Manna from....Sicily
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It's mentioned 17 times in the Bible and was harvested in the Mediterranean for more than a millennium. Now, a farmer is reviving this ancient "superfood".
It's a hot and muggy summer day in Sicily's Madonie mountains, a rugged range of ridges about 65km east of Palermo. In a field of ash trees, the buzzing of cicadas is interrupted by a voice. "You came at the right time," says Giulio Gelardi, a local farmer pointing towards a white-streaked branch. "This is the famous manna."
Along the bark of each tree are thick lines of manna, a white mineral-rich resin referenced in the Bible 17 times that has been used as a natural sweetener and medicinal aid for centuries. Manna harvesting (the practice of cutting the bark of Fraxinus ornus trees to collect their sap), used to be a common practice throughout the Mediterranean. But in the past 80 years, urbanisation and industrialisation have led to it nearly vanishing.
