One hundred and twenty hectares are a lot - they are a sea, a sea of rice. Few people know it, but on Provincial Road no. 590 of Val Cerrina, in San Raffaele Cimena, between Galleani and Siberia, there is one of the few, if not the only, rice fields in Turin: the Pochettino rice field, a world you would not expect to find.
This piece of paradise was once the estate of Count Paolo Thaon di Revel (Turin 1859 - Rome 1948) who was Chief of Naval Staff and commander-in-chief of the naval forces mobilised in February 1917, during the First World War, and who held those positions until the end of the conflict when Victor Emmanuel III awarded him the title of Duke of the Sea.
Then in the 1960s, the Pochettino family, led by Mr Giuseppe, bought land from the Count. Giovanni is a farmer like his father before him and he too used to raise cattle, until mad cow disease changes his life. So Giovanni abandons cattle breeding and decides to cultivate rice. Because here the sun kisses the earth on its forehead and the rice grows well, pampered by the Po and cared for by the hill that holds the warm air.
The temperature in summer even reaches 40 to 45 degrees, a boon for a tropical plant like rice that needs a constant climate. Then there is the rich soil of the Po, very similar to that which gives the best Carnaroli del Pavese, loose soil and a continuous water exchange.
For more information: http://www.piemonteparchi.it/cms/index.php/component/k2/item/5371-parchi...
