Give us our daily bread

Bread here in Italy is important. It is brought fresh every day from a local bakery. Here in Umbria, a considerable number of bakers still bake over wood fires.

The bread comes in a considerable number of shapes and sized all of which have names - rosetta, tartaruga,  comune etc. There is no such thing as popping our for 'just' a loaf of bread.

The other thing here in Umbria is that in the 16th century the Pope put a tax on salt which was very common the those days. The Umbrians took umbrage at this and stopped using salt in bread making. This has continued today. I personally think that Umbrian bread would benefit from the addition of salt but after over 500 years without, this is probably wishful thinking on my part.

Burocrazia Part 1a①

I went to the post office this morning to post off a couple of adopt a tree pack to a couple who will be celebrating their ruby wedding anniversary soon. I hope they like the present.

I collect a receipt for this so I can claim it against tax. Any stationery shop in Italy will have at least one wall covered with a vast array of different types of receipt book.

So what happen is I pass my book over to the assistant in the post office who fills it in and stamps it and then retains a copy of my receipt book confirming what I have paid them in postage. Why would they need a copy of my receipt confirming this. Made in Italy.  

Danger grass!

I took Winnie our Westie down to the vet yesterday for her booster jabs. As is normal they gave her the once over and they found a grass seed head like this one in her right ear. It was in quite deep and near her eardrum. They are quite dangerous and can penetrate the skin, enter the blood stream and kill the unfortunate animal. On finding it the vet exclaimed as she often does 'povera bestia' - poor animal.

The vet tried to extract it with me holding Winnie but she was having none of it. The vet suggested we return later and to bring Rachel. We duly did but Winnie won this battle as well. So there was nothing for it but for Winnie to have an anaesthetic and then the vet was able to remove the seed head.

The other thing we learnt was that an eardrum in italian is timpano - like the timpani in an orchestra.

100% Natural

There are many claims made for olive oil. From its good for your skin because of its high levels of vitamin e or its anti-inflammatory properties or its help in reducing cholesterol levels.

Maybe one of the reasons for this is that it is a very natural product. Nothing is added and nothing is taken away. When you buy a bottle of olive oil that is all there is in the bottle - no additives, no preservatives nothing more.

Also when olives are pressed the process is clean. The fruit is crushed and then water added and then the mash is spun at great speed to separate the oil from the pulp residue and then finally the water naturally separates from the oil.

Drooping, sagging and getting heavier

The olives are slowly getting bigger and their weight is causing the branches of the trees to droop down as you can see here. By the time we come to pick the trees are quite burdened and the branches spring back upright once you have removed all the fruit.

Market day

Yesterday was the monthly farmer's market in Trevi. Casa Margherita took a stall as normal selling it's extra virgin olive oil. The market was quite quiet with people preferring to enjoy the weather elsewhere.

One of the other stallholders was selling these garlic bunches for €5 which give your kitchen at bit of bellezza.

Another vendor sells pulses and various types of flour - chick pea, chestnut, farro, corn, potato to but name them all.

These different types exist from necessity. If you didn't have wheat to make flour then you couldn't afford to buy and so needed to make the best of what you did have. Needs must ....

We like the farro as it helps make a very moorish onion bhaji.

Nocturnal noises off

The hills are alive.....with nocturnal activity. Our Westie, Winnie, loves the evenings now as the air is full great scents and smells and she can happily spend an hour or so on our doorstep - as seen here - drinking in the night air. Occasionally she will run off barking like mad or more infrequently, but more worryingly for us, is when she darts off silently. Or as silently as a slightly rotund Westie can be.

The cause in part of the nocturnal noises will be wild boar (chingiale) and also porcupines. We see evidence of their digging in the grove and can no longer have bulbs in the garden as they all get dug up and eaten.