Sunday, November 22, 2009

Olive tree haircuts, fall vineyard colors and drying grapes




It is time to prune the olive trees and although the skies have been gray, the temperatures are holding nicely around 60 and there is no rain in the forecast.  I have 27 more to go before I finish and these before and after pix give you an idea what is involved.  Kind of reminds me of when I was little and had to go to Roy Buehler, the barber and ask for "short all over, but not a crew-cut".  Alternatively, I could ask you to pick out the 250 differences between the two photos of the same tree.
The vines are all decked out in their fall colors and the grapes we tied to the cables to try a new type of dessert wine are definitely drying.  
I am looking forward to sharing Thanksgiving dinner with some friends in Spello and will try to find some sweet potatoes to make them in wedges, parboiled, then with a leaf of sage and wrapped with prosciutto, cooked again in the oven for 10 minutes to finish it up.  I also picked our persimmons and will make some sort of dessert with that.  I am also bringing 100 stuffed olives "ascolana style" to fry up as an appetizer.  It will be my 1st thanksgiving since the singular event we americans put on for our master's classmates in 2006.
I hope everyone has a wonderful Thanksgiving with family and friends!
dds

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