Friday, 17 December, 2004 14:56
Global Stringer: Tim
Hedges |
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| Global
Stringers - Tim
Hedges | | | Name:
Tim Hedges
Location:
Umbria, Italy
Connection:
I'm from Shaftesbury
Distance from here:
739 miles | |
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| Date:
Friday, December 17, 2004 |
Autumn here ends with the olive harvest. On the still sunny hillsides, old men
are perched atop rickety ladders stroking the green and purple olives into nets
strewn on the ground.
The gnarled evergreen trees, which might be 1,000
years old, can each produce around 10kg of olives which will make about 1.5 litres
of olive oil. This year the crop is good. At the mill you can make your own bruschette,
unsalted bread toasted, rubbed with garlic and soaked in the new oil. Italians
eat only seasonal food: in the markets now are the first Sicilian oranges, artichokes,
the last of the summer’s peppers and tomatoes, aubergines and fennel, spinach
beet and cardoons. Locally grown vegetables, wine and olive oil are cheap by English
standards, butcher’s meat is expensive so is used sparingly.
The commercial
Christmas is a fairly new phenomenon here; until recently children got their presents
at Epiphany, January 6th. The main celebration is Christmas Eve dinner, where
the traditional fare might be bruschette, tortellini in brodo (small stuffed pasta
in chicken broth), a guinea fowl, and golden sponge cake pannetone. Afterwards,
midnight mass.
Cordiali Saluti!
Tim |
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