Le Corone

Le Corone (the Crowns) is a small hamlet at the other end of the valley from our local village of Manciano and it is here that I have rented another olive grove. A lovely parcel of land containing around 200 olives big and lovely but untended for a couple of years now as the owner is too ill to maintain them.

Today was our first day starting to clean the land and prune them back into shape. It is a great feeling being able to bring a piece of land back into production.

This may lead to a new label of olive oil from Casa Margherita. Exciting.

Foligno

It is said that in the centre of the world there is a sea, in the centre of the sea lies a peninsular, in the centre of the peninsular there is a region, in the centre of the region there is a town, in the centre of the town there is a bar, in the centre of the bar there is a billiard table, in the centre of the billiard table there are four markers, and in the centre of these lies the centre of all creation.

Now, if you were to come to Foligno on this basis, as it is Foligno of which this story speaks, then I think you would probably be reasonably to very disappointed. Nice town but....

The other reason sprang into my hear today is in the the feast of San Felician(o) the patron saint of Foligno.

Hunters Chicken - A Review

I have cooked the ‘Hunter’s Chicken’ twice now for my wife. She says it is in her “Top 5” meals of all time. I made it last week for our 27^th Wedding Anniversary and everything worked out that night. 

Thank you for the recipes. I will be trying more in the near future.

Warren Jones

Aurora, Canada

Just one of the recipes in the Casa Margherita Cookbook. Available from www.casa-margherita.com

Adopt an olive tree this Christmas

Looking for a Christmas gift that is a little different then why not adopt an olive tree from
Casa Margherita.

With a beautiful initial gift box filled with an adoption certificate complete with your personal message, a sample tin of olive oil and an olive oil handbook, then in summer a copy of the
Casa Margherita recipe book and then in winter a guaranteed two litres of extra virgin olive oil.

Choose from a 'young & virile', a 'full flush' or an 'elder statesman' tree. All this for only €71.50 plus shipping. Find out more at http://www.casa-margherita.com

Pea souper

We have been engulfed in a good old fashioned pea souper whilst waiting for a courier to pick up the olive oil for our UK olive tree adopters. Naturally enough he has just arrived - 6.00pm.

The weather meant we were unable see this.

Flocking sheep it's cold

We had the first snow of the winter today. The thermostat in the car went from 4° to -1° quicker than you could have a gin and tonic and a kebab.

Autumnal vines

We have been wanting to go over to Montefalco on the other side of the valley to see first hand the vines in their autumnal glory and today was the day. We are a bit late but they still provide a great dash of colour in the landscape.