“Pomodoro Stella” (Star Tomato).
Star tomato, also called “morianese”, is well structured and lightly flattened, and intensely red. This type of tomato is very tasty and  has a good consistency, and its original shape and rich taste make it widely popular. It is good when eaten fresh on bread. It is also good for the preparation of tasty tomato purees, as it is not watery and has a persistent smell. A long time ago, after the harvest, we used to pack the tomatoes in wicker baskets and stockpile them in byres on straw.     

“La patata white” (White Potato). This white potato, grown near Cutigliano, is round shaped and lightly flattened. It is white with a smooth peel, it has average dimensions, delicate taste, floury consistency and a high content of starch and phosphorus . The product is grown at an altitude of more the 1000mt, is not chemically processed and this makes its taste unique.

“Grano Marzolo” (March Wheat)
This type of wheat is characterized by a light colored, thick and tall straw, its ear, which is prickly, and by the regular shape of its grain. Wheat is sown in March (this is the reason of its name) and harvested in September. Manual tools are used for the harvest and after this, the typical “mannucci” (sheaves of wheat) are obtained.  The  threshing is done with a suitable wooden machine. Wheat is kept in wooden boxes and stone ground, it is used to produce bread, to prepare the popular Tortello (square pasta parcel with a savory filling), and above all not to lose the tradition and the variety of the grain.  

HONEY
Honey is a food which bees produce using flower nectar or secretions of living parts of plants, that bees gather, transform and mix with their own substances and deposit in their honeycombs.
Within the beehive several exchanges between bees take place. Such exchanges let the honey ripen and mix with enzymes that come from bees’ glandular secretions. Acacia honey, millefiori honey , chestnut honey  and honeydew are the types of honey which it is easy to find in the Pistoia uncontaminated mountains. All these types of honey have a strong taste and flavor to discover and enjoy together with different types of ripened pecorino cheese made with the uncooked milk coming from mountains.   

Sorana bean 
Pearl-like, small and with a very thin skin, Sorana beans are grown in small plots of land along the stream Pescia called ghiareti: a territory which is about 660 Hectares large along both sides of the stream Pescia of Pontito for about 4,5 Km among the villages of Stiappa, Castelvecchio and Sorana. A long time ago the area was called “Valleriana” , “area rich of streams”, because of the number of rivulets which flew into the stream Pescia. Different elements have made this type of bean widely popular over the years because of its tastiness: an optimum altitude, between 200 and 750 mt above sea level, the abundance of non-calcareous water, a good percentage of air humidity, a good exposure to sunlight, and well drained, sandy and loose soils. Beans were imported from America together with corn, and unlike potatoes and tomatoes, were accepted without suspicion and prejudice. It  used to be a summer cultivation which needed a big quantity of water, as it is in case of vegetables. In Tuscany, the farming became widespread because it was a profitable way to exploit the “nuove terre” (new lands), that is to say all reclaimed and cultivated lands between the 16th and 17th century. In the area of Sorana, the  bean was the characteristic product of the small plots along the streams, or between ditches and knolls which were protected from floods by  low walls and canalizations.
The fame of this variety of bean has been documented since the days of Gioacchino Rossini, who knew and liked Sorana beans. In a letter to a friend, Giovanni Pacini from Pescia, Rossini explicitly asked the rare and valuable legume as recompense for the revision of some scores. From Napoleon on, in the 19th century some paper factories were built and the workers-farmers continued, together with those who were full time farmers, to cultivate their beans. Nowadays Sorana beans are promoted by Slow Food and the producers in the area, in order to avoid the imitation, have a common logo to mark the packs.

 
Ponte di Castelvecchio, Sorana – Pescia (Pistoia), Phone number 0572-407014- Booking is advisable on Saturday and Sunday-Closed on Monday evening and Tuesday