Category Archives: garden

Day 41 – Covid-19

159,516 positives in Italy. Up 2% – 20,465 total deaths.
1,320 positives in Umbria. Up only one case. Percentage near zero. (Yay!)

572,587 cases in the US – 23,078 deaths.
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Today is the last day of our fifth week in isolation.
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One governor put the choice facing the country in stark terms.

“I fear if we open up too early . . . that we could be pouring gasoline on the fire,” New Jersey Gov. Phil Murphy (D) said on CNN. He added: “Right now, the house is on fire, and job number one is to put the fire out.”

I saw the Governors of several states in the NY region (PA, NJ, CN, RI, DE, NY) are joining forces to create a task force to decide on a metered reopening. This is an intelligent plan…
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Today is the first day some more stores can reopen here in Italy. It is a first baby step.
“Tuesday, April 13th, 2020 will see the beginning of Phase2.
Bookstores, stationery shops, clothing shops for infants and children will begin to open for business. Agriculture and certain IT enterprises will begin a gradual return. This will not apply to Lombardy, Bergamo or Veneto regions.”
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So, I had planned for days now, to do a couple of errands today. I find I put off leaving the house nowadays. It is fraught with dangers! But I screwed up my courage, printed out my Autocertificazione and went out. I opened the downstairs door to the street, keep in mind our street is barely a cars width across, and a Carabinieri car was parked in front of my door! Eek! I strolled, nonchalantly out with my bags of trash as camouflage…my mask covered my face, and made my getaway.

First stop was the Tabbacci. I needed to pay the bills of my friend and had been putting off the trip. Not difficult. One person is allowed in at a time. There is a fence across the counter so you have to keep your distance. Finito!

Then, for the fun part of the errand. I drove out of town to a greenhouse I know to see if they were open for me to buy some flowers. They were! I bought a couple trays full. Petunias, geraniums, those little, teensy white flowers I always get. And a cute little purple daisy-like flower. Oh and I found a nice thyme plant as mine had gotten all woody and I pulled them up. It is still cool outside so the lady, who is always very sweet and tries to speak English to me, said they wouldn’t really start growing much until it warms up some more. I have to marvel, I had a mask covering my face, my hair long and hanging in my face, glasses all fogged up…I haven’t bought plants there in several years…and yet…she still knew to speak English to me!! How!!?

View from outside nursery up the hill to Civatella Ranieri (inside copse of trees) – castle where artists spend six weeks as fellows…normally. Closed until August this year.

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I can’t help but be heartened that we have seen the slightest bit of loosening now. Enjoy your day! I will since I can now plant some plants! Always makes me happy 🥰… 🌈 sta migliorando!

Fall is upon us

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It is amazing how fast the seasons change here! It was just a little over a week ago that it was blazing hot! Now it’s cool and a few showers. It feels very autumnal 🍁. Nights cool down so much we have to wear sweaters to sit outside in the evenings. We have friends visiting right now. They are staying at a friend’s vacant house in Montone. They said it’s like the desert [edit – ha ha ha, no it’s not like dessert! Sorry!] the way it get so cool at night.

Autumn Umbrian tapestry.

It is also the end of the growing season. They are busy harvesting the grapes. They started with the white Trebbiano Spoletino. Then, surprisingly they said the Merlot was next. It will continue through September and into October/November with the Sagrantino grapes, the Cabernet, and the Grechetto.

Sagrantino

I also am harvesting my bumper crop of hot peppers. We grew Jalapeños, cayenne, and two types of habaneros- chocolate and orange. We also have a small bush-like pepper with tiny hot peppers. It’s very ornamental.

Here is just part of my crop.

Next post will be about a fun visit with one of my besties and her husband.

Enjoy the season!

Heat wave

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Welcome to summer! We went from cold rain to steaming heat. We are doing our normal “Shutter Management” . We open everything up when the sun sets, and close everything up when the sun rises into the sky. It is still nice and cool at night. Up in more northern Europe, Berlin, Paris etc. the heat was amazing. Records were set. Paris saw 45.7C or around 114F degrees. And remember, people don’t have AC here as a rule. I read an article about all the heating and cooling contractors up there being inundated with requests to install it. And they used to make fun of the Americans for having it. Harumpf. We merely got up to 37C yesterday. Warm but not terrible.

Umbertide is up to it’s old tricks. The Vespa Club hosted Vespa Clubs from ALL over Umbria. I saw shirts from Spoleto, Spello, Todi, Orvieto, Perugia. There were a LOT of vespas!

