The first jam we made was milk-flavoured; since then more than thirty years have passed, but the passion for making jams has never diminished. And here I am today, together with my daughter with a small workshop that we started when we bought a farmhouse surrounded by 3 hectares of land in Cesinali, near Avellino, that we called:
“Il Poggio del Picchio”
We started by planting trees of ancient fruit, whose flavours had been lost for a long time but not in our childhood memories, when my mum prepared delicious jams with quince, pears and concord grapes.
We produce jams with the aim of re-discover the old flavours of (native) fruits such as “Limoncella” and “Chianella” apples, “Mastantuono” and “Vixen” pears, wild plums and many other fruits ignored by industrial agricolture because of theirlow productive volumes and their unattractive appearance!
So, starting from here, for fun and with audacity, we found ourself transforming into jams products like the “Ramata di Montoro” onion, so-called for its coppard coloured skin, hot chilli peppers from Calabria Region and Sicilian aubergines, all grown with water, sun and lots of passion.
The tradition of preserving what nature offers is an ancient art that we have tried to evolve by extending our production to several vegetables: we give them a new life by exalting their flavours with some sugar and spices. These jams can easily be matched with soft and seasoned, mild or hot cheese and with roasted and braised meats.
Some time ago, a journalist closed her interview with a comment that I liked very much and I would like to share with you here:
“…what successfully inspires Fiorenza is the natural inclination of her soul that drives her to think to the days to come as new days to realize something beautiful” and delicious…may I add!
Fiorenza Giselico