Manna From Heaven Falling in Sicily

CASTELBUONO, Sicily, June 28, 2007 — -- Manna, to most people -- if they have heard of it at all -- means a windfall, an unexpected gift from heaven.

Others recognize it from the Bible as the food sent by God to feed the Hebrews during their 40 years in the desert, a sort of hoarfrost that fell on the land at night and was collected, milled and baked into small loaves of the bread.

Ancient Greek and Latin sources refer to it as "perspiration from the sky" or the "saliva of the stars." It was believed to be a gift from above that the bees had only to collect, though they may have been referring to honey.

But manna is more than a literary anachronism -- it actually exists today in Italy, in a small corner of the island of Sicily.

It does not fall from the sky -- it drips from the ash tree. When exposed to the hot summer sun of Sicily, this Italian variety of maple syrup solidifies into white stalactites of spongy sugar.

Mario Cicero, the mayor of Castelbuono, was listing the cultural and historical attractions of his small town near Palermo, when he told ABC News, "And then, of course, we have manna!"

Of course.

When queried further he pointed down the road to a small shop that sells herbs and local produce on the main street of Castelbuono. It's run by Giulio Gelardi, the local manna expert and president of the manna presidium of Italy's Slow Food Movement, which supports the country's local food heritage.

Today manna has become a specialty product -- produced as purely as possible by traditionalists like Gelardi in the area around Castelbuono and Pollino and sold to herbalist shops with the support and encouragement of the Slow Food movement, which believes that keeping the tradition alive will preserve the ash groves, the local environment and local culture.

When Gelardi gets on the subject of manna, there is no stopping him. He will wax poetic for hours about the nutritional qualities of manna and the harvesting tradition that has been in his family for generations to which he has devoted a good part of his life. He produces manna, sells it, promotes it, educates young people about it and has researched it extensively. And in just two weeks time, he will be harvesting it.

"For decades manna was a principal source of income in this corner of Sicily," Gelardi explained.

"My grandfather and father produced it, along with other crops," Gelardi recounted. "Wheat provided our livelihood, olive oil permitted us to buy a few things and manna paid for the boys to study and the girls to marry." If it was a bad year and there was no extra money, the boys and girls had to help in the fields.