Wandering over the Agri Umbra agricultural tradeshow last year we spotted a packet of 'peanut seeds' from the renowned Franchi seed company. Grow peanuts in your backyard? Well, why not. Not a lot of people know but there...
Hunting season has begun and not only for wildboar (actually the wild boar hunting starts this Saturday). Mushroom hunters can be seen all over the country site. Someone from a nearby village always parks his car near us...
Inhabitants of Chiusi organised a wine festival last friday and since I had never been to Chiusi (and neither had my guests) we jumped at this opportunity. Chiusi is a lovely village in Tuscany just over the Umbrian border. Fortunately we had lovely guests since the...
No, sorry no recipe. It is the time of the year that the majority of the grapes have become sweet enough to be called ripe. So in the morning you stroll over to your vineyard, eye a nice bunch or two, snip them of and dive back into your home to let them join the...
If you like wine festivals you'll like Italy. Take this one for example, vini nel mondo in Spoleto. In exchange for some euro's you are handed a wineglass and a 'winemap' of Spoleto. You then head into town and dive into one of the buildings marked on the map to get...
It is not a new restaurant but a place I had never visited. A 10-minute drive from Umbertide in the direction of Gubbio. Why did I not find out before? Villa Valentina is part of a spa. I had no idea one could eat there. The food is actually quite good and the...
As mentioned before it is the time of the year to go hunting for the slender wild asparagus stalks. Well, I say hunting it is more searching with a very big S. You see one of the great talents of the wild asparagus is to hide itself from view. You know the shoots have...
Just as we started driving full throttle up the hill we was halted by one of our neighbours. They are always interested in what we are up to and they must have spotted the big branches filling the car. "Hazelnut and fig trees someone donated us", we explained. Great,...
Two days ago we helped our neighbours carving up their pig. A very important moment in Umbria and therefore always followed by a sumptuous meal. Pigs have always played a big roll in Italian society and there are a lot of proverbs with the word pig in them. One I like...
Yesterday evening we were to meet some friends in Trevi. Important question: dove andiamo a mangiare?A very friendly and good natural winemaker near us had mentioned Gustavo a while ago because of the winelist and good food. Gustavo's owner is his friend. So Gustavo...
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