Ph. Davide Marcesini
Heading south of the town of Casale rises Mount Camorra on which there is a large chestnut wood. The chestnut was considered “bread tree”, providing a nutritious alternative to wheat; from the tree it was possible to obtain timber, poles, tannin, good honey, coal.
In the chestnut and villages related to them, there were the “metati”, buildings in which the drying of fruits took place immediately after harvesting. A fire kept dormant to make smoke and heat warmed to 30-40 days the fruits placed on a trellis, drying them.
Then there was the peeling: the dried fruit was kept for months and was brought to the mill to obtain flour. In the Apennines the relationship between the chestnut and the rural villages is common.