Madonnas, melograni (pomegranates), and a winter salad
Summer in Tuscany is spent soaking up the sun at the beach or escaping the heat in the mountains; as olive farmers, our autumn is dominated by the raccolta(harvest). Come […]
Tag Archives: Italy
Ripening: olives show their true colours
We are sometimes asked whether we grow green or black olives, as if the colours represented two different varieties rather the maturity of the fruit: every olive will turn from […]
Chestnut fever: castagnaccio, caldarroste and Chinese wasps
October and early November are chestnut season in Tuscany. For centuries chestnuts were a dietary staple in the mountainous parts of Tuscany, such as the Garfagnana area above Lucca. Chestnuts […]
Liquid gold: tasting the olio nuovo
There is a hushed silence around the table. In turn, each member of the family drizzles a few drops of our just-pressed oil onto a piece of Tuscan bread, and […]
La raccolta: the olive harvest in Tuscany
We have been harvesting in our olive grove for three weeks now, although frequent rain has slowed our progress. The harvest, or raccolta, is a decidedly social affair. Ulivetti (olive groves) […]
The grape and the olive: Schiacciata con l’uva (grape focaccia)
From a food perspective, autumn is the most important time of the year in Tuscany. Many of the most highly prized ingredients of the Tuscan diet – truffles, porcini mushrooms, […]
Back in the grove: time for the olive harvest
After a long hot summer (and an equally long and inexcusable break from blogging) when there was little to do in the grove other than watch the olives grow, it’s […]
Olives are not the only fruit: fig trees in the olive grove
The hills of Montalbano, known as le colline di Leonardo (Leonardo’s hills), are prime olive-growing territory. From the top of the hill where we have our olive grove, a endless […]
Olive farming in summer: the waiting game
Summer is a quiet period for olive farmers, particularly the organic sort. The trees have been pruned and the grass mown, the fruit has set, so since we are not […]
Foraging for Mushroom Grass – Nepitella (wild calamint)
Now that the olive blossom has faded, the dominant scent in the olive grove is once again a strong, minty fragrance. Tracing the scent back to its source, I stumbled […]
Notes from a Tuscan Olive Grove 