Vendemmia at Monteolivo

As I promised last week, I picked my grapes today. I am a bit superstitious about planning activities like this. One year, I planned to have my grapes harvest on Sunday. That Saturday, an invasion of birds had the same plans and left me nothing to pick. I now know where Hitchcock got his trauma.

This year I didn´t have to worry about birds, because Pio had decided that there would be no vendemmia without him. So hit hid among the leaves and attacked my hands every now and then. Until he hit the scissors, hurt himself and finally left.

It took me over an hour even though I only have two vines, but they did very well, I have about 10 kg. of grapes. They are slightly sweet and not very big, so I think I will use them to make juice and jelly from them.

I would love to make my own wine, but two problems occur. I don´t know if 10 kg. is enough and I have no idea how to do it. But since I will leave for Umbria in a month and I have many friends that know everything about it, maybe next year.

I owe you the jelly recipe. I always make an apple-grape jelly, because the apple contains a little more pectine so the jelly will be better:

500 ml. grape juice

1 apple, cut into small pieces, cooked in a little water for about 15 minutes

jelly sugar

Sterilize two 250 ml. jars by putting them in a 200° oven for 15 minutes, then put them upside down on a very clean towel.

Put the cooked apple pieces and the grape juice in a pan, add the right amout of jelly sugar – follow the directions on the package – an make it boil. Let boil for one minute. Then divide the apple among the two jars, fill them with the jelly and close the jars carefully. Put them upside down for five minutes.

Another very nice thing you can do with your vines, if you have to prune them anyway, is use the leaves to fill them with goat chees. The best is to use the leaves in spring, when they are young, but you can´t always get what you want..

It´s a nice sidedish to a feta salad or just as a starter.

Needed:

grape leaves

100 gr. of chevre or another soft goat cheese

1 tomato, chopped very small

1 glove of garlic

(or, simple version as always, buy a ready-made herb cheese)

Preheat the oven to 180°C Take the biggest leaves you can find. Put them in a sieve and pour boiling water over them. The set them carefully on the counter.

Mix the cheese with pressed garlic and the tomato pieces. Put a spoonfull on the leaves, roll them and close them carefully using a toothpick.

Put the rolls in a slightly oiled baking dish and leave them inthe oven for 5 – 10 minutes, till the cheese begins to melt.  

Harvest time - picking olives

Just like last year, I spent a few days picking olives and with every olive I remove from the tree a bit of happiness fills my soul. I can completely understand why some Umbrian can´t talk about anything else. When I could make a living out of this, I would not hesitate for a second.

This year I had the pleasure of being invited to a friends´place and help them pick their olives and it only made me more certain: you can never have too much of a good thing. One big advantage was that their field was more or less flat, so it was possible to use two hands instead of needing one to cling to the trees.

The second good thing was the height of their trees. They had been pruned the previous year, which, of course, meant less harvest, but very healthy trees. My friends´father told me that the Umbrian say a pigeon should be able to fly freely through a good olive tree.

He also taught me how to grow the olives the biological way. Of course, olive trees too can suffer from a fungus that attacks the trunk and he showed me how to remove it and cover the wound. He also told me that, at the mill, he even askes the preceding farmer wether he used pesticides to fight flies or not. If so, all equipment has to be cleaned before he has his olives pressed.  

After three years of experience I can now tell apart the different types of trees and the way the olives grow. I have learned how much easier and faster it is to remove the big black ones that grow in clusters, but I also know they mostly contain more water, so the best olives are the smaller ones that hang solitarily on the branches.

I have learned how to stretch out the net to catch the olives and how to block it at the end so the olives won´t run down the hill and get lost. Our `own` field is located on a very steep hill, that allowes every tree to catch the sunshine, but makes it quite hard to work on.

It also makes it difficult to reach the higher branches while standing on a slippery net, with thorns all around and an occasional viper showing up. Climbing a tree, trying not to fall or look down (eeks) and stretching for a few more olives that will certainly make the difference is a calling, not a profession.

And after having resisted all those inconveniences.. the next tree is waiting. Still, every time I reach for the first branch of new tree and see the olives collected at the lower end of the net..it is pure happiness.

Let alone when you can finally make an appointment at the mill. It is very exciting to watch the weight on the scales, to guard your olives when they´re pressed. 

Imagine the thrill

you feel when the first trickle of oil appears. And finally, to count the number of cans. And it is a bit sad when you watch the last drops of oil dripping from the tap.

Tasting the first spoon of oil is an amazing experience. The sharp taste that cloggs your throat for a second... and suddenly, you know why you took all the trouble, why your back hurts, why your hands are dirty and full of thorns... because it was worth it. Can´t wait for next years´ harvest.  

End of summer - sadness or new chances?

Actually, this time of year always makes me sad. It is not like the winter, no one has to apologize for escaping the cold and snow. It´s also not like plain autumn, that I really love for its beautiful colors, its olive harvest and trying out mushroom and game dishes. Of course it´s not at all like spring when everyone and everything has great expectations. And for me, nothing, really nothing can compare to a long hot summer, even if it means I have to water the vegetable garden twice a day.

Maybe that is the real reason. September means saying goodbye to the summer. It means that it is still dark when I wake up. It means cold mornings, but if you wear a sweater you´ll be sorry within the hour. It means, that my flowers and herbs begin to disappear and the greenhouse is almost empty.

Yet I am busier than ever. September also means picking grapes. I am a few weeks behind of the Italians because of the lack of sunshine, but they slowly got their rich blue color and it is a joy to spend some time in the afternoon under the vines and plan things for the year to come.

I use my grapes for juice and jellies. Grape jelly combines perfectly to cheese and a nice red wine.

I also love the way my hops flower. Its ranks are very nice to decorate some spots in your home or garden with, considering the fact that I grow too few to brew my own beer from it. But it is an idea.

To continue, there are a lot of apples to pick and use them for cakes, strudels and pies and those that don´t look beautiful can be used for compote, or squeeze them in the juicer and use the juice to make an apple-honey jelly. I made two jars of it last year and used it as frosting for pies and cake, it´s just a little `extra` on a plain ordinairy applepie.

The ones that look really awful, I cut into pieces, let them dry completely and use them for Christmas decorations.

But fortunately, it´s not Christmas yet. I stil have to tell you about my peartrees. I have two, a normal one and one to grow pears to cook. The first I use for pies, as a side dish for a game meal, or in an autumn salad of oakleaflettuce, cheese, pear and a dressing of EVO and balsamico vinegar. Really delicious.

The ones I have to cook first I preserve in a jar for winter, in a sugar-cinnamon syrup, or use them for compote. Or, again, squeeze them and use it for jelly, which is also very nice with cheese, with game dishes or in a crostata (marmelade pie).

Last but not least, one of the best things coming up are the mushrooms. It is great to walk the Umbrian hills and collect porcini and other mushrooms– don´t you ever try it on your own. Apart from the risk of falling into some ravine, there´s also the danger of collecting the wrong ones. Any innocent mushroom has a toxic equivalent that resembles it exactly, so only take guided tours.

But once you made it alive, I can hardly think of an ingredient with so many possibilities and such a divers taste.

I will post recipes with all the fruits I mentioned in coming blogs.

Re-reading all of the above, I realize there is only one thing I will never get used to and will never learn to like: