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I started looking for sweet Calabrese pepper seeds online because I hadn't saved the seeds from a previous year's crop...and if I did save them, I don't remember where I put them (I've had 3 urban gardens in 4 years!).
Eh...va bene...compro i semi quest'anno.
I discovered Seeds from Italy in Rosetta Costantino's book My Calabria.
Whenever I traveled to Italy, I always brought back seed varieties of
the vegetables that I loved eating in Italy, but that were hard to find
back home. I remember dashing around Roma on our way to la stazione to catch our train to Lago di Garda, trying to find il fioraio where I had seen a stand of must-have heirloom seeds (semi antichi) and organic seeds (semi biologici) in vendita.
If you have seeds to share from "la patria", please contact me and share them!
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| orto in canoa |
And here's something new that I'd like to share, it's an idea from the German culture and something I will try quando arriva la frutta di primavera. Preserving summer fruit for consumption in winter, instead of--or in addition to making jam, make fruit liquor:Basic Recipe for Rumtopf
The following fills a 2-gallon crock. You can certainly halve or quarter this recipe and use a smaller jar. Select whichever fruits are in season where you live, but note that melons don't work well.
3 cups strawberries, hulled
2 cups each, 8-14 different ripe and unblemished fruits*
9 1/2 - 15 1/2 cups sugar (1 cup for every 2 cups of fruit)
2 liters organic dark rum or brandy, at least 80 proof
2 cups each, 8-14 different ripe and unblemished fruits*
9 1/2 - 15 1/2 cups sugar (1 cup for every 2 cups of fruit)
2 liters organic dark rum or brandy, at least 80 proof
*Suggestions: apples (cored and sliced); apricots (pitted and sliced); beach plums (pitted); blackberries; blueberries (pierced); cherries (pitted); currants, red and black (pierced); figs (sliced); gooseberries; nectarines (pitted and sliced); peaches (pitted and sliced); pears (cored and sliced); plums (pitted and sliced); raspberries
See the complete recipe here: la ricetta completa |
| orto in tendenza |
Furthermore, with a few square meters (pochi metri quadrati) one can establish their own orto familiare (personal family garden).
And I just want to aggiungere qui that here in my beautiful California landscape, we have the absolute best climate and land for all kinds of farming. I'm planning a trip to Big Sur, CA in the summertime and I'm putting the Esalen Farm & Garden on my itinerary. I will take my Italian friends to fare questa bella esperienza.
