CHESTNUTS PDO

Throughout the Valtiberina and beyond the name of Caprese Michelangelo is linked to chestnuts. For the whole length of the territory, the chestnut groves overlook the valley.

The economy of Caprese was based on a combination between the cultivation of fields and the exploitation of the forest, which was used, as well as for chestnuts, as pasture for animals, for firewood or for the collection of fruits of the undergrowth (such as mushrooms). Walking through the chestnut woods you will notice ancient stone buildings, walled with earth and which date back to the Middle Ages: they are the chestnut dryers.
In them, once, for about a month, chestnuts were dried: a fire that made a lot of smoke but without flames had to be kept constantly burning. For this, at least twice a day, at sunrise and sunset, a person of the family had to go up to the squeegee; someone spent the night there directly, perhaps going, despite the darkness of the forest, to have a chat in the neighbor's dryer.
The dried chestnuts, much lighter to transport than the fresh ones (about one third) were then brought downstream to the water mills that rose along the Singerna or its tributaries to obtain flour for sweet chestnut polenta, the main food of the tables of the capresans of the past. As evidence of its value and quality, in 2009 the Caprese Michelangelo brown obtained the Protected Designation of Origin (PDO) and its production is now regulated by a strict regulation.