Lumache

I had always thought that snails were a French delicacy but here in Umbria they are very popular. Actually this is just part of the cucina povera on which nearly all Italian food is built. What you have you eat is basically the gist of it.

We have entered winter snail season which means you can just cook them and eat them rather than in summer when you need to purge them by keeping them without food for a number of days. There is no need to do this now as they are not eating.

Our friends at Vincanta are doing yummy things with snails for all of October so there we will go.

Dropping off.

This is Louie, our cat. In fact he is much more than a cat but that is another story.

He is an old boy having reached eighteen and is pretty deaf and a bit blind but boy can he sleep and eat. At times sleep becomes a matter of urgency and you just have to let go........

Olive oil source

Every olive oil producer naturally thinks their oil is the best and the way they prune, harvest the olives, bottle etc etc is the best way. I am naturally no different.

So it is sometime difficult to find a source of unbiased information. This website, whilst it does have a slight American bias, is very informative as well as being a very well put together.

www.oliveoilsource.com

Ripening

The olives are now starting to ripen. The green olives lose their glossy green colour and turn matt and then take on this plummy colour which will deepen until it is very nearly black. So we may well be on course to start picking in the middle of October which for us here at www.casa-margherita.com is perfect as we have our local olio nuovo festival over the all saints weekend of 30/31/1 November.

La Vendemmia

The grape harvest has just started which is another indication that we are passing into autumn. The clocks will shortly go back and then by middle December all the harvesting will be completed and we will be able to put our feet up and mull over the year. How good the crop was and the quality of it and what we would like to do next year to improve it.

Sid 2

I was fumbling around in the shed today (is that a euphemism? no) for a paint brush and there behind the basket I was searching in was a snake - it looked very like a viper to me and was sticking its tongue in and out.  I beat a retreat.

Apparently, according to our vet, the only way to definitively tell whether a snake is a viper or not is that vipers have vertical pupils whereas other snakes have horizontal. Not a test I fancy carrying out.

Passed passata

Today was yet more passata making. I think I have done around 50/60 jars so far so the end will be a welcome sight. To be fair the plants are almost done with only a few more tomatoes left to ripen.

Went to collect some product photography of our bottle, a tin and the introduction pack for our adopt a olive tree scheme so as to do some publicity for olio nuovo and Christmas. Check out the adopt a tree scheme at http://www.casa-margherita.com/adopt-tree/index.html