The Lentils of Castelluccio

Italia Slow Tour in Umbria! We meet some people who are harvesting the lentils of Castelluccio. The lentil of Castelluccio is a PGI product and is famous as a curative product, high in iron and protein.

Harvesting and separating of the lentils from the straw is an hard work still today, how does it work?

 

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Video full text: The lentils of Castelluccio

There are people over there who are harvesting the lentils.
I wanted to go to Castelluccio.
I’m going to the lentils,
and I’m going to Castelluccio!

Once upon a time farming produced everything here.
All those products needed to survive.
But then you began to specialise in lentils.
And for forty years now the main crop has been precisely the lentil.
Because it is that which produces the greatest return.
The lentil of Castelluccio is a PGI product and is famous.
It has one distinguishing feature: it is very high in iron and protein, which other lentils are not.
It’s not just the PGI, because anyone who is a familiar with this product also knows it is curative.
Let’s go and take a closer look at the lentil.
I have only ever seen it in soups, and it looked quite lovely!
Here it is. At first sight it looks like a weed!
That’s the lovely thing about the lentil.
There it is, I can see it, and it’s tiny!
So now you’ve put it into that machine.
The classic threshing machine.
In the olden days they used to use these sifters.
This was in order to separate the lentils from the straw.
This, on the other hand, was used exclusively by women.
Turning the sifter in this way would create a wad of larger, dirty waste in the middle.
Perhaps women have a hip movement that is different to ours.
It’s true! You move all the lentils around
and the bits of waste end up all together in the middle.
I have tried so many times, but I just can’t get the hang of it.
Excuse me dear lady, can I try?
The left hand doesn’t move, whilst the right turns.
It really doesn’t work!
Just a bit. It’s incredible.
Just like the Gulf Current in the Atlantic Ocean,
that manages to gather together all the rubbish in one single location.
See, what a little pile?
How lovely!