They called us mad: how our bergamot marmalade was born

In 1973 a family began turning what grew in its own fields into preserves, here in the Valle del Savuto. No capital: only a passion for this stubborn land. We started with oranges, for the simplest reason in the world — the oranges were there. All you had to do was walk down into the grove and pick them.

Then came bergamot

Bergamot is fragrant, difficult, stubborn. And it does not grow here: it grows almost only on a strip of coast around Reggio Calabria, and nowhere else in the world does it turn out as it does there. That fruit we buy, and we buy it there — because with a fruit like this the provenance is not a detail, it is half the work.

It will not let itself be worked like the other citrus fruits: it is bitter where you do not expect it, and the peel decides on its own how long it takes. Back then perhaps nobody was making bergamot marmalade yet. When we said we wanted to try, more than a few called us mad.

One study, then another, then another again

It took trial after trial, experiments and mistakes, before we found the right balance. It was not a question of a recipe: it was a question of understanding how much peel, how much sugar and how much cooking time a fruit that forgives nothing was asking for.

And it was not one person's idea. The recipes were worked out by two, husband and wife, in front of the same pot — like all the ones we still make today.

The mincer

And then there was the equipment, which we did not have. To break down the fruit we ended up using a meat mincer: it did not cut, it broke. What came out was not the smooth, even cream of the big producers, but a marmalade full of irregular pieces of citrus — which you can see in the jar and feel between your teeth.

For years we lived with it as a limitation. Then we realised it was the first thing people recognised. So we never changed that method: we still break the fruit the same way today. What we thought was a makeshift has become part of our story.

From one citrus fruit to five

From oranges we came to five citrus fruits, all worked the same way, all with their share of peel inside:

• Bergamot marmalade — the one that was not supposed to work
• Citron marmalade — the most delicate, almost floral
• Lemon marmalade — sharp and clean, excellent on tarts
• Mandarin marmalade — the sweetest of the five
• Orange marmalade — the one it all started from

From the orange came later the bitter orange marmalade and the bitter orange with chocolate as well.

Every product has its story. This was bergamot's.