PAT Toscana

Bigliolo Bean

The Bean of Bigliolo is a Traditional Agricultural Product (PAT) on the national list approved by the Ministry of Agriculture And Forestry, whose requirements are regulated by the production discipline of the Tuscany Region.

Features

The Bigliolo bean has a thin skin and a very tender paste; therefore it is extremely digestible and delicate.
It has a sweet taste and a meaty texture.
The shape of the pod can be straight or slightly arched, with dimensions of 10-12 cm.
The seed has cream white color slightly streaked with red.

It is produced in June and July.

The varieties of bean grown in Bigliolo belong to both the borlotto and the cannellino type.
The seed is preserved from year to year and is reproduced by the companies themselves, so that over time a great heritage of biodiversity has remained intact.

Variety

The main cultivated varieties are: the rod, the Borgliolo borlotto, the whitewash and the “two faces”.

The rod is a small bean, with a slightly rounded shape, with intense violet streaks and a variegated cream bottom of purple.
The pod has red-pink streaks that cover it almost entirely.
It is the most sought after bean for the delicacy of taste and very thin skin.

The Bigliolo borlotto has an elongated shape, slightly crushed with intense wine streaks and a larger size than the rod.
It is mainly used for the preparation of excellent soups.

The whitehast has a small size (even smaller than the rod), egg shape and light cream white color.
The pod has a uniform color, creamy white, tending to green.
It is a bean with a sweet and delicate taste; its excellent features are enhanced when used as a side dish: boiled in water and accompanied by extra virgin olive oil of Lunigiana.

The “two-sided” is medium-sized, crushed and slightly elongated in shape and has, starting from the eye, a variegation colored on a cream background.
The pod is creamy white and is very thin.
It is used boiled and in soups to enhance its natural flavor.

Cultivation

The sowing of the bean is traditionally done on the “restuffpia” of the grain, starting to work the soil only after the harvesting of the cereal in the period from 23 to 30 June, that is, from St. John to St. Peter.

The plants grow lush in double rows supported by branches of cerro, hazel and ash, the so-called “poles”, collected during the winter; so in the period of bean cultivation the countryside takes on a particular aspect.
The fertilization is exclusively organic, irrigation by sliding.

The Bigliolo bean owes its typical ity and its exceptional qualities to the production technique, to the particular local varieties of bean, to the favorable soil conditions, climate and irrigation water not hard. Bigliolo is located in a valley oriented to the south, very sunny, sheltered from the winds of sunset from the first mountains of the Apennine; it has a very fertile floodground, well drained and poor in calcium.
This feature, combined with the use of irrigation water, by their nature not harsh, gives the bean of Bigliolo a very thin and almost imperceptible skin, a very sweet taste and an extreme tenderness of the pasta, much more pronounced than those of beans produced elsewhere.

History and curiosity

In ancient times it was sown along the waterways.
It was only as the practice of irrigation, as water flowed through the furrow, that production increased.

Beans were an important food in both the homes of the poor and those of the rich.

The product is used, in the culinary tradition of the place, in many dishes, all, usually, accompanied by local red wine: sausages and beans, chained polenta, bean soup with toast, minestrone.

Part of the product is destined for self-consumption, the rest is sold.
The marketing of the bean takes place mainly in the area for direct sale, but a part is also intended for non-local wholesalers and distributors who sell it in Tuscany and the rest of Italy.

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