Adopt a cockney accent and ...

Onions. Lovely onions. Look at these lovely onions. I bet you know your onions missus. What do think of these lovely beauties. Plump and lovely. C'mon what you gonna offer me for these.

Roveja 2

These are the roveja or wild peas that I sowed back in February which are now fully dried. They have a very earthy dense flavour which I really like especially in a vegetarian chilli.

Where will you be...

Sunday 24th June, 19.45 GMT 20.45 CET

Well I'll be in Piazza Garabaldi watching the Italy vs England game on the big screen after having had a pizza at the Casarecchia.

Who will win? England better!

E voila!

Soap for the house of Margherita that needs to dry for a few weeks.

The fine art of saponification

Great use for cheap supermarket olive oil - make it into soap.

We had recently run out of the last batch of soap so today it was time to make some more. It is very easy. You need olive oil water and lye. Mix them together adding scent and colour if you wish. Leave the mixture for 24 hours and then cut into bars and leave to dry for 4 to 6 weeks.

At this moment

As you can see from this photo the olive flowers have set and their remnants remain at the end of the set fruit . The small round green olives are starting to grow. The grower can now sit back and wait till harvest time.

Ooh err missus

Bastia Umbra is holding the Sagra del Wurstel shortly. I passed a billboard advertising it this morning proudly proclaiming 43cm - le misure contano! I don't think we need a translation for that.

Giovedi

One of the advantages of having to cut the grass in the grove is that you get the chance to look at all the olives with being seen to be obsessing, nerdy or train spottery.

These are the roveja (wild peas) that I have grown from sprouting some peas in water. No GM here. I will be drying them and looking forward to using them in winter.

Sun shining and mowing the grass

A bit late this year due to the damp spring but all grove owners are now getting the grass cut in the grove. At the moment it is higher than the bonnet of our Fiat Panda.

The hill in the background of this picture is where Casa Margherita is located.

Forza Italia contro Spagna in Euro 2012.

Ramblings

My New Zealand mother-in-law rang this morning and reminded us of the celestial happening currently underway. I speak of course of the transiting of the Sun by Venus. Good job she did remind us as the next one is not until 2117!

Yesterday we had a thunderstorm exactly a year to the day when we had a severe one with a major hailstorm which damaged the olive harvest. Luckily the one yesterday was very mild.

Father's day is hoving into view so why not adopt an olive tree - great idea, great gift. http://www.casa-margherita.com/adopt-a-tree/cat_6.html