The reasons for the decline
The decline of the cultivation of capped pumpkins, once widely grown in northern Italy, has to be related to the revolution of farmland practices recorded since the 1950s, which strongly reduced the number of crop varieties. Moreover consumers’ tastes and marketing strategies have changed as a result of the large scale retail trade. Another factor affecting capped pumpkin decline was the diffusion of glass houses and refrigeration, which made less attractive those crops, like Berretta di Lungavilla, which can maintain their properties when preserved at room temperature. Anyway, the evolution of consumers’ behaviour has recently led to re-discover forgotten tastes of old landrace and to recover the idea that fruit and vegetables taste best when eaten in season. Those changes can help support the production chain of old landraces.
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