Ciao and Welcome to all my Loyal and new followers,
“I hadn’t got rid of the last one and now I’ve caught another one!” My man is hunched in the passenger seat of the car, having just been collected by my good self from Certaldo Station. The poor thing had just flown back to Pisa from London and an English cold virus had got him again . “I already had some antibiotics, now I’ll have to go back and see Flavio again for some more.” His face was as long as could be. “Don’t worry, lovely man,” I smiled, “the forecast is for a sunny weekend, you’ll be as right as rain by Monday!” “Humph.” He groaned.
Freshly harvested oranges and lemons.
Photo P Finnigan
Farty Barty on the frame over the orange grove wondering what the fuss is all about.
Photo P Finnigan
By the end of a lovely warm sunny Sunday, he was cheerfully enjoying an aperitivo in glorious sunshine, having also had lunch outside on the upper terrace earlier on. “Ah this is the life.” He sighed. And he was quite right. Just when we were beginning to think that the cold damp weather was here forever, the hot mediterranean sun broke through, bathing us in that all important vitamin D. In the garden, much work was needed, in particular the ground was covered in dead leaves including the big floppy fig leaves that make a plopping sound as they hit the ground. Alessandro, the local contadino, who looks after the land below the house, arrived unexpectedly and started violently pruning the fruit trees. My man was rather annoyed, as he had planned to do this himself, and he is very experienced at it. The workers also cut down the beautiful row of Firethorn, which bordered our garden with the orchard, unfortunately we were out having our morning coffee when this happened! I guess it will all grow back again. The good news, however, is that our view has been dramatically opened out and this morning the man is really happy as he has found a mature lemon tree in full fruit, in what we had thought was only an orange grove!
Back in the countryside we are seeing whole olive trees being cut down. This follows the disastrous olive harvest due to blight and insects. Lets hope that new saplings will be planted to replace them. On the other hand, the grape harvest was really good. My man went down to our friend and vineyard owner with all our empty Chianti bottles for refills. My man liked to do the corking with a hand-operated corking machine, but this time he was impressed to find that this was now automated! There was a new narrow metal conveyor belt on which the empty bottles traveled along and when they reached a certain point, a cork was automatically punched in. He just had to wait at the end, take off the corked bottles and put them in a box! Then horror of horrors, he had a box under each arm and spotted our friend’s Smart Phone traveling along the conveyor and could only shout a warning. The thing only just escaped being corked!
Siena Cake
Photo J Finnigan
Last weekend, I bought my first annual piece of Siena Cake. Now this is a close as I can get to the taste of a typical English Christmas Cake. It is made with figs, nuts and chocolate powder, and some other secret ingredients, crushed under a press. All cooks have their own recipes, however, this one was purchased at Osteria La Gramola, in Tavernelle who use the original one from Siena. Now some of you clever foodies out there will probably put me right, or at least explain the other ingredients. Speaking of which, and I’m sure she won’t mind my mentioning it, my good neighbour and celebrity cook, Judy Witts Francini, knows everything there is to know about Tuscan cooking. You should visit her website and go along to one of her residential cooking classes, or at least buy her books. Fantastic! Visit http://www.divinacucina.com
Well, I think enough said for now. I’ll endeavour to bring you some good news about Silvio Berlusconi next week.
Amore June x
PS Here is the direct link for an ideal Christmas present.
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