APULICA / FRUIT, VEGETABLES AND PULSES
Terranova friars' plum
Slow Food Presidium · Fruit, vegetables and pulses · Calabria
In brief
- A traditional plum from the Gioia Tauro plain, grown in Terranova Sappo Minulio, Molochio and Varapodio, said to have been selected by monks in the 16th century. (Fondazione Slow Food — Presidio Pruna di frati di Terranova)
- It has a thin green-yellow skin covered in bloom and firm, very sweet flesh that comes away from the stone. (Fondazione Slow Food — Presidio Pruna di frati di Terranova)
- It ripens all at once and is picked early in the morning; it is eaten fresh, sun-dried or as jam. (Fondazione Slow Food — Presidio Pruna di frati di Terranova)
History and origin
The pruna di frati is a traditional plum from the foothills of the Aspromonte in the Gioia Tauro plain, in the upper basin of the Marro river. According to tradition it is an ecotype selected in the sixteenth century by the Benedictine Celestine monks living in the monasteries of the old Duchy of Terranova: hence its name, the friars' plum.
As early as 1691 Father Giovanni Fiore da Cropani, in his work "Della Calabria illustrata", mentioned the plums "called of the friars", which he described as very noble and delicate.
For centuries the plum survived in mixed orchards, thanks to older farmers who passed on how to grow and propagate it. In 2024 the Region entered it in the regional register of agricultural biodiversity, ARSAC devoted a booklet to its cultivation, and today it is a Slow Food Presidium, also featured among the Calabrian Presidia at Terra Madre Salone del Gusto 2026.
Sources: Fondazione Slow Food — Presidio Pruna di frati di Terranova · ARSAC — Registro regionale della biodiversità agraria della Calabria · ARSAC — La coltivazione delle Prugne di Terranova 'I Prùna di Frati', opuscolo divulgativo · ARSAC — La Calabria a Terra Madre Salone del Gusto 2026
Area and method of production
The pruna di frati is grown in Terranova Sappo Minulio, Molochio and Varapodio, in Reggio Calabria province. Almost every family in the area has a few trees scattered among olive groves, citrus orchards, vegetable gardens and along property boundaries.
It is propagated from the most vigorous suckers that spring up naturally from the stumps of ungrafted trees. The tree needs little water and grows well even on the steepest ground, where its wide, deep roots help hold the soil. Presidium growers farm it following agroecological principles, with traditional, sustainable methods.
Ripening is very concentrated, in July, and the plums must be picked quickly, early in the morning, taking care not to rub off the bloom that protects them: without it they spoil. Selling must be just as fast. ARSAC keeps the variety at its experimental centres in Gioia Tauro and San Marco Argentano.
Sources: Fondazione Slow Food — Presidio Pruna di frati di Terranova · ARSAC — Registro regionale della biodiversità agraria della Calabria
How to recognise it
The fruits are medium-sized and elongated, with a thin greenish-yellow skin that, when fully ripe, takes on a slight red-violet blush. They are covered by a thick layer of bloom, which must be carefully protected during picking.
The flesh is firm, not very juicy, and comes cleanly away from the stone. The taste is very sweet and aromatic, with a slight tart aftertaste.
The regional register classifies the pruna di frati as Prunus domestica and rates it at high risk of genetic erosion: one more reason to seek it out in its short ripening season.
Sources: Fondazione Slow Food — Presidio Pruna di frati di Terranova · ARSAC — Registro regionale della biodiversità agraria della Calabria
In the kitchen
The pruna di frati is eaten mainly fresh. Very sweet and aromatic, with firm, not very juicy flesh that comes cleanly off the stone and a slight tart aftertaste, it is a fruit to eat as it is, freshly picked on July mornings.
Besides fresh, it is excellent dried in the sun or made into jam: two ways to enjoy it after its short season. The fruit has come down to us thanks to local families, almost all of whom have a few trees among their olive groves and gardens, and to older farmers who passed on how to grow and propagate it.
Sources: Fondazione Slow Food — Presidio Pruna di frati di Terranova
Where to taste it
The pruna di frati is found in the villages of the Gioia Tauro plain at the foot of the Aspromonte: Terranova Sappo Minulio, Molochio and Varapodio, in the upper Marro valley. The season is short and falls in July, when the plums are picked at dawn and must be sold within days.
It is a landscape of olive groves, citrus orchards and vegetable gardens where plum trees grow scattered, often at the edges of fields, and where the old monasteries of the Duchy of Terranova gave this fruit its name.
The Tyrrhenian coast of Reggio is close by: a summer trip to Scilla and the Costa Viola can head inland into the plain to taste a fruit found almost only where it grows.
Sources: Fondazione Slow Food — Presidio Pruna di frati di Terranova
Protection
- Slow Food Presidium — pruna-di-frati-di-terranova (Fondazione Slow Food — Presidio Pruna di frati di Terranova)