovery of the urban regular, set a mesh of orthogonal roads, in which five suspects were isolated. At the center of the plant was also detected a large public structure, known as the "big house", articulated in a series of rooms overlooking a central courtyard. It was designed for the consumption of meals rituals common (hestiatorion), as revealed in particular the discovery of some bothroi with obvious remains of a meal. The function of religion-politics-as well as the complex is confirmed by finding a naiskos, an altar and a stone base for a bronze statue.
The most known citizens of Pomarico were Niccolò Fiorentino (lawyer and patriot during the Neapolitan Revolution, 1799) and Francesco Caggiani (awarded with a gold medal during the World War I).
The elementary school in the city is named in honor of Caggiani.
Franco Selvaggi, member of the 1982 Italy side that won the World Cup, was from Pomarico.
Pictures taken By Spera Gerardo at Pomarico (Italy)
Thursday, September 18, 2008
GRAPE POMARICO ( ITALY )
A grape is the non-climacteric fruit that grows on the perennial and deciduous woody vines of the genus Vitis. Grapes can be eaten raw or used for making jam, juice, jelly, vinegar, wine, grape seed extracts and grape seed oil.
Grapes grow in clusters of 6 to 300, and can be crimson, black, dark blue, yellow, green and pink. However, "white" grapes are actually green in color, and are evolutionarily derived from the red grape. Mutations in two regulatory genes of white grapes turn off production of anthocyanins which are responsible for the color of red grapes. Anthocyanins and other pigment chemicals of the larger family of polyphenols in red grapes are responsible for the varying shades of purple in red wines.
Most grapes come from cultivars of Vitis vinifera, the European grapevine native to the Mediterranean and Central Asia. Minor amounts of fruit and wine come from American and Asian species such as:Vitis labrusca, the North American table and grape juice grapevines (including the concord cultivar), sometimes used for wine. Native to the Eastern United States and Canada.
Vitis riparia, a wild vine of North America, sometimes used for winemaking and for jam. Native to the entire Eastern U.S. and north to Quebec.
Vitis rotundifolia, the muscadines, used for jams and wine. Native to the Southeaster United States from Delaware to the Gulf of Mexico.
Vitis amurensis Most important Asian species.
The sea grape Coccoloba uvifera is actually a member of the Buckwheat family Polygonaceae and is native to the islands of the Caribbean Sea.
According to the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), 75,866 square kilometres of the world are dedicated to grapes. Approximately 71% of world grape production is used for wine, 27% as fresh fruit, and 2% as dried fruit. A portion of grape production goes to producing grape juice to be reconstituted for fruits canned "with no added sugar" and "100% natural". The area dedicated to vineyards is increasing by about 2% per year.The following table of top wine-producers shows the corresponding areas dedicated to grapes for wine making:
Afghan grapes are the best quality grapes than any other country in the world.
Seedlessness is a highly desirable subjective quality in table grape selection, and seedless cultivars now make up the overwhelming majority of table grape plantings. Because grapevines are vegetatively propagated by cuttings, the lack of seeds does not present a problem for reproduction. It is, however, an issue for breeders, who must either use a seeded variety as the female parent or rescue embryos early in development using tissue culture techniques.
There are several sources of the seedlessness trait, and essentially all commercial cultivators get it from one of three sources: Thompson Seedless, Russian Seedless, and Black Monukka, all being cultivars of Vitis vinifera. Numerous seedless cultivars, such as Einset Seedless, Reliance and Venus, have been specifically cultivated for hardiness and quality in the relatively cold climates of north-eastern United States and southern Ontario. Bright green and elongated or round, the popular Sugraone grape offers a light, sweet flavor and distinctive crunch.
Contrary to the improved eating quality of seedlessness is the loss of potential health benefits provided by the enriched phytochemical content of grape seeds (see Health claims).
Pictures taken By Spera Gerardo at Pomarico (Italy)
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