Looking for Blue Berry(mirtillo) growers in Tuscany. Anyone know of any?

D

Dingeryote

Member
Kinda unusual, I know, but the region has the soil type and conditions that would favor mirtillo as well as wine grapes.

The wife and I are Blueberry growers, and we are going to be visiting Tuscany in October, so I'd like to compare notes, variety's, practices, and that sort of thing, but just getting eyes on how others are doing things would be nice.

Doing some internet searching, there is a dearth of info on Mirtillo production in Italy, in general.
I figured if anyone is growing them, it's gotta be in Tuscany...and that's how I found this wonderful resource.
 
Blueberries in Tuscany

Blueberries in Tuscany are usually classified as a frutto sottobosco or Frutti di bosco (which is a mix of blue berries, raspberrie, black berries and wild strawberries) - which means a forest fruit, they are normally pretty small....but delicious all the same. Actually, I believe you will find more fat and juicy blueberry growers in the north of Italy towards the Trentino area (I was just on vacation and they were everywhere: blueberry juice, jams, grappa, ecc.)

However, I do know that there are several small cultivaters, located more towards the hilly almost mountainous areas of Tuscany - in fact many are Bio farmers.

Check out these sites:

http://www.tuscanfarm.com/en/philosophy

http://www.agriturismosanniccolo.it/prodotti.php?lang=en

This site is in Italian so you will need to translate it but it talks about blueberries (mirtilli) in the Pistoia area: http://www.terraditoscana.com/defau...cina_prodotti&obj=verdura_mirtillonero&loc=en

And they also hold a blueberry festival in Abetone (the mountains right above Pistoia): again it is in Italian but you can translate it online http://iltirreno.gelocal.it/pistoia/cronaca/2014/07/30/news/torna-il-festival-del-mirtillo-1.9681652

Buon viaggio!
 
Donna,

Grazie' Mille!!!!!!!!!!!

You are a treasure trove of good info!!!

That is exactly what I was looking for, and you probably just explained why I couldn't find anything under Mirtillo.

If you get to the States in July through August, stop in so I can load you up with some of ours...I owe you at least a couple 10 pounders for the help!!!

Thank you again!!!

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beautiful blueberries Dingeryote!
as I read your post, I was thinking of the "montagna pistoiese" as that is where I see most of the blueberries at the supermarket come from. the area is also called "Apennino Tosco-Romagnolo", it is definitely mountain area. in the summer, many go to the mountains along the trails to pick all the wild berries, including raspberries and blackberries, eating their fill and filling baskets to make jam. mine never make it home ;) ... but I've yet to see blueberries growing wild. In any case, they are quite small as Donna already mentioned.
 
Thank you Lourdes!!

I looked up the regional info, and the "Mirtillo" is actually a different species Vaccinium Myrtillus, than Blueberrys, Vaccinium Corymbosum. Mirtillo are cousins of our wild Huckleberys, and the brits Bilberrys.
We get the same cross naming and confusion here LOL!!

The one farm I did find that is cultivating Blueberrys, was Natuagri in San Giorgio Lucano, and it appears they grow in solar houses.:confused:

With the Olive harvest starting, and truffels coming in, I might just forget about Blueberrys for a couple weeks. Fresh Olives are something we never see, or get to enjoy here.;)

Perhaps, if an interested Farmer was willing to try, I could spend an extra week, and get them started cultivating Blueberrys. I would work for Olives and water LOL!!

Thank you again for the help and direction!
 
Jersey Shore

As a child my family lived near the Jersey Shore and I remember summers filled with blueberry jam, real blueberry pie, blueberry muffins and fresh blueberries on my cereal...those photos just made my mouth water!!!

Thanks!
 
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