To Everything There Is A Season

One of my constant whines – I can only imagine the surprise it must be for many of my friends to think I would actually whine about something – when I first returned from Italy had to do with food. It just wasn’t the same in Canada. Things weren’t fresh picked – they had been shipped in unripened and allowed (or forced chemically) to ripen in the store. There was not flavor! No great variety! And many of the vegetables and fruits were available – if in perhaps a state of tastelessness – year round. There was no seasonality!

Now given the climate in Ottawa the idea of fresh picked does have its seasonal limitations – the probability of anything growing is low and the improbability of anyone harvesting at -32c are reasonably high. But come on now variety? Would that be so hard to do?

Though things are looking up for varieties – particularly heirloom vegetables – but this photo taken at a flower shop in Sorrento will give you an indication of the variety of tomatoes that are grown in Italy.

You say tomato - I say TOMATOES! Eleven!  Count them - eleven types of tomatoes.  You name the occasion and you've got a red (yellow or green) ball of goodness that was made just for Nona's secret recipe.

Eleven – count them eleven different seed packets and none of them are “heirloom” – just your average Italian garden variety. Some for sauce, some for salad, some for roasting (god is there anything closer to heaven than roasted tomatoes?), others for stuffing, yet another for matching with a good Mozzarella di Buffala. I recall buying tomatoes from our local greengrocer (who by the way is still there and greeted us with big smiles and the hope that we were back to stay) and the first question was always: what are you using them for?

And of course what was available depended on the time of year – for everything. The watermelons were sweet and juicy in August but forget finding any on the market in September, artichokes were the last weeks of March and the first week of April, figs (the sweet, pale green skinned Italian variety) in June and July and this time of year: late October early November it’s kaki season!

A type of persimmon, but unlike any from North America I've every tasted, the kaki has a custardy texture with just a touch of astringency.  And apparently you can use it as an instrument to foretell the weather for the coming season.

Sidd joined me at Peter and Joe’s in savouring the joy of a chilled kaki ready to burst its orange skin and deliver creamy, custardy, astringent but sweet goodness.
I’m not sure if they remember my child-like (okay perhaps childish is a better adjective) joy when kaki season arrived but it was the perfect finish to a splendid meal with cherished friends in a place I love.

November 10 - 1871:Henry Morton Stanley locates missing explorer and missionary, Dr. David Livingstone in Ujiji, near Lake Tanganyika, famously greeting him with the words, "Dr. Livingstone, I presume?"

Road to Rossini

We're heading off to Pesaro this morning for a few days of rest, relaxation and Rossini. We'll be driving across Italy and up the Adriatic coast - approximately a 364 km trip which according to the trusty TomTom should take us 3 hrs and 36 minutes. TomTom is ever the optimist!


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Though it's the capital of the region Pesaro is pretty much a sleepy little seaside town known for its beaches, proximity to Rimini and being the birth place of Rossini. Each year since 1980 the Swan of Pesaro has been celebrated with a Festival dedicated to his works. Scholars have researched his work, lost operas have been found and critical editions published. Famous singers have appeared on stage there and careers established. The two works we are seeing are relatively obscure - as indeed most of Rossini was until the 1960s: L’Equivoco Stravante and Maomatto Secondo. The first was written when he was 16 years old and was banned because of it licentious libretto - apparently a young woman disguises herself as a castrated man (!!!) to avoid an unwelcome marriage. The second uses Mohamed the Seconds conquests of the Eastern Mediterranean to tell of love, betrayal and death - your standard opera plot.

So it three days of sun, seaside and song.

22 agosto - Santa Maria Regina

A Weekend in the Country

"A Little Night Music" has always been one of my favorite Sondheim musicals - and no not just because of Send in the Clowns (though Glynis Johns and Len Cariou singing it can still reduce me to tears - sadly that video is no longer available on YouTube) but more for the sort of writing heard in numbers like "A Weekend in the Country."


And tomorrow we're going on our own Weekend in the Country and Laurent will get a much-needed break from the glory that is Roma. After work today our friend Linda came and picked up Reese, who will be spending his own weekend in the country at her place. Of course that meant I spent this morning in the kitchen cooking up his food - ground beef, carrots, broccoli, zucchini, green beans and rice, that dog is eating better than some people I know!

Tomorrow morning we set out - our trusty TomTom set for Rieti, about 80 kilometers north-east of here. We're meeting up with a small group of people - Susan from Italytur, two other Canadians and a trio from Naples at the Fiano Romano roundabout and heading for:

• A stroll through an olive orchard with spectacular views of the Appines and an olive tasting
• a visit to an 11th century Monastery including a look at the Illuminated Manuscripts in their Scriptorium
• Lunch at the Monastery
• A visit to an olive mill that still grinds and presses for oil using the old methods
• Then off to Susan's B and B for a cooking class with chef Maurizio concluding with dinner combining some local wines with the fruits (and meat and vegetables) of our labour

That's Saturday then on Sunday:

• Breakfast at the B and B
• A visit to a chestnut grove and processing facility - its chestnut season here and marroni canditi are in all the pastry and sweet shops
• A visit to a castle that has been in one family since it was built in the 10th century
• Lunch at a local wine shop with tastings
• A look-in at Reiti itself - once a major stop on the great Via Salaria

At that point we'll head over to Linda's place about 40 kms away in Capena for dinner with her and Nazareno and pick up Reese. The pace promises to be country-speed and fortunately, not as tenison fraught or hectic as the one Sondheim's characters are about to endure.

They (who the hell are "they" anyway) are calling for 20% chance of showers tomorrow in the Reiti region. Auld Hat, Lorraine, Cowbell and the rest of you Fire Dancers please start your engines and dance those clouds away.

16 novembre - Santa Marguerita di Scozia