Every year, at the height of the long, dry Sicilian summer, Italian farmer Giulio Gelardi goes out to his 500 ash trees in the Madonie region to perform a centuries-old ritual. Gelardi, a resident ...

He has done so through the various signs of bread and wine in the Old Testament, Abram’s interaction with Melchizedek, the Passover, and the manna and quail the Israelites ate in the desert.

when Jews across the world commemorate the Biblical Exodus from Egypt that was followed by the Israelites’ 40-year sojourn in the desert, where manna was said to be the primary form of sustenance.