What are you EVOO, DOP, IGT.............................

Well we are EVOO. Extra virgin olive oil is regulated by the International Olive Oil Council as oil having free acidity at less than 0.08%. Casa Margherita oil is tested and is extra virgin.

As for DOP we are in a DOP region. All of Umbria is DOP, but the Italian system is such that our grove is DOP land but we cannot claim ir label our oil as being DOP as you need to get your fruit registered as DOP which is an expensive and not suited to a small producer such as ourselves. The same goes for IGT.

Many producers are trying to find ways of getting their oil to stand out. Mono cultivar oils, the above labels, organic or biologico as it is here. Picked early, picked late, crushed between virgins thighs (male and female of course). Everyone is trying to find an angle.

I think I have found one. Having checked on an search engine and had a lowly response I can proudly announce that Casa Margherita olive oil is a boutique olive oil. It is also probably the only boutique oil made in Trevi as well. A market leading oil.

The only trouble is that boutique brings to mind for me, Twiggy, the 70's, Carnaby Street................

What's in a name?

I have noticed that there are a handful of Italian christian names that are very simple and direct. For instance:-

Agosto      -   August
Domenico  -   Sunday
Ottavio      -    Eight
Primo         -   First
Quinto       -   Fifth
Sabatino    -   Saturday


This list is not exhaustive and does not go into surnames which follow the English where there are some that describe what trade the person/family had.

I like their simplicity and directness. I would imagine these types of names are declining in popularity as the parents go for something more sophisticated.

However, in the English speaking world I am sure there is some celebrity baby (Paris Hilton?) who is called Wednesday and a very happy child it is as well.

Set

The fruit has now set on all the olive trees. The flower has finished and the small olives are growing. They start green as seen here and then ripen to a deep dark reddish black come harvest time in late October/November.

These olives are for oil only and should not be eaten as they are extremely bitter.

So now we largely wait for harvest time. I have yet to finish cutting the grass but hope to get that done in the next couple of weeks.

Sunday - Le Due Mondi

Last night we came over all cultural and went to the final concert of the Due Mondi festival in Spoleto.


This was held outside in the PIazza Del Duomo which is pictured below. A great location for a concert. The band was the Orchestra Sinfonica di Milano Giuseppe Verdi who played Bernstein's West Side Story and then Mahler's 1st.


Both were very good if maybe a bit too quiet but then we were in the cheap seats at the back!


Afterwards we had dinner in Spoleto after having bumped into someone from Trevi who is going to order some olive oil. Which was nice.


Remembered today that it was almost 4 years to the day that we came to Italy to live, so it was a nice celebration of that.

Roundabout an olive

The Comune (local council) of Trevi has recently built two roundabouts in Borgo Trevi. These were built and left without any landscaping being done.

I have been mutterlng darkly under my breath that given that Trevi is the olive oil centre of Umbria the least the council could do would be to plant a few olives in the centre of the roundabouts.

Just last week my words were half heeded and this strangely shaped olive appeared in the centre of one of the said traffic islands. I like the stone base on which it is mounted but I think the watering system just detracts a little from the overall effect.

Friday is..

,,market day and here we have the lovely Luciana (on the right) on the fruit and veg stall. This is a very different from shopping at the supermarket as nearly everything here is available seasonally. So as it is summer there is lots of great fruit to be had - cherries, peaches, nectarines, melon, water melon, plums, and apricots to name nearly all.

Seasonality for me means that you appreciate the fruit when it's best and at it's freshest and so miss it when it's no longer available.

I remember as a kid not liking the summer months as this mean't new potatoes and so no chips. Still do actually.

Strange olive shapes

Occasionally during an olive trees growth it will become somehow distorted. We like the shapes they create and tend to keep them if we have had need to cut the tree or trunk down. This means that Casa Margherita has a load of these natural sculptures dotted around awaiting us to do something with them.

This one reminds me of a distorted face - maybe Elephant Man?