The ancient tradition of the collection of walnuts
The night of San Giovanni are collected green walnuts, and traditionally they are handled by a womanthen prepare the liqueur on the same day.
The whole procedure is permeated by a pagan sacredness of ancient originbased on the observation of the motorcycle of the sun (the summer solstice) and from the beliefs related to the witches and their link with walnut.
Always, every summer, my grandmother had found a way to get her hands on the exact number of walnuts (always odd) that requires her recipe, and punctually passed several days with dark -stained fingers from the juice that came out while cutting them into four wedges.
This liqueur is produced with the fruits of the Yuglans Regiaand it is typical of many Italian and European regions, but it is particularly famous in the Modena area, where each family jealously retains its recipe and there is even an order of the Modena Nocino, we indicate tasting and election competitions of the best nocino.
The nocino uses at the end of a meal as a digestive, in particular after the typical Emilian feast based on products derived from the pig, so much so that in a medieval book I found a phrase that I no longer forgotten: after exaggerating with the pig “Continue to cook the meal in the stomach with nocino“(He said more or less like that …).
But what does it mean?
Have you ever noticed that other plants are hardly growing under walnut trees? Nocino owes its black color to the tannin contained in green walnuts, in the leaves and throughout the plant. The tannins are astringent, antibacterial and pesticide substances, which defend plants from pathogens, as well as making them unwelcome to herbivores. Being astringent substances, tannins have always been used to conclude the skins, being able to combine with the proteins of the animal skin in insoluble complexes, to prevent putrefaction and to make it unassailable from bacteria, transforming it into leather. They practically mummify it. But they also have important properties for human health, more or less the same that serve the plant: antiseptic, anti -inflammatory, astringent and purifying.
The rules of grandmother and science
In America “the real real fruits of the black walnut have been used for generations in the various types of natural medicine, for the treatment of mushrooms, bacteria or viral infections such as herpes or warts. The external walnut applications also kill tricophyhe (angular worms) and Chinese herbalists use this substance to kill tension”.
So much so that Dr. Hulda Clark, makes the alcohol extract of green hut of Yuglans Nigra (the American black walnut) One of the foundations of your cure of antiparasites, which she believed the main responsible for many diseases, including serious ones, who afflict human beings. But what is the alcoholic extract of walnut hut, if not nocino without sugar!
In addition, always the Clark prescribes ground cloves, which are often part of the Nocino and Artemisia recipe (Artemisia Absintium). It seems to me much easier to get a glass of nocino than of the assets that has inspired Baudelaire, Verlaine and the other cursed poets, despite the fact that this also has pesticide and digestive properties.
Tradition confirms
To conclude the nocino in addition to being a digestive liqueur, it is a real care for the intestine, as with its tannins it helps to digest proteins, kills bacteria and parasites.
Parasites that, precisely uncooked pork, or only seasoned like that of salami, could and can transmit: it is therefore not a coincidence that the Emilians, great consumers of these products, are also large producers and consumers of this delicious liqueur, to be taken, like any “medicine” in doses that are not too high, under penalty of the terrible pain in the liver that I saw accused by the friends who, having sold to the throat, have abused it.
The Nocino recipe
Collect the walnuts on the night of San Giovanni (23/24 June) and leave them in a container to take the dew. On the 24th, cut the walnuts into 4 parts, put them in a pot with alcohol. The next day add the spices and leave to infuse until August 3 in the sun, shaking 3 times a day. Filter and add the syrup made with the sugar heated in the water. Leave to cool, bottle and wait At least 3 months before consuming it, keeping it in the dark.
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