I went for a walk last week early, before it got very hot. Along the very placid Tivere river.

Along the way.

I had been asking Luther to let me know when the sunflowers were blooming along his running route out in the farm fields. He said today was the day. So I drove out there, after I was released from Vespa madness., to get a few pictures.

And finally a shot of our terrazza with all the pretty blooming flowers. A far cry from the horrible mess we had out here while our last pet sitters were here! The rain really delayed everything but I’m happy to say they have all recovered.

Happy Summer everyone!

Trying to move onward with the knee

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One of my posts prompted a comment about recuperation in the US vs Italy. I opined that in the US everything is go, go, go and get well, and back to work. Here it is piano, piano, take it slow, heal, you’ll be fine in good time. So which is better? Hard to say. I’m following instructions and trying not to feel competitive with those who are moving faster than me…after all, whats my hurry? 🙂 piano, piano.

That said I am not really happy with my walking ability. The knee is quite weak with it buckling unexpectedly when I take steps. This makes me less confident in my ability to walk. Other things are going well. The knee bending is very well. Sleeping is easier but I wake a lot when shifting positions and going from bent to straight leg. Next week I plan to go to the local pool with my friend Joanne who will show me the ropes there. Then I can do aqua exercises. I’m told this is an excellent way to work the knee.
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Other than the knee last week I had a unique experience. I had received a letter in the mail with an appointment for my annual mammogram. So we headed to Città di Castello to the hospital. I’d been once before so felt fairly confident going again. I sat at the desk where the woman, in pretty violet scrubs, looked up my records online and nodded to a man, wearing brilliant red scrubs, who came and took me to the scanning room. I had a bad feeling about this. His hame was Marco. He asked a couple of questions and indicated I should take my shirt etc off. Well. I had never had a male mammogram techician before but one has to go with the flow as it were so I did. It wasn’t so bad. I just have to wonder why a man would choose this profession. Yes he gets to see and touch lots of breasts but it is hardly titillating.
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Afterwards we visited one of our butchers. We needed provisions. Then, while Luther parked the car I made a loop through our Kilo zero market. The veggie people have just what is growing nearby. Cabbages…many sorts. Kale. Chard. Spinach. A few root veggies. This is the time of the year when the farmers who lived off of their crops are ready for some spring growth. They have been eating the available greens growing now, supplemented by the preserved bounty from last summer. Nearly gone. The good news is that spring has started to put in a pretty steady appearance. I am starting to look forward to the spring early veggies.
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I’ve also started to clean up our terrace. I bought a nice wood rack for the wood we didn’t use.

And I’ve been scrubbing the grout and tiles. My pots are being slowly dug up and the old plants relegated to the trash. I will be ready in May when we start to plant again. I am thinking about what to try this year. Always fun to plan! I have lots of pots now since my failed corn adventure last year.

Unmistakably Autumn

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Well, it’s official. It is suddenly Fall. Temperatures still rise to low 70s in the afternoon but as soon as the sun sets it is decidedly chilly. This is the time of year I have a hard time deciding what to wear. Inside the house is colder than outside so I tend to overdress. This is not a problem for Italians who dress to the calendar, not the temperature. So already they are wearing puffy winter coats and scarves. And I’m in a T-shirt.

And it is time to wrap up the corn saga. As you may recall, I planted corn in containers on my terrazzo and also in a friends garden. We had the hottest summer on record and consequently only a little of the corn plumped up and was edible. I believe I harvested 11 ears. And they were wonderful. The container corn was not a success at all. It tassled and had small ears that never matured. So here is our final goodbye to the 2017 corn project. Next year!

And the foods in our markets are changing rapidly. Gone are the tomatoes…sniff. And the melons. But we still have mounds of just ripe peppers to include the picante types. And we still have zucchini. The sweet, tiny ripe grapes from the fields nearby have just come in. And the pumpkins and winter squash have arrived as well.

Recently I did an interview with a writer for International Living. She’s writing an article about retiring and the differences in prices people can expect between Umbria and the US. I was happy to oblige. One misconception is that we have to pay more to eat local and in season here. I remember visiting the farmers markets in Virginia and paying top dollar for the products. Not so here. If you buy seasonally, when the vegetables and fruits are at their peak and bountiful, you pay the least because there IS such bounty. And I am definitely a person who cooks and cares to eat good tasting food which is in season. I spend around 8€ ($9) for a big grocery bag of fresh produce.

Winter squash is so seasonal.

