Honeys of the L'Aquila Apennines

History and origin

About 30 per cent of Abruzzo is protected by parks and nature reserves, and on the Apennines many beekeepers practise migratory beekeeping, moving their hives from one protected area to another. Low-impact farming and herding and a wealth of wild plants, far from intensive agriculture, make it possible to produce honey of excellent quality.

In the area of the Gran Sasso, the Laga and the Sirente Velino massif, all in the province of L'Aquila, two single-flower honeys have emerged from the most typical herbs of these mountains: winter savory and ironwort, alongside a high-altitude wildflower honey.

The Slow Food Presidium aims to preserve and grow this production, characterising area by area the honeys produced above 850 metres in parks and protected areas, with technical support from the Gran Sasso and Monti della Laga National Park. In 2015 the beekeepers founded an association to protect and promote them.

Sources: Fondazione Slow Food — Presidio Mieli dell'Appennino aquilano · Parco Nazionale del Gran Sasso e Monti della Laga — Associazione Produttori Mieli Particolari dell'Appennino abruzzese

Area and method of production

The three honeys are made in the mountains around L'Aquila, from 850 metres up. For the single-flower honeys two suitable areas have been identified: the L'Aquila side of the Gran Sasso for winter savory and the Marsica area of the Sirente Velino for ironwort.

Winter savory (Satureja montana) and ironwort (Sideritis syriaca) belong to the mint family and grow on dry meadows and limestone soils up to 1300 and 1500 metres. Their flowering follows in sequence: ironwort from May to July, winter savory from July to September. Savory honey is rare and irregular, but in some areas, the Gran Sasso above all, the harvest is significant.

The wildflower honey is made all summer on the mountain pastures. Above 850 metres flowering species increase sharply, from about 80 in spring to over 130 in summer: grasses, rockroses, mints, white clover, bramble, poppies, sainfoin, bird's-foot trefoil and, in late summer, ivy and wild asparagus.

Sources: Fondazione Slow Food — Presidio Mieli dell'Appennino aquilano

How to recognise it

Winter savory honey is light amber, yellow-green when liquid and grey-green when it crystallises. It crystallises quickly, into very fine crystals that give it a soft, pleasant texture in the mouth.

Ironwort honey is instead very pale, stays liquid for a long time and has a lightly floral scent that carries through to the taste.

The mountain wildflower honey changes with the seasons: delicate and floral in spring, bolder in the late harvests, with distinctive aromas from the great variety of high-altitude flowers.

Sources: Fondazione Slow Food — Presidio Mieli dell'Appennino aquilano

In the kitchen

Guides suggest tasting them with Abruzzo cheeses, especially Castel del Monte canestrato and Farindola pecorino, both Slow Food Presidia: the sweetness of mountain honey meets the savouriness of the Gran Sasso pecorinos.

Tasting them side by side is the best way to grasp their differences: savory, crystallised in a fine, soft grain; ironwort, pale and liquid, with a floral hint; and wildflower, delicate in spring and bolder at the end of summer.

The ironwort plant, found throughout central Italy and sometimes mistaken for nettle, is also used as a decongestant.

Sources: Italia.it — Prodotti e piatti tipici abruzzesi: la guida · Fondazione Slow Food — Presidio Mieli dell'Appennino aquilano

Where to taste it

These honeys come from the mountains around L'Aquila: the L'Aquila side of the Gran Sasso, the Monti della Laga and the Sirente Velino. The Gran Sasso and Monti della Laga National Park counts honey among the leading products of its basket and has published a honey map of the park.

A trip to L'Aquila and the Gran Sasso villages, such as Santo Stefano di Sessanio, leads straight into savory-honey country. Climbing to Campo Imperatore, the great plateau between 1600 and 2100 metres, you cross the flowering pastures that yield the high-altitude wildflower honey.

The flowering that gives these honeys runs from May, with ironwort, to September, with the last of the savory: the season when the mountain pastures are at their most colourful.

Sources: Fondazione Slow Food — Presidio Mieli dell'Appennino aquilano · Parco Nazionale del Gran Sasso e Monti della Laga — I prodotti del Parco · Parco Nazionale del Gran Sasso e Monti della Laga — Associazione Produttori Mieli Particolari dell'Appennino abruzzese · Italia.it — Campo Imperatore

Protection

• Slow Food Presidium — mieli-dellappennino-aquilano (Fondazione Slow Food — Presidio Mieli dell'Appennino aquilano)

When

• The sources consulted give no months.

Where

Abruzzo