The Brown of the Mugello is a Protected Geographical Indication (IGP) present in the national list approved by the Ministry of Agriculture Food and Forestry, the requirements of which are regulated by the production discipline of the Tuscany Region.

Features

The Brown of Mugello comes from a series of ecotypes currently indicated by the name of the locality and/or Municipality of origin but all traceable to the Florentine Brown variety.

The fruits that are named Brown of Mugello have the following characteristics in common:
– number of fruits per hedgehog (or thistle) in no case greater than three;
– medium-coarse size (no more than 80 fruits/kg.), with tolerance of 10% more in case of unfavorable vintages;
– predominantly ellipsis shape, little pronounced apex with presence of tomento: usually one side face tends to be flat, the other markedly convex;
– larhae scar (base) of a significantly rectangular shape of such size as not to overflow on the lateral faces, generally flat and lighter in color than the pericarp;
– thin pericarpo of reddish brown color with streaks in the meridian direction, detected and darker, in numbers ranging from 25 to 30. It is easily detached from the episperm, which is “chamois” and poorly invaginated;
– the seed, usually one per fruit, is white, crisp and pleasantsweet with a surface almost devoid of grooves; very limited fruits with split seed (set).

Cultivation

The fruit chestnuts intended for the production of the Brown Mugello must be in environmental conditions and must be conducted with culture techniques that give the product the specific quality characteristics.
Chestnuts located from 300 to 900 meters above the ground on land with hydging, exposure, and suitable pedological characteristics are to be considered suitable.
The density of the plants, the forms of breeding and pruning and harvesting systems, as well as the propagation, exclusively athemic, must be those generally used in the area or, in any case, to not change the characteristics of typical fruits.
Any administration of synthetic fertilizers and pesticides is prohibited in production plants.

The production yield is determined in a maximum of 15 kg. of fruits per plant and in Kg. 1500 per hectare. Even in exceptionally favourable years, the above production ceilings will have to be met. The number of plants in production per hectare cannot exceed 120 units in the old plants and 160 units in the new plants.

The sorting, calibration, treatment of the product with “care” in cold water and with sterilization and according to the techniques already acquired by the local tradition, as well as packaging, must be carried out on the territory of the Community Montana Zone “E” High Mugello Mugello Val di Sieve.

The fresh product can be fed to consumption from 5 October of the year for the purposes of marketing the product can be stored, to grade its sale, in production.