Acorn: a resource of landscape and food tradition of the Marche region to be rediscovered and valorized.
In the short term, the mainaims are:
a) to favor the rediscovery of a forgotten spontaneous resource represented by oak acorns (Quercus pubescens Wild., 1805), and its valorization as an ingredient for human nutrition for the production of foods suc as bread, biscuits, pasta, acorn oil;
b) to establish a sustainable and highly innovative acorn-based supply chain in the territory of “Alto Maceratese”;
c) to investigate the relationship between soil health and the chemical composition (micro-macronutrients and bioactive compounds / polyphenols) of flours (and derived foods) obtained from oakacorns for the purpose of food safety.
In the long term, the aims are:
d)to preserve the ancient agricultural landscape of the Marche Region in a functional, aesthetic and productive key (i.e. silvoarable systems; “seminativi arborati con querce camporili);
e) to preserve and increase the ecosystem services provided by the scattered oaks in the silvoarable system, for the health of the ecosystem and associated agriculturalcrops, summarized in: 1) reduction of soilerosion ; 2) phytoremediation of water and soilremediation; 3) increase in biodiversity (such as ecological corridors and habitats of animal and plant species); 4) carbon sequestration and increase in organic matter in agricultural soils.
