carruba

Long a staple in the rural Mediterranean, mostly for feeding animals, carob trees are now becoming rare in the landscape. The carrubo di Ragusa, in Sicily is in the Slow Food Presidium, with the aim of encouraging their replanting. Sicilians still use carob for liqueurs and desserts, and as a flavour for ice cream.

The fruit of the carob, the carota (carot) was used by medieval goldsmiths to weigh gold—hence the word still used today.