What it is
A local maize ecotype with medium-small ears and orange-tending kernels, used for human food, especially polenta and frattaccio.
Origin place card
Production is documented in Titerno and Fortore areas of Benevento province.
Verified history
The source says cultivation follows local extensive tradition tied to family/local consumption and is used for human food, not animal feed. Treat this as source-supported tradition/history from Regione Campania — Granturco della quarantina; the current evidence does not independently establish a founder, precise origin date, first attestation, or archival origin beyond that source framing.
Local hypothesis
This is a page about maize as family grain rather than fodder: dried on cloth, hung in houses, milled into winter food.
Local legend / oral tradition
No legend documented.
Ingredients
Medium-small orange-tending maize kernels, stone-ground into vitreous flour, traditionally sifted with silk cloth. Source-supported detail: Se ne ricava una farina con forte componente vitrea, utilizzata per produrre soprattutto polenta che può essere servita calda e accompagnata con pomodoro, carni, pancetta, formaggio a seconda della stagione e può essere anche mangiata rafferma.
Method
Sow dryland in May, often with local legumes, harvest by hand in August with bean pods, dry on hemp or cloth, store ears suspended by their dried bracts, stone-mill and sift. Source-supported detail: Le cariossidi tipicamente sono macinate a pietra e setacciata con panni di seta.
Ritual / calendar
pianta di dimensioni medie, con altezza dai 150/170 cm e con produzione di massimo due pannocchie a culmo.
Why travel for it
A family-polenta page from Titerno and Fortore: small orange kernels, stone-ground and silk-sifted, dried on hemp cloth and hung by dried bracts.
Recreate-it pathway
Recover frattaccio and polenta pairings by season before final recipe publication.
Editorial warning
The source says human food, never animal feed; keep this identity visible.
Fieldwork questions
Who still mills it on stone and sifts with silk cloth? What exactly is frattaccio and where is it eaten?
Photo brief
Suspended maize ears, hemp drying cloth, stone mill flour, polenta with seasonal accompaniments.