Thanks for joining me here at my new blog address. I decided to look for a new host as I was getting a little peeved at the insidious invasion of adverts and with GrowVeg I’m guaranteed ad-free hosting. As I was changing domain name, it made perfect sense to update the look of my blog....
So how was the weather for you yesterday? Did it herald the arrival of spring or was it a sign of a second winter? February 2nd is Candlemas Day, or Groundhog Day in North America, and marks the midpoint of winter; halfway between the shortest day and the spring equinox, so it’s not hard to...
It’s been a pretty wild and windy start to the New Year for us down in the heel. Walking up the lane with the dogs earlier I spotted countless almond and ancient olive trees, which have cracked and lost branches in the strong winds we had yesterday and one olive tree had become completely uprooted....
Unbelievably, we managed to get the olive harvest out of the way before the rains, which have caused so much trouble in the north of Italy eventually made their way to the heel. We picked over six quintales (620 kilos to be precise) in just four days, which made 105 litres of lovely oil. That’s...
Last year I tried three different olive curing methods – lye, brine and brine and bruise, and ever keen to experiment, I’m trying four different methods this year to discover the table olive taste that I like best. First, a few notes on last year’s olives. I’ve decided, after trying it quite a few years...
Sorry for the long hiatus since my last blog, but my time has been mostly filled with deadlines and dentists. In my absence Autumn has arrived, covering the land with a lush green carpet and beckoning us out into the garden. It always amazes me how after, just 36-hours of rain, colour returns replacing the...
Italy: the home of slow food is also home to the ultimate fast food: namely, pasta. A satisfying plate of pasta can be faster, easier, and tastier than a takeaway and it will probably be a lot healthier too. All of the recipes listed below, as requested by our army of helpxchangers, take no longer...
As promised, here is the recipe for the “better than Branston chutney”. If you like this spicey style of dark chutney with a good good mix of fruit and spice, I promise you’ll never buy another jar of Branston again. I doubled up the ingredients listed below to make 10 decent sized jars. Ingredients 3...
Just a quick update, as I’ve been too busy to blog. Some cooler weather has meant that, with the help of our current helpxchangers, we’ve managed to get quite a lot done. First off Amy arrived and she spent a week helping Jeremy cement posts and the top of the wall, which comes up to...
You’ll have to forgive my slackness on the blog-front but it has been seriously hot here for the past couple of weeks. We’ve had several days in the mid-40s while most days have been in the upper 30s. With nightly temperatures never dropping below 25˚ C it’s left us feeling pretty lethargic. The only ones...
We (royal we being used here as it was all Jeremy’s hard work) have finished the front wall repairs, complete with new fence; built some pillars and added our wombled gates. The gates still need a good clean, some anti-rust treatment and a lick of paint, as well as some bolts to the ground and...
