Pistachio in Bronte

The Arabs, ripping off Sicily from the Byzantines, promoted and disseminated the culture of Pistachio in the island and, to confirm this, just consider the etymological affinity of the dialectal name given to pistachio with the corresponding Arabic term. Frastuca (the fruit) and Frastucara (the plant) are derived, in fact, from Arabic words “fristach”, “frastuch” and “festuch”, in their turn derived from the Persian word “fistich”. The species has had particularly development starting from the second half of the nineteenth century in the provinces of Caltanissetta, Agrigento and Catania.In the latter, at the foot of Mount Etna, in the territory of Bronte, the culture of Pistachio experienced the greatest expansion in 1860 so that entire pastures and vacant lots were turned into pistacchieti and pistachio became the centre of all the agricultural and economic system of the area.