The "Terre di Bari" Cherry
The Italian cherry is cultivated for its 85% in four Italian regions and Apulia is the one that contributes most to this crop.
The 17,000 hectares plantation gives annually a production of about 520,000 tons of cherries. The 80% of the production of cherries in the province of Bari comes from the south-east of the province: Conversano, Turi, Sammichele, Castellana, Putignano, Noci, Alberobello, Casamassima, Acquaviva delle Fonti and Gioia del Colle, in the forefront for quantity and quality of harvested fruit.
Stefano Genco is the president of the GAL "Terre dei Trulli and Barsento", but also a highly respected producer of cherries, which he still experiencing in the different varieties - for taste, types and maturation time - trying to refine the techniques of cultivation, protection and product quality in general, working together for a synergistic "business strategy" of the companies involved in this area.
"There are no better cherries than ours in the whole world" , says Stefano Genco, and you certainly can not deny it, looking and tasting the red and crisp fruits with a peculiar heart shape. The best quality is the Cherry Ferrovia, a bigger variety that ends in a tip with a long stalk. Because of its firm texture is preserved longer, and on the tree or after the harvest, so to be much appreciated and preferred abroad as well, where it is exported through the use of refrigerated trucks.
Cherries, in addition to being delicious, contain organic acids that maintain a stable acid-base balance of the body, with a really limited calorie and sugar supply, so to become an advisable product for diabetic people, for those who run a sedentary lifestyle or for those who need to go on a diet.
The 17,000 hectares plantation gives annually a production of about 520,000 tons of cherries. The 80% of the production of cherries in the province of Bari comes from the south-east of the province: Conversano, Turi, Sammichele, Castellana, Putignano, Noci, Alberobello, Casamassima, Acquaviva delle Fonti and Gioia del Colle, in the forefront for quantity and quality of harvested fruit.
Stefano Genco is the president of the GAL "Terre dei Trulli and Barsento", but also a highly respected producer of cherries, which he still experiencing in the different varieties - for taste, types and maturation time - trying to refine the techniques of cultivation, protection and product quality in general, working together for a synergistic "business strategy" of the companies involved in this area.
"There are no better cherries than ours in the whole world" , says Stefano Genco, and you certainly can not deny it, looking and tasting the red and crisp fruits with a peculiar heart shape. The best quality is the Cherry Ferrovia, a bigger variety that ends in a tip with a long stalk. Because of its firm texture is preserved longer, and on the tree or after the harvest, so to be much appreciated and preferred abroad as well, where it is exported through the use of refrigerated trucks.
Cherries, in addition to being delicious, contain organic acids that maintain a stable acid-base balance of the body, with a really limited calorie and sugar supply, so to become an advisable product for diabetic people, for those who run a sedentary lifestyle or for those who need to go on a diet.