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15.11.2022

“Wheat field with cypresses” is a painting made in 1889 by Vincent Van Gogh, which represents the view of the countryside of Saint-Rémy, surrounded by shrubs and cypresses.

Such cornfield with cypresses by Van Gogh is a wonderful picture, which describes a typical Mediterranean environment…And an essential component of the French and broadly European and Mediterranean diet, the wheat with which bread is made.

This helps us to introduce a typical wheat of Calabria: Iermanu type.

CALABRIAN CORN

In Aspromonte (a mountainous zone of Calabria, in the very south of the region), “u granu jermanu“, or jermano, is the dialect name for rye, and it has been cultivated since ancient times.

With the use of this ancient Calabrian wheat, – with many beneficial properties, rich in vitamins, mineral salts and fibers, – Calabrian people produce a black bread, with a very rustic flavor, a little acid and with an intense aroma.

Iermano wheat was widely used throughout the South up to the 1950s, with this name (Iermano or Jurmano) that which in Italian is called rye is identified.

Introduced by the Germans during the First World War to create alcohol and bread, Jurmano wheat was well received in Calabria. From Aspromonte to Sila plateau there are still some farmers who have been carrying on the cultivar for over 50 years without stopping!

Being Calabria a rather mountainous land and therefore subject to very rigid winters, this German cultivar has been able to adapt well to our winter climates.

ITS SUCCESS: A VERY TASTY BLACK BREAD

Firstly, its rusticity. It is a cereal that even grows in the polar circle and reaches up to 4,000 meters of altitude.

Its peculiarity is mainly due to the health benefits: according to various scientific researches, rye thins the blood and prevents arteriosclerosis.

Rye flour, called in dialect iermano flour or iurmano flour, often mixed with durum wheat flour, is the main ingredient of an ancient product, the above mentioned black bread.

This black bread, whose production is very laborious, was produced with the luvato (mother yeast), which is prepared from the evening and then thrown in water and flour and covered with wool blankets.

The next day, the preparation begins with strength and effort, the dough of this bread is dense and viscous, but it is after baking that it keeps better and for a long time. At this point it is cut and cooked for a very long time, about two hours.

The Iurmano bread has some characteristics that distinguish it in a decisive way: the very dark color and the remarkable shelf life. It is a rustic bread, widely used by farmers, and therefore long-lasting.

A BIOLOGICAL PRODUCT

Organic Jurmano flour is 100% biological. It is produced with ancient Calabrian Jurmano or Jermano (Rye) wheat, grown organically by local companies, and it is characterized by a low protein content that makes it suitable even for people with food intolerances (who have digestive disorders in the presence of high percentages of gluten).

Furthermore, the stone grinding, avoiding the overheating of the grain, preserves the wheat germ without altering its properties, and the flour preserves all the nutritional substances it is equipped with, among which the vitamins of group E, B and mineral salts such as phosphorus, potassium stand out, and magnesium.

The wheat of the Calabrian mountain areas, after the long decline that began after the war, is now finally subject to widespread re-evaluation thanks to its excellent nutritional properties.

In addition to bread making, Jurmano flour can be used for the production of pasta: maccarruni, for example.

“L’ultima acqua di cui abbiamo parlato, è tanto abbondante che, se non fosse per il diniego della terra, potremmo credere che la nube della Grande Maestà permanga con noi in terra. Ma quando lo ringraziamo di questo grande bene, rispondendo con opere secondo le nostre forze, il Signore si impossessa dell’anima, nello stesso modo in cui le nubi si impossessano dell’umidità della terra, prendendola tutta con sè (ho sentito dire che le nubi o il sole fanno così). La nube sale al cielo...”

[S. Teresa D’Avila, La vita, Italian version]

9.9.2022

SUN ALL YEAR ROUND

Calabria is one of the sunniest regions in Europe. With 320 days of sunshine a year you will find a Mediterranean to subtropical climate, characterized by low rainfall, warm temperatures and mild winters. At the regional level, however, the climatic conditions are very different. In the Ionian Sea it is very hot and dry in the summer months, even at night it is usually not cooler than 20 degrees Celsius.

On average, in the region there are around 2,470 hours of sunshine per year.
The sea temperature fluctuates between 14 ° C and 25 ° C. The sea is warm enough for swimming from July to September.

In Reggio Calabria, on the west coast of Calabria, temperatures exceed 20 degrees in April and reach their annual peak of over 30 degrees in July and August. Precipitation here often goes towards zero. In October, temperatures drop to around 23 degrees Celsius, while rainfall increases significantly over the same period. By the end of the year, it can reach up to 72 millimeters.

MEDITERRANEAN CLIMATE

The climate of Calabria is generally Mediterranean, with the Ionian coast being drier and more arid than the Tyrrhenian.

Temperatures along the coasts generally never drop below 10 degrees and never rise above 40 ° C, but in inland areas in the summer months can have peaks of 42-44 ° C.

On the Apennines and inland areas, from Pollino, Sila to Aspromonte, the climate is cold continental with rigid and snowy winters. Summer is mild and there is no shortage of thunderstorms.

The daily temperature range, in winter, in the Crati valley is interesting, where abundant snowfalls can occur even at lowland altitudes.

As expected, the different climatic conditions of Calabria also favor a different vegetation, according to the areas.

AN EXTRAORDINARY VARIETY OF NATURAL ENVIRONMENTS

From sea level up to 600 meters, olive trees, holm oaks and other plants typical of the Mediterranean climate (Mediterranean scrub) predominate.

From 700 meters up to 1000 meters (plain of the low Apennine mountains), on the other hand, a typical vegetation known as transitional, such as chestnut and oak trees, grows.

From 1000 meters up (mountain level) dominate beech, silver fir and larch pine. On the Calabrian Serre the mountain plain begins, in some points, even at 800 meters.

Famous is “Bosnian pine” (Pinus heldreichii), symbol of the Pollino National Park: it lives only here, while outside Italy it can be found in the Balkans.

SUMMERS AND WINTERS

Very rarely, especially in the high areas of the cities, snowfalls can occur. However, snow is very rare, even rarer than in Messina, which is more exposed to winds from the north-east. A light snowfall, in which the beaches also turned white, occurred on December 31, 2014.

**In the thick of the vegetation of the Serre**

The cold record is 0 ° C, recorded in December 1961, February 1962, February 1973, January 1979 and March 1987.

Summer, from June to August, is hot and sunny, with very rare rains.
It is true that many Calabrian cities are located on the coast, but the region is closed between the two sides of the Strait, so there can be hot and muggy periods, especially from late July to late August, when the sea is warmer.

Furthermore, it is possible that heat waves of African origin may occur: in these cases they can touch or exceed 40 ° C, also due to a Foehn wind coming down from the mountains. For this, Reggio Calabria is one of the hottest cities in Italy.
The temperature reached 44 ° C in July 1998, 42 ° C in August 1994 (when the daily average for the whole month was 30.1 ° C), and 42 ° C in July 2007. In 2003 the temperature reached ” only “at 41 ° C, but the daily average exceeded 30 ° C in both July and August.