By Isla Quinn
Brown. Glossy. One face flat, the other bulging, like a tiny shield. That is the shape the producers’ rules describe for the marrone of the Mugello, a hill region north-east of Florence.
What the name covers
The Mugello tourist board says the chestnut received IGP status, protected geographical indication, under EEC regulation 2081/92. The page gives no year. It says the Consorzio Marrone del Mugello IGP was founded in 2007.
The production area is part of the province of Florence. The tourist board lists the whole territory of Marradi, Palazzuolo sul Senio and Dicomano, and part of Borgo San Lorenzo, Firenzuola, Londa, Rufina, San Godenzo, Scarperia e San Piero and Vicchio. Visit Tuscany, the regional tourism site, gives a similar list and adds the Sieve valley.
The trees
The groves sit on hillsides at 300 to 900 metres above sea level, says the Mugello board, and cover 3,322 hectares, with a maximum density of 120 to 160 trees per hectare. Visit Tuscany says about 3,300 hectares. Same figure, rounded. That is a lot of woodland for a nut most people meet in a paper bag.
What the nut looks like
The Mugello page describes the shelled, freshly picked marrone as oval and slightly pointed, with a tuft. One side is flat and one markedly convex. The base has a flat, lighter scar. The thin reddish-brown husk has 25 to 30 slightly darker vertical lines and comes off easily. The white pulp is crunchy and sweet, usually one nut to a fruit, with hardly any creases.
Side by side: size
- The Mugello tourist board says the marrone is medium-sized, with no more than 80 chestnuts to a kilo. Its own drying section, further down the page, says 90 chestnuts weigh over a kilo.
- Visit Tuscany describes the fresh nut in its shell as “medium-large”.
We do not pick one. The three statements may be measuring slightly different things (shelled, in shell, fresh, dried), but the pages do not say so.
The harvest
The Mugello board says the chestnuts are generally harvested and selected by hand in October and November, then graded with a revolving screen, and that the product goes on the market after 5 October. Visit Tuscany says only that the product is at its best in autumn, roasted or boiled.
Drying rooms and flour
Traditionally, the marroni are dried in metati, drying rooms, on chestnut-wood mats with moderate heat, according to the Mugello page. It gives the flour limit as no more than 30 per cent of the fresh product’s weight. Chestnut flour is described as very fine and used in sweet and savoury dishes, especially cakes and biscuits. Historically, the page says, it was made into a mush that replaced bread, and the flour was kept in chests made from a single chestnut trunk.
No chemicals or additives are used, says the same page. Preservation methods include cold-water baths, or hot then cold baths.
What you can buy it as
The Mugello board lists five market forms: freshly picked, fresh kept, dried with shell, dried without shell, and chestnut flour. Visit Tuscany says it can be eaten fresh or dried, “from castagnaccio to marron glacé”, and that chestnut wood is also an important part of local craft.
Dates in order
- Early October: the product goes on the market after 5 October, according to the Mugello tourist board.
- October and November: hand harvest and selection, according to the same page.
- 2007: the consortium is founded, according to the same page.
Our reading: the sale date sits before the harvest window closes, so a very early bag in the season and a late one may be different pickings. The sources do not say whether that matters.
Why the drying room matters
The Mugello page ties the flour to the drying room, and the flour to a food that once replaced bread. Our reading: that is why this is a chestnut with a pantry life as well as a roasting-pan life. The page gives a flour limit of 30 per cent of fresh weight and no other yield, so we offer no further arithmetic.
Questions a buyer would ask
Does IGP mean every nut was grown in the Mugello? That is what the zone rules say about the area, according to the tourist board, but the board does not describe how it is checked. Is a bigger nut better? Neither source ranks size as quality. Can I tell the marrone by eye? The Mugello page describes the flat face, the scar and the husk lines. Our reading: those are useful clues, not proof, and a label from the consortium is the better check.
What kind of sources these are
The Mugello tourist board (regional tourism site, which quotes the specification) and Visit Tuscany (regional tourism board). Neither is an independent laboratory or a regulator’s register. We did not find the register entry.
What we left out
Prices, recipes, festival dates (the Mugello page mentions none), the botany of chestnut blight, and anything about individual growers.
Quick answers
When is the Marrone del Mugello harvested? Generally in October and November, by hand, according to the Mugello tourist board.
What does the IGP area include? Part of the province of Florence in the Mugello, with Marradi, Palazzuolo sul Senio and Dicomano included in full, says the Mugello tourist board.
What is a metato? A traditional drying room where the chestnuts dry on chestnut-wood mats with moderate heat, according to the Mugello tourist board.
Related on this site: cinque-terre-liguria-terraces-dry-stone, castelluccio-lentil-igp-flowering-plain, calangianus-cork-sardinia-museum
Roam first. Shop later.