Almost too pretty to eat. Looks like sculpture!

The citrus has arrived. It will get better as we go through the winter.

Last of the Borlotti beans and eggplant. The eggplant is scrawny.

And the pears are plentiful and luscious.

The Wednesday market is very different than the Saturday one. The Wednesday market is mostly the big vendors who go from market to market in the different towns each day (for instance Città di Castello is Thursday, Gubbio is Tuesday). Their produce is not necessarily local. I believe they DO buy local when they have the chance but most of the food comes from the south of Italy and Sicily. Still local to this country but… And you can get things from them earlier than when they are coming into season here. You can also get tomatoes all year, from Sicily, but I don’t care for them. There are one or two locals who come to both Wednesday and Saturday markets. Now, the Saturday market is only very local products from nearby farms. Thus you really do eat only what is in in season nearby. Winter can be pretty sparse in this one.

Greens are what is growing around here.

And cauliflower…

And Cabbage…

And I thought I would plant some fall things this year. I got a few lettuce plants and four petunias. I think the petunias may last the winter. And we shall see how the lettuce does.

CORN!!!

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Oh my god…we have harvested our first corn. It was AMAZING. After four corn-less years it was heaven on earth. I am so happy we got some corn this year from our shared garden with Angela.

We have a guest so we went together to check the corn and I deemed it ready to harvest. We picked 5 ears for our test run.

Shucking.

All ready for the pot. within three hours of picking will ensure a mighty sweet ear.

um um good. Buttered and salted and peppered. Soooo good!

Alas, all gone. Going back tomorrow for more. 🙂

My unfortunate timing means we are gone on our Croatia cruise next week so I will not enjoy it as much as I would have liked. We will see what is left when we return.

Corn – part 3

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Well folks. I am the proud grower of my first ear of corn on the terrace!!! Whohoo!!

It’s just a baby but my mouth is watering!

My two pots are producing radically different size plants. One, tall and thin, on the right, the other short and sturdy. They get the same sun, food and water. The only difference is the soil I guess. Our experiment continues.

And a report from my “corn partner” Angela. She reports the first few rows on the left have about 20 ears!!! The plants on the right have not tasseled. I did get a fast and a slow maturation mix so I imagine that’s the reason.

Corn update

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The corn is tasseling! How exciting. Just that much closer to sweet, yummy corn.

Corn – part 2

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I took a quick drive up to my friend (and corn partner) Angela’s house to see the corn we planted for the first time. As you may recall, I was not at all sure it was going to grow at all, given the earth was not tilled very deeply, but it has come up and looks OK. We can only wait and see if any of it produces ears of corn.

Here is a picture.

On the way to Angela’s house. Olive grove. It was a brilliant day!

And here is an update on my terrace corn. It is doing quite well and I think we will get some corn from these plants.

Project: Corn

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Ciao a tutti! Today I’m posting about a food that is near and dear to my heart. Sweet, summer corn! When we lived in the US as SOON as the corn started coming in I had it frequently. I am a corn snob, however, and when I was buying at the farmers market I would push my fingernail into a kernel and if there wasn’t a squirt of liquid I wouldn’t buy. It is a sign of freshness and when it was picked. As soon as corn is picked the sugars in the kernels start to turn to starch and harden. No longer a succulent sweet ear but a hard starchy one. I had a garden a couple times in my life in which I grew corn, my mantra was…get the water boiling, go pick the corn off the stalk, immerse in boiling water for 5 minutes, slather with butter and a sprinkle of salt and EAT! Heaven.

The sad story is that here in Europe, all over as far as I’ve seen, people see corn as animal fodder, not for human consumption, on the whole. In Italy they do have canned corn, they do NOT have frozen which is infinitely better. I have searched for corn here and on two occasions last year I found some. The first had been allowed to stay on the stalk far too long and was all starch and inedible. The second, from Umbria, in the super market, in NOVEMBER(!) was actually almost good. SO…

I decided to buy seeds and find some way to plant some. On the Burpee website I came across Container Corn. It is corn that will do well planted in pots. So I bought some to try. I also bought two other types in hopes of finding an outside place to plant. I did manage to partner with my British friend Angela and paid for a plot to be prepared. It was hardly optimal. Good sun but the soil really wasn’t tilled deeply enough. We planted anyway so we’ll see.

I’m happy to say my corn on my terrace is doing really well. Angela told me the corn there was up and growing. I think I will have at least some corn this summer. Happy days!

Here is my corn.