Local fruits, vegetables, cheeses, meats, breads, etc.

Food is one of my main areas of research when planning a trip, so this is right up my alley.
I have a fairly extensive cookbook collection representing several regions -- the differences can be profound. You might look for books by Fabrizia Lanza, who runs a farm/agriturismo in Sicily (sadly I have not make it to Sicily yet, but when I do those strawberries will be on the agenda!).
I also look at Saveur and the websites of several food writers (Elizabeth Minchilli, Emiko Davies, Katie Parla).
So much to eat, so little time, lol.

Thanks, valadelphia! I asked my husband (the cook and the one who actually knows about food and wine and has a whole bookshelf of Italian cookbooks) and he is familiar with everybody you mention. Not surprised. He was already planning to check out Emiko Davies' enoteca in San Miniato when we are staying in Florence for November. Sounds like you two are about food the way I am about gardening! I just read stuff. And eat. Unless it's seafood or offal.

Absolutely--I obsess over my garden the same way (but this drought means it's all in suspended animation, ugh). With agriculture being so important in Italy, I find it hard to separate learning about food from the experience of traveling there.
We stayed in San Miniato in May. I passed by the enoteca did not stop in (I got self conscious about saying "Hi I love your work," lol). If you like vegetarian cuisine, there is an amazing spot there called Maggese
I always eat well as a pescatarian in Italy, and we tend to like osterias more than fine dining, but this was quite an experience.

Even printed guidebooks can be helpful. Lonely Planet guides usually have a sidebar here and there, highlighting a specific producer, and what produce makes them special.

Unique chocolate from Modica, Sicily is one of those, and it’s still a favorite memory from our 2012 trip.

Your link about donkeys was really interesting … for milk!!! Unexpectedly, and still a bit troubling on a few levels, we had a different donkey experience earlier this year, in Sardinia. At a restaurant, we ordered the degustatione menu, leaving us in the hands of the chef to treat us to special dishes of his choosing. My husband mentioned, “no rabbit please, no coniglio, per favore. Bunnies were pets when he was a kid, and he won’t make them a main course. We were served rabbit at an agriturismo in Italy a couple of years ago, and he instead ate a lot of boiled potatoes that meal but no rabbit.

The waiter, who’d had a joking demeanor the whole time up to that point, said not to worry, they didn’t serve anything “weird,” like rabbit or horse. Where’d the horse part come from??? Anyway, the antipasto was delicious, don’t recall exactly what it was. Next, he brought the pasta course, what he called, “donkey pasta.” Great, we weren’t going to be getting anything “weird,” and if horse would’ve been weird, donkey would’ve been really weird, right? The pasta wasn’t shaped like a donkey, but maybe it was just a colloquialism. Well, it turned out to actually be donkey meat, which was tender and quite tasty, but would’ve never been intentionally ordered, and will never be eaten again, intentionally or accidentally! Now donkey yogurt or cheese … ?

It's so interesting how mental being squeamish about eating particular foods is. I am quite squeamish and would also not want to eat donkey or horse. Or what is called the "fifth quarter" of a butchered animal --- I once ate some kind of ground-up meat thing in Testaccio in Rome (well known for its traditional offal cuisine) and asked the server what the meat was and she replied with amusement, "I'm not going to tell you."

Two other "it's all in your mind" food stories from one of our sons' childhood. He was and still is a lot more picky about food than the rest of us. He was happily gobbling up some ice cream when someone commented that the ice cream "sure was frozen solid" --- he started to let his mouthful fall out of his mouth, exclaiming with horror: "This is FROZEN SALAD????" Similar reaction when I thoughtlessly told him while he was eating a peanut butter sandwich that peanut butter was made out of peanuts.

Ah, miuccia, you have put your finger on a flaw in how my husband and I research for Italy trips, and now I will do what you say and google using Italian. My husband speaks and reads Italian quite well and researches online in Italian, BUT only after we have planned the trip and bought the tickets and booked the apartments. What I am trying to do is to decide where to go and when, so I'm doing it in English way in advance. Never noticed this before!

You might want to explore Elizabeth Minchilli's books, such as "The Italian Table" and "Eating Italy". She is an American who has lived her entire adult life in Rome and Umbria and conducts food-based tours in various regions. She's on Instagram too. Has deep knowledge of Italian food traditions. Her husband is from Puglia so she has the perspective of the Italian family too (all those nonnas making pasta by hand).

Consider Culinary Backstreets. They have top-quality walking tours in many cities, and their website highlights notable local foods and places to eat. Their Palermo tour focuses on walking through the markets. It includes, in addition to food, observations about history and the characteristics of the different markets and the segment of the population they serve.

Thank you for your ideas, ponygirl813 and happytotravel! I know that Minchilli is one of the experts my husband consults for choosing restaurants, plus he follows all these Instagram food people I've never heard of. I do hope to go on a food tour in Palermo and will look into Culinary Backstreets ---- it certainly has a name that sounds yummy!

I have not been on many food tours or tours of any kind, but In early October 2022, we greatly enjoyed a food tour in Genoa with Enrica Monzani --- she is a cookbook writer and a wonderful guide: https://www.asmallkitcheningenoa.com/food-experiences/genoa-food-tour/

Enrica also booked us a tour of some large basil-growing greenhouses in the hills above Genoa: https://www.serresulmare.com/en/. This tour was actually more right up my alley than her food tour because I'm a gardener and I love basil. Plus nobody offered me seafood.

Thank you, miuccia, for all your suggestions and links --- I finally had the time to look them all up!

My husband and I tend to avoid both tours and B&B/agriturismo stays, even though when we've made exceptions the experiences have been excellent. Definitely something to consider for Sicily!

In Puglia on one trip we ate both pizza and pasta with caper bush shoots, and we do love to see Capparis spinosa growing wild out of stone walls and blooming so prettily in Italy. Because of my interest in this plant, it is now sold every spring at the huge plant sale I volunteer for, and people are trying to grow it here in Minnesota and overwinter it indoors --- at least we can eat the young shoots: https://www.friendsschoolplantsale.com/variety/9513

We are certainly not planning to be in Sicily at the right season for tomatoes or Bronte pistachios or most fruits or vegetables, are we? But spring is kind of when we have to do this trip, darn it.