About
I Giorni del Melgotto (The Days of Corn) and the Galà dello Spinato (Spinato Gala), are held every year in October in Gandino, in the territory of the Province of Bergamo. They promote corn culture through food and agro-biodiversity with a series of events aimed at giving voice and enhancing those who continue to produce historical and traditional corn varieties linked to local culture, even in internal areas. Networking these experiences, recognizing their agro-ecological and economic role and value, constitute the primary action for the protection of the territory and agricultural culture and can be an effective incentive to resume cultivating corn destined for our consumption. This is achieved through conferences, conventions, training courses, public education on the cultural and culinary significance activities of maize, collaboration with schools, cooking shows, exhibitions and fairs. An important element of the event is the participation of Chefs coming from various culinary experiences in order to allow the exchange of culture and involve visitors.
The events are free and open to the general public.
The Municipality of Bergamo, UNESCO Creative City of Gastronomy, is partnering with the Municipality of Gandino to promote and develop the initiatives and events.
“I Giorni del Melgotto” is an event born in 2008 in order to safeguard, characterize and enhance the local variety of corn called Spinato di Gandino, which “brings Culture & Cultivation downtown”, and takes place every year from the end of September to the last week of October. Characterized by conferences, exhibitions, tastings, and many other activities, it aims at enhancing and keeping the folk traditions alive, especially those related to popular and peasant culture, such as the shelling of cobs in the square combined with events of technical/scientific and socio/cultural dissemination and deepening related to the world of agri-food, health, and sustainable development.
About Bergamo, Creative City of Gastronomy
Noble and proud of itself, Bergamo displays two souls in which a single heart beats. The Upper City, with the ancient core guarded by the circle of walls, a UNESCO World Heritage Site since 2017 ( transnational serial site “Venetian Works of Defence between the 16th and 17th Centuries: Stato da Terra – Western Stato da Mar”) and the Lower City, a sort of countermelody, modern and changing, yet rich in cultural episodes, among which the Carrara Academy, one of the country’s major picture galleries, stands out. From the former, gathered around Piazza Vecchia, where the medieval streets join, and Piazza del Duomo, the gaze rests on the centre below in a sinuous and delicate embrace. The Visconti used it to extend the duchy eastwards, Venice employed it as a bulwark against Milan’s expansive aims. The outcome of this frontier condition is recounted today by the high historical lineage and the amazing heritage of art and traditions. Not least the gastronomic one, within which one must include the great cheeses that make Bergamo the pivot of the Cheese Valleys.
Awareness of the cultural and creative relevance of knowledge in the productive sector has enabled the cheese-making tradition of Bergamo and the surrounding valleys to assert and perfect itself over the centuries. This heritage is a significant element of Bergamo’s economy and identity.
Thanks to the combination of such territorial, gastronomic, cultural and creative factors, on 31 October 2019 Bergamo was designated UNESCO Creative City of Gastronomy.
About Gandino
Gandino is a small town of Medieval origins, one of the five villages belonging to the tourist district called “Le Cinque Terre della Val Gandino”. It is located at the heart of the Seriana Valley, a wide valley in the province of Bergamo (Italy) a place that has hosted a rich community of merchants for about 1,0000 years, and later became an industrial productive area.
Having its landmarks in the Basilica di Santa Maria Assunta and in its magnificent ancient palaces, Gandino’s history crossed its way with the history of several famous people, among them Leonardo da Vinci, St. Charles Borromeo, St. Valentine, St. Pio from Pietralcina, and Giuseppe Garibaldi.
With its fourteen churches and its numerous palaces Gandino holds several architectural treasures. Every corner of the town’s centre reveals Medieval or Renaissance elements.
The urban structure of Gandino actually dates back to this period. Some remains of the 15th Century defensive walls with watch towers such as porta Pomaro and doors such as porta Lacca can still be seen. Just one of the town's seven entrance doors is still in place: the door giving entrance to Gandino’s main square. Also churches, built between the 15th and the 18th Centuries, occupy a relevant place in Gandino’s architecture, towered by the monumental Basilica di Santa Maria Assunta which dates back to the 17th Century.
In 1233, thanks to the emancipation from the De Ficienis, a feudal family, Gandino became the important siege of the valley’s Vicarage. Between the 15th and the 16th Centuries the trade of wool fabrics became its main source of prestige and richness. Actually, thanks to this business that soon crossed the borders of the valley to expand in central Europe, some families of Gandino were able to gather relevant fortunes.
Some curious facts about Gandino? This town can boast a special achievement, being the first place in Lombardy where corn was cultivated.
About Mais Spinato di Gandino
Mais Spinato di Gandino is somethig that has the flavor of culture, history, tradition. Something that comes from the territory, from people’s will to rediscover their ancient tastes in an environmentally sustainable way.
Why is it called “Spinato di Gandino”? This corn variety is called “Spinato”, i.e. endowed with “beaks” or “thorns” because grains have a very peculiar, pointed shape; that may remind of a thorn or a beak.
The Mais Spinato di Gandino was the first corn cultivated in Lombardy in the 17th Century. Based on this historical reference, a project was launched in 2007 to recover, safeguard, and enhance its seeds. Over the years, this project has generated a sustainable development model based on the recovery of tradition, promotion of the territory, aggregation, social relations, and cooperation. It has proven to be a virtuous model that has set an example. The project has gone beyond “cultivation” and since 2011 has had international resonance. It has been an element of aggregation through which concrete actions of territorial marketing, cultural promotion, and local economic development have emerged. It has become a sustainable development model based on an agri-food system and a community regenerator.
There are many details about the Mais Spinato, from the taste chain to its organoleptic properties, to the cultural projects that have been carried out in recent years thanks to the “spinato” (barbed) corn. These include, for example, the creation of the SLOW MAYS network by Slow Food, which led in 2021 to the publication of the “Disciplinary of the cultivation of mountain free-pollination corn of the Bergamo Orobie region” and the signing of the new “Slow Mays Manifesto” in 2023 in Gandino; the introduction in Italy of the BIOINTENSIVE cultivation method; the P.E.F. declaration (Product Environmental Footprint) with University IEFE Bocconi and Regione Lombardia; and many other initiatives.
A real “chain of taste” has gradually been developed around this product. Several products made of this cornmeal have been launched: from the flour for classic yellow polenta, to bakery products such as Melgotto cookies, meringues, salty and sweet pies. These gourmet choices came along with other delicious food such as ravioli Camisocc and Perle di Gandino, entirely prepared with local, "zero kilometer" ingredients. This wide food offer is completed by a special ice cream, Gelato Melogotto, made from Spinetta, a crispy corn rusk, and by Scarlatta (Scarlet) the “beer of the two worlds” made with Mais Spinato and mate leaves from Latin America.
These initiatives make this product special not only because it is “good food” but also because it has a story to tell.