Fruits such as plums mirabelle, apples rust, biricoccoli, cotogni, jujube, medlar, mulberry, carnelian, arbutus. And more vegetables like sprigs, cardoons and Jerusalem artichokes. Many people have never seen them, but until a few decades ago these foods were very common, so much so that they survive in certain idioms, such as "Going to jujube soup". And let's start from the latter, for give a "face" and a taste to these terms a little forgotten.

Jujubes, the fruit that comes from far away

In the case of jujubes the reason for their rarity is that there is no intensive cultivation and production is restricted to a family environment. The scientific name of the jujube is Zizyphus and comes from afar. The tree should be native of northern Africa and Syria, and from there he found fortune and a suitable climate in Asia, especially in China and India. In Italy, however, he arrived with the Romans who called him Zizyphus, in fact.

Properties of jujube

The plant can survive harsh winters, with temperatures well below freezing, but it is at the end of a beautiful hot summer that gives delicious fruits, rich in vitamin C and perfect for preparing for winter ailments. Moreover, thanks to the high content of flavonoids and glucosides they regulate blood pressure, while the concentration of anthraquinones gives these products discrete laxative properties.

Giuggiole or Chinese dates

If harvested when not yet fully ripe, jujubes are green (they look like olives) and have an apple-like flavor. When fully ripe they take instead a scarlet tint and the taste becomes decidedly sweeter, similar to that of a date (so much so that the tree is also called "Chinese date").

In jujube broth

It can be eaten fresh, just picked, or after a few days, withered, and therefore softer but with more fermented taste. It is excellent for jams and syrups, and much appreciated when preserved in spirit and of course when it is used for the jujube broth, a liqueur typical of Arqua Petrarca in the province of Padua.

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