The territory

The history of the Lentil of Altamura I.G.P. starts from the stone.

That limestone, eroded, furrowed that covers the entire Murgia plateau and extends over more than one hundred thousand hectares between the Bradanic pit and the valleys that lead to the Adriatic coast. One hundred thousand hectares where the eye gets lost without interruptions, if not of time, and that in every season bring back different colours and scents.

The Murgian territory is continually interrupted by the rock that comes out untamed from the ground and at the same time tamed by the hand of man, in its kilometers of drystone walls, in the fortified farm, in the silences of the rock churches, in the architecture of sheep farms, in the heights of medieval castles. A territory where man and stone have coexisted for millennia, as evidenced by the skeleton of an hominid that lived 150 thousand years ago, perfectly preserved in one of the many karst cavities present in the countryside of Altamura and the imprints of more than 30,000 dinosaurs that have travelled along that stone. But, as far as coriacea can be the land of Murgia, so good and genuine are the fruits that are produced there: the durum wheat of bread baked in wood-fired ovens, almond sweets, cardoncelli mushrooms, sheep cheeses, oil and the smallest and portentous fruits of the earth, the legumes.

Ma, per quando coriacea possa essere la terra di Murgia, tanto buoni e genuini sono i frutti che vi nascono: i grani duri del pane cotto nei forni a legna, i dolci di mandorla, i funghi cardoncelli, i formaggi di pecora, l’olio e i più piccoli e portentosi frutti della terra, i legumi.