acacia | Bella Bagni di Lucca

Acacia trees are in full bloom and right now are covering the hills around Bagni di Lucca.

Bees love the flowers and they make delicious honey.

The flowers are edible. You can dip them in a light batter and fry them. I haven’t tried that but I have eaten one straight from the tree and it tasted a bit like raw peas.

I love the flowers and the smell is heavenly, but they make me sneeze.

i know they are a pest and it is a pity the hillsides are not covered with chestnut, hazelnut, walnut and cherry trees. If you look at old photos of Bagni di Lucca you will see that the hillsides were terraced. Grapevines and vegetables were grown, so the chestnut trees are long gone. The farms were abandoned and acacia grows more quickly than more useful trees, so we are now left with acacia. They are beautiful, but they are a menace…any takers for removing them to start a replanting process?

Acacia and chestnut blossoms are appearing on trees all around us. The acacia is a bit late this year because of the rain and the cooler than usual weather.

Hopefully soon the air will be filled with the delicious honey like smell of these pretty white flowers.
I know they are weeds, but the bees like them.

The chestnut blossoms stand like proud decorations on the beautiful trees. These are horse chestnut flowers, the real chestnut trees bloom a bit later.

As well as looking beautiful, the blossoms provide nectar for the bees to make honey. The whole area is famous for its delicious, pure honey….lucky us.

Look out for some local honey while you are in Bagni di Lucca. There are lots of small producers in the villages of Bagni di Lucca.

Bella Bagni di Lucca

A beautiful village in Tuscany

Tag Archives: acacia

White blossoms

Acacia and chestnut blossoms