Chestnuts are a fruit typical of autumn. They can be gathered in forests throughout most of Ticino. In the past when Ticino was a very rural region, chestnuts were one of the main pillars of people’s diets. For this reason, chestnuts were commonly called “l’albero del pane”, or “the bread tree”. After the harvest in the late autumn, they were eaten in stews or roasted on the fire. A large quantity, however, were dried so that they could be preserved for several months, or ground in order to produce flour.
