There is a corner of Calabria where the land is not just soil to be cultivated , but a silent witness to millennia of history and the arena of daily redemption . Along the stretch of the Tyrrhenian coast between the provinces of Vibo Valentia , Catanzaro and Cosenza, the Red Onion of Tropea Calabria PGI grows, affectionately known as “Calabria's Red Gold,” a global icon of sweetness , passion and agricultural tradition . It takes its name from Tropea , the railway station from which large quantities of this vegetable , produced in the hinterland in nearby towns, departed for northern Italy and abroad .
But to fully understand the soul of this excellence , you have to move away from the tourist routes and climb towards the hills of Briatico , in the hamlet of San Costantino . It is here, on the slopes of Mount Lapa , an ancient extinct volcano whose soils are made fertile by its millennia-old ash , that the purest and most courageous heart of this story beats.
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The volcanic soils and sea breezes , with ideal electrical conductivity , stimulate the synthesis of sugars and reduce sulfur compounds , making the bulb tender, sweet and digestible . Certified PGI since 2008 and inspected by CSQA , the supply chain today involves almost 30,000 tons annually on 1,000 hectares . From a nutritional point of view, Red Gold is a true natural medicine with Quercetin and Anthocyanins , powerful cardioprotective antioxidants and bioactive metabolites with antimicrobial , anti-inflammatory , analgesic , antihypertensive , hypoglycemic and immunoprotective properties.
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Source: Informa Calabria.it