Last night we took a walk into the country – which is basically about a 15 minute walk from the house.  But once there you find farm land – many pieces of land all together – not too many fences so everyone knows where their boundaries are.  Some gardens are very well defined and maintained.  Other land is not used for growing as the soil may not be as good or the owners just do not want to farm it.  Some owners have milk cows – each with their own bell so as they eat you hear the cow bells ringing – what a great sound. 

Luigi has land in the country.  This land is full of fruit trees so we stopped to pick some fruit and for me to ask a lot of questions.  The land has fig trees, apricot trees, and two types of plum trees. 

There are also two types of fig (fico) trees.  One type bears figs that will mature in August.  The other type bears two types of figs.  One type you can eat now and one type matures in August.  So we picked some ripe figs and ate them right off the tree.  The figs that will mature in August are those that will be dried and processed with a citrus flavor and a nut inside. 

Next we picked some apricots (albicocca) and ate them right off the tree.  They are small but very flavorful.  The plums (prugna) will not be ready for about 10 days.  There were 2 different type of plum trees – both a yellow/green color.  They do have the darker red/purple plums but none in Luigi’s garden.  The amazing thing about all these trees – they use no pesticides.  We ate the fruit right off the tree and didn’t even wash it.  The flavors were fantastic.  Luigi tells me the trees are about 60+ years old.  Oh – also a correction on the age of his house – it is 300+ years old not 500+ but what is 200 years among friends!!

There are many olive trees on our walk but most of Luigi’s olive trees are on different land that he owns up in the hillside.  The trees we saw will bear fruit in October to December.  Luigi’s trees will bear fruit later due to where they are planted.  This picture is of the small olives as they are just starting to grow. 

More later about my Sunday activities.  Kayaking  and watching my cousin, Angela make ragu or Bolognese sauce.  I have her recipe and tried it once but I clearly needed another lesson.  Could be a good time to try my first video!!

Fico - fig

Angela and Luigi

Albicocca

Prugna

Prugna

Oliva