By Porter Lang
Pick up a jar that says “di Bronte” and you are holding the result of a calendar. Not a long one, but an odd one. According to the Il Post newspaper, the pistachio of Bronte is harvested every two years, and only in odd years. This is 2026. There is no harvest this autumn. The next, on that rule, falls in 2027, which is our reading of the article’s wording.
Where the name applies
The Qualigeo database, which lists protected European products, gives the production area as three towns in the province of Catania, Sicily: Bronte, Adrano and Biancavilla. The trees grow mainly on volcanic lava soil. The Bronte consortium says the groves, which it calls “lochi”, sit on steep and hard-to-cross ground, and that this raises labour costs and the risk of fruit scattering into the rocks. The Wikipedia article on Bronte puts the town at 760 metres, about 16 kilometres west-northwest of Mount Etna, on the side of the Simeto valley, with a population of 19,074 in April 2017.
What the tree and the nut are
Qualigeo describes the product as Pistacia vera, cultivar Napoletana, also called Bianca or Nostrale. The nut is elongated, slightly flattened and about the size of an olive, with an emerald-green kernel under a ruby-red skin and a strong aroma. Qualigeo says the DOP product is not roasted or salted. The main rootstock is terebinth, onto which the cultivar is grafted. The consortium says a grafted plant starts producing about ten years later.
The harvest, step by step
Il Post says harvesting is done by hand, from late August to late September. The consortium describes workers picking from the trees, shaking branches onto cloths, or using an upside-down umbrella, with family members of all ages taking part. It then says the fruit is separated from its hull and dried in the sun for three to four days outside farmhouses. Cooperatives or local traders remove the woody shell mechanically, and the shelled nuts are dried for a further two to three days before storage.
How much does one tree give? The consortium says 5 to 15 kilograms of dried fruit, with a maximum of 20 to 30 kilograms. Timing moves with the weather. The Qualivita foundation, which promotes protected foods, reported that the 2023 harvest was about two weeks late because of June weather, and that in 2017 it had begun on 24 August.
Side by side
- DOP date. Il Post says the pistachio received DOP status in 2009. Qualigeo gives a registration date of 12 January 2010.
- Quantity. Il Post says about 2,000 tonnes of DOP pistachio were produced in 2023, a little over one per cent of global production. The consortium says more than 30,000 quintals are harvested in a harvest year, about 1 per cent of world production. Thirty thousand quintals is 3,000 tonnes by our arithmetic. The figures may describe different years or different things, and none of the sources says which.
- Land. The consortium says Bronte covers about 25,000 hectares, with almost 4,000 hectares of lava soil planted with pistachio groves. Il Post gives no hectare figure.
How far back it goes
The consortium’s history page says Pliny the Elder reports a Roman governor introducing the plant to Spain and Italy around 20 to 30 AD, and that cultivation spread to Sicily. It says the Arabs, who landed at Marsala in 827, began grafting pistachios, and that the Sicilian words “frastuca” and “frastucara” are said to derive from Arabic. The slopes of Etna became the plant’s favoured home.
A name used loosely
Il Post makes a point worth knowing before you buy. It says far more products are marketed as Bronte pistachio than the harvest could supply, and quotes a journalist’s sarcastic estimate that the planted area would have to be as large as Greenland. Il Post gives no figure for how much is sold under the name. The practical reading, ours and not the paper’s: look for the DOP wording on the label, not only the town’s name.
Dates in order
- 20 to 30 AD: pistachio introduced to Italy, according to the consortium, citing Pliny.
- 827: Arabs land at Marsala, according to the consortium.
- 2000: 60 per cent of the crop lost to bad weather, according to the consortium.
- 2009 or 12 January 2010: DOP, according to Il Post or Qualigeo.
- 2017: harvest begins 24 August, according to Qualivita.
- 2023: harvest two weeks late, according to Qualivita.
- 2027: next harvest year, on the odd-year rule (our reading).
What kind of sources these are
The consortium (the producers’ own body, promotional), Qualivita (a foundation promoting protected foods), Qualigeo (a database of protected products), Il Post (an Italian news site) and Wikipedia. We did not read the registration document itself.
What we left out
Recipes, nutrition claims, prices, the number of growers, and the names of any producers. We also left out a producer’s blog on why the tree bears in alternate years, which we could not open.
Quick answers
How often is the Bronte pistachio harvested? Every two years, in odd years, according to Il Post and the Qualivita foundation, by hand from late August to late September.
Where can DOP Bronte pistachio come from? Bronte, Adrano and Biancavilla in the province of Catania, according to the Qualigeo database.
Is the DOP pistachio roasted or salted? No. According to Qualigeo, the protected product is not roasted or salted.
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Roam first. Shop later.