Caraglio Heirloom Garlic

Slow Food Presidium

Italy

Piedmont

Vegetables and vegetable preserves

Back to the archive >
Caraglio Heirloom Garlic

The area around the small mountain foothill town of Caraglio in the Grana Valley has long been particularly suited to the cultivation of garlic. Thanks to the proximity of the Alps, the winters are cold and snowy, while the springs and summers are cool and breezy. This microclimate gives the garlic a delicate flavor (when cooked, but also raw) and makes it easy to digest.
The garlic is sown in autumn and the plants are cultivated according to traditional techniques, tended by hand, with no synthetic chemicals and a three-year rotation with legumes (like lentils and beans), grains (like Ottofile corn and barbarià, an intercropping of rye and wheat used in the past by farmers to make a particular flour) and other crops (like potatoes and cabbage). The soil is fertilized with cattle manure.
The plant is vigorous and hardy. The bulb is small (20-60 mm) with tapered cloves and wine-red streaks. After the harvest, the bulbs are dried on racks and then packaged, all by hand.
Heritage Caraglio garlic has delicate perfumes and aromas, which are echoed on the palate. Its flavor persistence makes it the ideal ingredient in typical Piedmontese dishes like soma d’aj (bruschetta with country bread, garlic, extra-virgin olive oil and salt), bagna cauda (a garlic and anchovy dipping sauce) and bagnetto verde (green sauce).

Season

Heritage Caraglio garlic is harvested on feast day of Saint John the Baptist, June 24. It is ready to be consumed after at least 40 days of drying.

Back to the archive >
Popular sayings, like the rhyme “a Caraj l'an piantà j aj j an nen bagnaj, j aj sun seccaj” (“in Caraglio they planted garlic, but they didn’t water it and the garlic dried out”) testify to the ancient connection between the town and garlic cultivation. This tradition, however, was interrupted around the 1950s. Caraglio also has two garlic festivals, one on the third Sunday in November and one on June 23, St John’s Eve, during which the producers present the harvest and give a head of garlic to recently born babies to bring them luck.
In the past few years, thanks to a small local consortium, cultivation has been revived, but only recently have the producers been able to recover the original ecotype, thanks to a Caraglio family who preserved the authentic seed.
Every year the producers select the best cloves and exchange the seed through the consortium, to ensure the plant’s vigor and adaptability.
The Presidium was started to support the consortium’s work and to promote the product, with the aim of also encouraging a revival of garlic cultivation on some marginal, abandoned plots of land and gradually involving new producers.

Production area
Caraglio municipality, Cuneo province

Presidium supported by
Banca di Caraglio, del Cuneese e della Riviera dei Fiori – Credito Cooperativo

Growers and processors
Azienda Agricola Giuliana Ceaglio di Debora Serra
Via Regina Margherita, 125
Bernezzo (Cn)
Tel. +39 328 4882371
az.ceaglio.giuliana@gmail.com

La Fattoria dell’Aglio
di Sandra Arneodo e Debora Garino
Via Macagno, 22Caraglio (Cn)
Tel. +39 340 4520002
info@fattoriadellaglio.it

Massimo Morre
Piazza Giuseppe Garibaldi, 2
Caraglio (Cn)
Tel.+39 339 7325769
morre@agliodicaraglio.it

Growers
Marco Beccaria
Via Paschera San Defendente, 39
Caraglio (Cn)
Tel.+39 340 1624320
becca.marco82@gmail.com

Lorenzo Benessia
Via Roma, 1Caraglio (Cn)
Tel.+39 347 5909885
lorenzobenessia@yahoo.it

Valter Rinaldi
Via Castelletto Stura, 4
Morozzo (Cn)
Tel.+39 320 2375802- +39 335 8168321
serenaperotti1@gmail.com

Manuela Rovera
Frazione Paschera San Defendente, 62Caraglio (Cn)
Tel.+39 335 8099056
culumbot@libero.it
Presidium Producers’ Coordinator
Aurelio Agnese
Tel. +39 347 9095702
aurelioesandra@libero.it

Slow Food Presidium Coordinator
Carlo Rocca
Tel. +39 335 8099056
culumbot@libero.it
Popular sayings, like the rhyme “a Caraj l'an piantà j aj j an nen bagnaj, j aj sun seccaj” (“in Caraglio they planted garlic, but they didn’t water it and the garlic dried out”) testify to the ancient connection between the town and garlic cultivation. This tradition, however, was interrupted around the 1950s. Caraglio also has two garlic festivals, one on the third Sunday in November and one on June 23, St John’s Eve, during which the producers present the harvest and give a head of garlic to recently born babies to bring them luck.
In the past few years, thanks to a small local consortium, cultivation has been revived, but only recently have the producers been able to recover the original ecotype, thanks to a Caraglio family who preserved the authentic seed.
Every year the producers select the best cloves and exchange the seed through the consortium, to ensure the plant’s vigor and adaptability.
The Presidium was started to support the consortium’s work and to promote the product, with the aim of also encouraging a revival of garlic cultivation on some marginal, abandoned plots of land and gradually involving new producers.

Production area
Caraglio municipality, Cuneo province

Presidium supported by
Banca di Caraglio, del Cuneese e della Riviera dei Fiori – Credito Cooperativo

Growers and processors
Azienda Agricola Giuliana Ceaglio di Debora Serra
Via Regina Margherita, 125
Bernezzo (Cn)
Tel. +39 328 4882371
az.ceaglio.giuliana@gmail.com

La Fattoria dell’Aglio
di Sandra Arneodo e Debora Garino
Via Macagno, 22Caraglio (Cn)
Tel. +39 340 4520002
info@fattoriadellaglio.it

Massimo Morre
Piazza Giuseppe Garibaldi, 2
Caraglio (Cn)
Tel.+39 339 7325769
morre@agliodicaraglio.it

Growers
Marco Beccaria
Via Paschera San Defendente, 39
Caraglio (Cn)
Tel.+39 340 1624320
becca.marco82@gmail.com

Lorenzo Benessia
Via Roma, 1Caraglio (Cn)
Tel.+39 347 5909885
lorenzobenessia@yahoo.it

Valter Rinaldi
Via Castelletto Stura, 4
Morozzo (Cn)
Tel.+39 320 2375802- +39 335 8168321
serenaperotti1@gmail.com

Manuela Rovera
Frazione Paschera San Defendente, 62Caraglio (Cn)
Tel.+39 335 8099056
culumbot@libero.it
Presidium Producers’ Coordinator
Aurelio Agnese
Tel. +39 347 9095702
aurelioesandra@libero.it

Slow Food Presidium Coordinator
Carlo Rocca
Tel. +39 335 8099056
culumbot@libero.it

Territory

StateItaly
RegionPiedmont