In Love with France, At Home In Italy

Mamma Natura really threw us a curve ball on the second Saturday in August. This has been a record hot summer with temperatures in the high 90's, all of which has led to fabulous produce--football-sized luscious tomatoes, my new purple pole beans, beautiful white eggplants, peppers, peaches, yellow plums. But then we had a crazy hail storm that caused a "domino effect" on my normally invincible tomato and bean supports. ZUT! NUTS! OY! PORCO MISERIA!   These poles used to be vertical! What's wrong with this picture? Everything! Still attached to those crooked poles are loads of heavy tomato deliciousness. Whatever you do, DON'T try to sit here! (This was part of my incompetent attempt to solve the problem) Now what? It's definitely time to call for reinforcements! Our neighbor, Farmer Galli who, except for his magical aged sheep/cow manure normally keeps us out of doodoo, had surgery tha...

My orto (vegetable garden) is a thing of beauty, but I take no credit for that. It has generations of contadino wisdom behind it.  When I arrived in Umbria in May for the summer, the peas and favas that now delight us at table were already planted. Ditto for the lettuce, basil, parsley, beans, artichokes, onions, cabbages, chard, cukes, zukes, and garlic.  I will, however, take credit for my nutty experiments with rainbow-hued chard seeds, the ribes (red currant) stalks from my friend that I cluelessly but optimistically stuffed into the ground, and the 6-foot, bolted and blue-flowering  radicchio that I stubbornly refuse to pull up despite the head scratching of Farmer G.  But then again, he laughed when I stuck into the ground the prunings from the roses, several of which have turned into sturdy new plants.  He recently came by to stake the tomatoes and pole beans with bamboo stakes grown and sharpened by himself. I, a former lu...