Signora pear of the Sinni valley

History and origin

In the Metapontino pear growing is documented at least from the eighteenth century, and the Statistica Murattiana, which describes the produce of the Kingdom of Naples in the early nineteenth century, records it.

Pears were part of the landscape of these hills. At the edges of cereal fields shepherds grafted wild pear trees with local ecotypes, and the fruit fed families and animals. Muscarelle, Muone, Lardere, Sciesciuu, Granete and San Giuvan are some of the local varieties; some, of high quality, were sold through middlemen as far as the Naples area until the 1950s.

Of them all, the most interesting and widespread in the Val Sinni was the Signora, or «Signura», delicate in scent and texture. With mechanisation fields grew larger and many boundary trees were cut down: the pear survived in marginal areas, where shepherds and farmers kept on grafting.

Sources: Fondazione Slow Food — Presidio Pera signora della valle del Sinni

Area and method of production

The Slow Food Presidium covers six municipalities in the province of Matera: Nova Siri, Rotondella, Valsinni, San Giorgio Lucano, Tursi and Colobraro, between the Sinni valley and the hills sloping down to the Ionian Sea.

Its aim is twofold: to protect the trees still standing, often old pear trees grafted at the edges of fields, and to encourage new plantings of the Signora pear, supporting local farming through traditional produce and its preserves.

In recent decades the areas best suited to fruit had specialised in peaches and apricots, and the pear remained tied to the practice of grafting onto wild pear stock. The Presidium aims to bring it back into orchards without losing this link with pastoral tradition. Harvest begins in July and proceeds gradually.

Sources: Fondazione Slow Food — Presidio Pera signora della valle del Sinni

How to recognise it

The Signora pear is small, weighing between 35 and 60 grams. At harvest the skin is yellow, and as it ripens further it is flushed with deep red streaks. The flesh is white and, when the fruit is ripe, very fragrant.

It is eaten freshly picked or preserved: in syrup, as jam or dried. Thanks to these preparations, and to storage, it can be found all year, although picking starts in July and continues gradually.

Its delicate scent and texture are what made it, among the many local pear varieties, the most prized and widespread in the Val Sinni, where it once grew on grafted trees at the edges of the grain fields.

Sources: Fondazione Slow Food — Presidio Pera signora della valle del Sinni

Where to taste it

The Signora pear is found in the six municipalities of the Presidium, in the province of Matera: Nova Siri and Rotondella, near the Ionian coast, and Valsinni, San Giorgio Lucano, Tursi and Colobraro, along the Sinni valley and its hills.

Summer is when the trees bear fruit, from July; pears in syrup, jams and dried pears make it possible to taste it for the rest of the year.

An itinerary through these villages links the Metapontino coast with the Sinni hinterland and reveals a farming landscape where old pear trees at field edges still tell the story of the shepherds who grafted them.

Sources: Fondazione Slow Food — Presidio Pera signora della valle del Sinni

Protection

• Slow Food Presidium — pera-signora-della-valle-del-sinni (Fondazione Slow Food — Presidio Pera signora della valle del Sinni)

When

• The sources consulted give no months.

Where

Basilicata