In the heart of the Madonie mountains, in Gangi, the ancient grains of the Cooperativa Madre Terra

With its golden rolling hills and wave-crested seas in the summer this is the essential Sicily. In the heart of the Madonie mountains, in Gangi, you can go looking for ancient grains thanks to the first sensory-didactic path. A trip to the ancient granary of Italy coincides with the rediscovery of the cultivations of Nero delle Madonie, a grain with a low gluten index, that had almost completely disappeared. There are also the Timilia and Mallorca varieties – grains that the Greeks knew about and the Romans used to cultivate, that were abandoned for decades and replaced by the genetically modified ones. Visitors who are driven by quality will love the jewels of the Sicilian earth found here.

Today the ancient flours are at the new frontier of gourmet food, each with a different organoleptic quality. The identity of the territory and the high standard of product quality, using only certified ingredients, artisan production processes, is coupled with a commitment to maintain the purity of the seed and its production, using techniques that date back a thousand years.

In Gangi, it is possible to organise a real tour that starts from the production ground all the way to the enhancement of the entire production chain, from the planting to the milling of the grains, and to the production of finished products, such as flour, pasta, bread and biscuits.

The initiative belongs to Cooperativa Madre Terra, of Contrada Piano, and the idea comes from a young farmer, Giuseppe Dongarrà, who converted the land of the family farm. The sensory journey begins with a visit to an experimental field, where you can touch the 20 types of ancient grains of different varieties, such as Maiorca, Priziusa, Russsello Ibleo, Trigu Biancu Sardo, Senatore Cappelli, Realforte, Ruscia, Nero delle Madonie, etc.

The next step is the harvest of the grain and its transformation, from the milling with natural stones comes a whole meal flour, and at a later stage, it is possible to taste genuine products, from bread to pasta to the sweets prepared on site with the whole meal flour.