La Fruta!

The leaves are changing into brilliant shades of red and orange and finally the pomegranites are here! Our neighbor Hectore across the street has a tree that is bursting with fusia and you can buy them in all the local markets. Pomegranite is one of my favorite fruits as it reminds me of greek mythology and many special Winter Solstice rituals where we invite in our best intentions while eating pomegranite seeds. I definitely feel much more connected to fruit as a marker of seasonal time passing. Every two to three weeks, at least one new fruit appears on the trees and in the market stands. When we first arrived in July, we harvested wild blueberries and raspberries in the mountains and strawberries all over the yard. In August we discovered blackberries growing along a small winding street where we usually bike. Giovanni is passionate for fresh figs and we spent many August evenings biking with Matteo searching for fig trees where we might grab a couple. Giovanni warned that occasionally there are old men who sit with salt guns waiting to spray salt at you for stealing their fruit. This added a delightful element of danger but I never had the opportunity to dodge any salt! Septemeber means grape harvesting in Italy. We are fortunate to have abundant vines of concord style grapes growing high along the trelice above the garden. Once Matteo discovered the 'uva', he was constantly trying to move the ladder so that he could reach them. I was hoping to go to a local vineyard and do some grape stomping and wine tasting but the man at the local cantina informed us that the goverment prohibits the public from participating in the grape stomping since they cannot discern from the satelite pictures who is a person trying it out and who is an illegal worker. This sounded ridiculous to me but it is just another example of cultural differences in bureacracy. Either way, we have been drinking lots of fresh local wine from only 15 km away. Just last weekend, we ate the last bunch of grapes growing in our yard. And now, I must hurry and eat as many pomegranites as possible! More later....