Pietrasanta

Italian olive growing, with its immense heritage of olive trees, farmers and olive-pressers that populate the peninsula right down to the southernmost islands, is experiencing a moment of extreme difficulty. The crisis is linked to the process of industrialization of olive cultivation, with the creation of new mechanized machinery and increasingly technological processes, oils of quality less competitive. The age of olive trees, hundreds or even thousands of years old, spread across the peninsula, further contribute to making the production of Italian extra virgin olive oil more demanding and costly. Thus, the market, oriented towards the lowest price, increasingly rewards low quality oils. For this reason Slow Food has created a national Presidium that promotes the environmental, aesthetic, economic, and health value of Italian extra virgin olive oil. It is a national project because producers of extra virgin all over Italy, in different areas of production, face the same crisis.

Around Brindisi everyone remembers the Fiaschetto tomato as a succulent delicacy, a sweet variety that is now back on the menu thanks to the Presidium. After studying vegetable gardens located along the coast, one farmer planted the first experimental crop at an altitude of only 15 meters, a few hundred meters from the sea. Currently there are three Presidium producers are cultivating two hectares using organic methods.

Production area: Torre Guaceto, Carovigno, Municipality, Brindisi Province
Seasonality: harvest begins from the second week of June and continues throughout the summer. The tomato sauce is available year-round.