Balsamic vinegar is originated in Modena in the Italian providence of Emilia. Aged balsamic vinegar is very expensive, because it takes several years to produce. The juice of white grapes, which is exclusively used to produce it, first ferments naturally and is then laid down for very long time, in a progression of small barrels made from different types of wood.
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LE VENDURE
A small vegetable garden protected by a wall
or hedge, where edible herbs can be grown
for household consumption: this has a remote origin,
going back to the time when our
nomadic food-gathering ancestors turned to farming and
ceased to be migratory.
But the model is the Garden of Eden.
"Behold, I have given you every herb
bearing seed, which is on the face of all the
earth, and every tree, in which is the fruit
of a tree yielding seed: to you it shall be for meat."
When was the vegetable garden first heard
of in Italy? It is impossible to say exactly,
but certainly the ancient Latin authors were already
writing about it with some technical expertise. As far
back as that time the
beneficial (or harmful) effects of certain vegetable on the
human body were known.
And so doctors and farmers had a complementary
involvement in the hortus, one being concerned with
health, the other with nourishment, and both beginning
with the
same raw materials.
When it is ready to be sold, balsamic vinegar is brown in color and has an intense smell and a well-balanced sweet-sour taste. Inexpensive balsamic vinegar is made in a very different way.
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In and around Modena, the palio degli aceti is held every year this is a competition among the best vinegars in which the best producers of balsamic vinegar are chosen.
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Today Italy produces 200 million tons of vegetable a year, spread over 50
different varieties. Most of this enormous quantity of fresh vegetables
finds its way to our tables via mass distribution networks, but a
considerable portion still comes from small family-run market gardens.
Thus, as we approach the year 2000, the earthy paradise is still part of our
lives.
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