Granai della Memoria

Interviewed in 2010 in Terra Madre, Pietro Biongiovanni, born in 1936, retired farmer, tells to University di Studi delle Scienze Gastronomiche students the story of the "hunchbacked cardoon" tradition di Nizza Monferrato, one of the italian Slow Food Presidium.

Although cardoon cultivation has been known for centuries, this way of farming it started only in the1920', followed by a long number of trials. He lived it as a child and explains how this man-made curved plant, straight in itself, is made to grow buried, light-private but still alive, to remain white at the same time that develops the exquisite flavour and aroma that has made it so well-known.

He relates its properties and how is it traditionally eaten, both raw and cooked in so many ways. He also explains how in the last years this vegetable has become valorized and made to know thanks to Slow Food. Today its production is extended and has become emblematic of his village and its area.

It can be found a second interview of Pietro Bongiovanni in the basa date of The Granaries of Memory.