The Bio Calabrian Corn: Jermanu

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.

Ancient and Bio

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.

Healthy benefits from Jermanu bread

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.

Vitaminic

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.

suitable for food intolerances

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.

Those who eat chilli live longer! Here are all the reasons…

09.02.2022

EATING CHILI PEPPER CAN EXTEND YOUR LIFE!

This is the conclusion of a maxi-study that monitored the eating habits of nearly 500,000 people in China for seven years.

This was revealed by a Chinese study of 500,000 people between 35 and 79 years old. EATING chili peppers can extend your life by many years. The international team of researchers, led by the Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences, found that those who ate spicy foods once or twice a week were able to reduce the risk of mortality by 10%.

Those who added spices to their meals three to seven times a week could count on a risk of mortality reduced by as much as 14%. A benefit probably associated with the high content of capsaicin, vitamin C and other nutrients contained in these ingredients.

Different kind of chili peppers

The research, published in the British Medical Journal, examined people aged 35 to 79 from 10 different geographical areas of China. Participants were asked what type of spice they consumed most often and how often. Chilli, widely used in China, was the most frequent response.

After all, observes the researcher Nita Forouhi , of the University of Cambridge, many of the virtues of chili pepper – and in particular of capsaicin , the alkaloid that is responsible for its spiciness – are known: from anti-oxidants to anti-inflammatory and even anti-cancer.

Experts, for now, are cautious; the study was only ‘observational’ and, therefore, requires technical insights to recommend a change in eating style. “Further research is needed to establish whether the consumption of spicy food can directly improve health and reduce the mortality rate, or if it is just an external sign of other factors affecting dietary habits and lifestyle.”, they specify.

Chili peppers are healthy

THE BEST CHILLI IN THE WORLD IS IN CALABRIA!!!

Scientific confirmation arrives. Great taste and also good for your health. It is also the spiciest (among the good ones).

The Italian and Calabrian chili in particular, is not only a product of great taste but is also good for health (but as with all things, even if good, abuses must be avoided).

Chilli is rich in provitamin A and vitamin C and has antiseptic, digestive and vasodilatory properties. Recent studies have shown that it also contributes to reducing the sense of hunger and as regards the spiciness , the maximum is offered by the Calabrian cigarette.

The Italian agri-food research body, CREA, studied the effect of genotype, environment and conservation treatment on the content of genotypes grown in three sites (Montanaso Lombardo, Monsampolo del Tronto and Battipaglia) important compounds from a nutritional and sensorial point of view.

The different genotypes did not generally respond uniformly in the different environments, highlighting, for these characters, a significant interaction with the cultivation environment.

Calabrian chili peppers “diavolicchio”

The Calabrian cigarette genotype has always shown the maximum values of capsaicinoids, responsible for both the spiciness (52000-85000 degrees Scoville in the freeze-dried fresh product and 38000-86000 in the dried one) and for many of the beneficial properties of chilli.

Always with a view to enhancing typical products, Crea Agriculture and Environment has succeeded with innovative methods in discriminating the production areas of the Calabrese Cigarette cultivar.

This so precious food will now be enhanced by Crea, which is completing Pepic “Hot pepper supply chain: research interventions for the choice of varieties and for the innovation of cultural processes”, a project activated at the request of the Chilli supply chain table and financed by the ministry for Agricultural, Food and Forestry Policies, through Ismea , precisely to promote a product chain of superior quality, innovative, integrated and competitive.

Chilli challenge

The analyzes showed how chillies tend to stand out on the basis of both the other types on the market (sweet and ornamental) and their geographical origin. In particular, the Italian pepper has differentiated genetically from that coming from the Americas and Asia. Let’s eat chilli for a long and healthy life!