HISTORY OF PISTACHIOS
The pistachio (from greek Pistàkion) is a plant native to the Mediterranean basin (Persia, Turkey)cultivated for its seeds, used for direct consumption, in confectionery and for flavoring sausagesmeat. It is no exaggeration to say that is a plant as old as the world.It was known and cultivated, in fact, by the ancient Jews and even then considered a precious fruit.Curiosity chronological we find for the first time the word "pistachio" in the Old Testament,nellaGenesi later, (origin-birth of the world) 42/43 verse 11 chapters.Here about well-known episode of Jacob, who send their children to the groundCanan in Egypt to stock up on grain, we find the sentence below:"Here I have heard that there is grain in Egypt. Go down there and buy for us ...Bring a gift to the man, the selected products in the country: balm, honey, resins, laudanum, almonds and pistachios. "Together with other plants so much appreciated, the pistachio is reported nell'obelisco,commemorative monument, did raise from Ashurbanipal I ° (king of Assyria, around 668-626 BC)in the city of kolach.But it was already known to the Eastern populations: the Babylonians, Assyrians, Jordanians, Greeks since the third century. C.as a plant with curative principles, powerful aphrodisiac and as an antidote against the bites of animalspoisonous, called by some "fostak" or "fostok" and according to others resulting from the Persian "fistij".It was the Arabs, then, snatching the Sicily to the Byzantines, to increase and to be directed inpistachio cultivation that island, particularly on the slopes of Etna, found the natural habitat for a thriving and unique.
THE LAND WHERE TO GROW
In the coils of the territory of Bronte An extraordinary blend of the plant and lava terrain that continually fertilized by volcanic ash, favored the production of a fruit that in terms of taste and aroma, as quality exceeds the remaining production world.Here, in a land sciaroso and impervious (the "lochia", so I called again the pistachio), the farmer Bronte has reclaimed and transformed the lava flows of Etna in an unusual Eden, creating the miracle of a plant born from the rock for produce small, tasty fruits of the finest quality, a beautiful emerald green color, refined and used in confectionery and food for their high organoleptic properties.Today, the vast territory of Bronte (25,000 hectares) are planted with pistachio almost 4,000 hectares of lava, with a very limited surface soil and steep slopes and rugged, little usable for other specialty crops.A consumer protection, as well as for marketing in step with the times and, above all, to get a product free of toxic residues, we hope you continue on the road of organic farming; as well we point out that, again in Bronte, missing an experimental field for specific studies and research.For example, you could introduce new rootstocks such as "Atlantic" and "the integerrinia" much more vigorous and rapid development to production; the planting of plants, grown in fitocelle and already grafted as well as the in vitro cloning.
HOW BORN
Luck of Bronte has a name: "terebinto". Without it the pistachio not grow onSciara. A tree species vital to the existence of industry pistacchicola Bronte is the oak (Pistacia terebintus), highly branched shrub with reddish-brown bark, resinous smell of aromatic, more rarely small tree up to 5 m., From hardwood , compact and heavy. The fruiting of the oak is represented by numerous red drupes or green-gray, something that makes it very unique and attractive, and therefore used for ornamental purposes in parks, gardens, villas and hedges.In nature, the spread of oak also help the birds that feed on its seeds and ingerendoli, submit the hard seed coat to a real scarification with stomach acids and then expelling them with excrement, they are more easily germinating.As rootstocks allows pistachio (P. vera), to live in shallow soils, stony, and even between the cracks of the rocks.As well as some advantages such as frugality and arid resistance the oak is marked by some undesirable characteristics such as the slow growth in the nursery, the difficulty of grafting, the partial disaffinity engagement with pistachio, the dearth of rooting vivo and in vitro, the heterogeneity of the seedlings, the long run unproductive inducing the kind and activity pollonifera.(Source Following Pistachio Footprints)