Tuscany Round-Up
My good intentions expressed back in May of this year seemed to evaporate in the heat of the Italian summer. I can’t believe that the last time I posted anything here was over a month before granddaughter Mali was born, and she’s now nearly 5 months old!
Not that this lack of input should be equated with idleness – there have been many other projects on the boil, such as Gail’s book, which is coming on well, the garden, house maintenance – shutter re-varnishing and other such delights, as well as just enjoying a hot Tuscan summer. Now we’re back in Phuket in our Phuket Garden Home shoebox, which despite its size has a good familiar feel to it. More of Phuket in the next posting; first, what happened over the summer in Toscana?
Year of the Pig!
It may be the year of the ox in the Chinese calendar, but in Tuscany nobody told the wild boar, who are proliferating exponentially. Normally once August arrives, bringing with it a distinct lack of rain, the thirsty pigs in the woods move into more open spaces that they wouldn’t go near in wetter times. One of these spaces is a field below our house that happens to have a plum tree that drops an abundance of cherry plums as the ripen. This is too much of a temptation for the pigs, who in previous years used to arrive during the afternoon for a noisy and delicious late lunch. However, they didn’t hang around. Not until this year. This year they would arrive in the morning like unwanted tourists and brazenly run around the field, digging, snuffling and generally treating the place like they owned it. As the water situation worsened, they became bolder, and the sweet smell of the grapes ripening on our modest five rows of vines was just too tempting. So in early September, holes started appearing under the fence around the land and the crop of grapes started to diminish. The culprits weren’t the fully grown 400 pounders – fortunately – but little fellas from this year’s litters – if that’s what a family of wild boar offspring is called. However, they are not to be underestimated: they can eat! Cutting to the chase, the final outcome was that most of the grapes went pigwards with very few remaining, and certainly all thoughts of trying to produce some wine this year were thoroughly scotched. I’m already plotting defences for next year but I’m not revealing strategies at the moment – these pigs are smart; some of them might even surf the web. That said, a number of these grape-reared snorkers will have fallen victim to the hunters guns over the last few weeks – I’m shedding no tears – and I reckon that there is some delicious prosciutto out there somewhere with just a hint of sangiovese grape about it.
Year of the Olive
It’s fortunate that neither pigs nor the other animals that roam our woods are partial to olives. Apart from the occasional bird having a nibble, olives are a safer crop. This year, for reasons I don’t pretend to understand, the olive harvest was early and we were able to pick ours before we headed off eastwards. Out trees are still young and still learning the ropes, so crops are not large. This was our best to date at 37kg. Such a relatively small amount still took a few hours to pick, so people who harvest 1000kg+ clearly have their work cut out. We combined the crops from several friends and the total 114kg got their own pressing. The yield was generous – for our 37kg, we obtain around 6½ litres of delicious extra vergine that are currently stored in a dark place over the winter awaiting our return in the spring. Yum!
Year of the The Flail Mower
As mentioned in one of the very posts of the early summer, a trinciatrice – flail mower – was ordered for adding to the bundle of toys for playing in the garden. It arrived in early June and what a joy it is! I know it’s hard for the average person to get excited about a piece of farm equipment, but this device has saved me huge amounts of time and more importantly, effort. Not only that, the field housing the vine and the olives now looks very smart. And it’s so easy to cut, you just sit on the tractor and drive up and down. Magic!!