Mushroom hunting in the Marche

15 Ottobre
Yesterday, I went mushroom hunting with a neighbor and his brother-in-law, which was appropriate since it was my brother's birthday and he is a huge morel mushroom hunter. The guide was just like my brother Jim, who seemingly knows every tree which has ever put forth a mushroom spore, and at the end of 2 hours we had about 20 lbs of mushrooms. We followed the forest work by a lunch of pasta and shrooms and too much wine. I still have another 4 bags in the freezer for future risotto or meat dishes for those who want to head our way. Most of my friends and family know I am not a big mushroom eater, but these were exceptional and I might now change my ways.
We will probably press our red grapes in the next couple of days and depending on who wins the argument, the dried white grapes in a couple of weeks to make the passito. Today, I added compost to the garden, placed another 350 iron training poles in the vineyard while hoeing weeds and this after helping our contadino neighbor pick his olives (he has promised to return the favor when we pick ours).
The weather here is perfect for those planning for vacations next year-remember October-good weather, no tourists and the chance to harvest olives!
The pictures show some good examples of the variety of mushrooms, my 2 hosts, Bacco enjoying a swim in the creek, the mushrooms cooking down and Raffaele and Corrado waiting for lunch (look at the level of wine in the bottles and lunch had not yet begun!
dds

Bacco frolicking on the beach

13 Ott.
Be sure to check out the new post below, but this is a bonus post showing Bacco in action! It is nice to have someone who can take photos other than me, and thanks to Bill for all of these, showing Bacco retrieving, running in the sand and getting a well deserved drink from the fountain in the Piazza d'Arringo in Ascoli Piceno.
dds

Happy Columbus Day and Happy 50th birthday to my brother, Jim

13 Ottobre
My friend Bill and I did a little sightseeing Saturday, heading to the beach and then to Ascoli and Offida. I dropped him off at the train station yesterday and hopefully he survived the 10 hour train ride to Nice and made all his connections.
I then tried to find the methodist church in Pescara an hour and a half to the south of us in Abruzzo, but failing in that quest, instead watched Bacco play on the beach for a half hour with a Golden Retriever puppy. We then drove back through Teramo, which is a very cute little town in Abruzzo at the base of the mountains which form the border of Abruzzo with Ascoli Piceno in the Marche. Finally, I retrieved my camera from Ascoli and am excited to try it again and take some better pix for the blog.
We are again empty, but I had a great time with my Kansas City friend and we finished off his visit with a dinner which included carrot, apple, and curry soup, roasted fennel with parmigiano cheese, a polpetta made by the most famous butcher in Italy, Cecchini, who has his shop and restaurant in the Chianti region, and dessert which included ladyfinger cookies to dip in orange mascarpone sauce. Of course, we had nice wines to match the different courses.
Tomorrow is my brother's 50th, so everyone call him up and wish him Tanti Auguri!
The pictures show me pushing down the cap on our wine, made up of the skins. It is about time to press. Then we see Bill eating the famous olive ascolane, eating at the communist restaurant, Middio, in Ascoli Piceno, picking olives with a beater and enjoying or at least trying freshly pressed olive oil, just a few minutes old!
dds

Where the hell is Matt (Bill, Dwight, or Bacco)?

11 Ott.
For those who haven't seen where the hell is Matt on you tube, here is the link- http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zlfKdbWwruY&NR=1 and it is a wonderful little video about a guy who quit his life as a computer programmer and then dances around the world. Then, after watching that, you can check out the outtakes. Makes me want to follow in his footsteps, but I will have to work on my choreography 1st.
My friend and broker, Bill, has come to visit and without him in the USA, the stock market crash of 2008 has occurred. After a teeny rally from its lows yesterday, Bill has put the knife away and came down off the roof, so we are going to visit a few of the neighboring towns today.
The red wine is fermenting along and as you can see in the photo above, the white grapes are drying nicely.
Bill and I had lunch with some expats from america, Jane and her British friends, Eddy, Jack, and Margaret yesterday and after lunch in Ripatransone, they came by to check out Nascondiglio di Bacco. All but Eddy are part-time inhabitants of the Marche and will be heading to distant parts, soon.
Here are some Fall pix to enjoy, after or before Matt's video, of fog in our valley and changing leaf colors.
dds PS Bacco is doing fine and will be exploring the towns with us today

Nearly famous! Completing the pole placement.

07 Ott.
I am nearly famous. Fabio from the university spotted my mug on a publicity photo for slow food and salone del gusto. I am afraid no-one will want to attend, now. The pic. was taken during a wine tasting of wines without sulfur added and they were truly awful! I am surprised I am not grimacing with this white which was oxidized.
Follow this link to view: http://multimedia.slowfood.it/index.php?method=section&id=119
I am hoeing again, to clear the vineyard of erba medica and weeds bigger than Bacco and to get back in shape. The impiantisti are placing the final poles and cables in the vineyard and should finish this week.
Raffaele is still enjoying his vacation leaving me with the pool geniuses who dug up 3 of my prized plants, without asking, as they put in another new drainage system.
The red is fermenting along and I get to play in the must everyday as I push down the cap. Ah!? Life in the country.
Monday night was the finale for the concert series of Ascoli festival and included dinner at a nearby hotel/restaurant, Villa Picena. It was really a wonderful group of events and I would suggest a September visit to any classical music fans.
The photos are of the concert showing husband and wife cellists, the Flaksmans, and then a trio with 2 musicians from Ascoli and Mr. Flaksman followed by today's work in the vineyard.
dds

52-17, 30, Manual stem removal and T shirt designing

5 Ottobre
My friends will understand the numbers above, a score and the number of years since the last victory. Why was I worried?
Today, my friend Sabrina and I handpicked all the stems out of the fancy fermenting tank, since we don't have a destemmer. In the process, we discovered a new method of tie-dying t shirts. Not a bad job, just a bit tedious. It was a good day to work outdoors with a beautiful sunny sky and 70 degree temperature. The stems pretty much float near the top and with 5 man-hours of picking them out and squeezing any juice back into the tank, we were done. It seems we have developed a habit of only using beautiful Sicilian girls (and CA girls) to help us with our work around here. Not a bad gig for us.
Tonight is the final dinner to celebrate Ascoli Fest, winding down 2.5 weeks of classical music concerts. It was great fun to get out of Nascondiglio di Bacco and put on my nice duds again, while hearing the Flaksman family and their entourage play wonderful classical concerts in all sorts of venues. Next year, we hope to host a concert in our neighborhood in concert with our neighbor who owns the church at the top of the hill.
The pictures show the work of the day. The big tub contains the fermenting must and skins while the smaller one has the stems which we sorted out. You see my shirt and Sabrina's with the "montepulciano chaos" design and then you see the leaves changing in the vineyard across the valley and our passito grapes becoming raisins and still looking healthy.
dds

Distrutto! cooking day

4 Ott.
Today is a cooking day as it has rained off and on all day and really feels like Fall. I did aerate all the flowers and trees in our little garden, turning the soil with the shovel and also planted some plants and a couple of little trees today and pushed down the cap of grapes in our fermenting vat.
About my cooking.... for lunch; curry carrot soup, meravigliosa! and for supper, I made a cold tomato soup, pureed with basil, orange basted whole baked chicken, twice baked potatoes with gorgonzola and rosemary and for dessert, a lemon sorbet with limoncello. Tomorrow the weather will be nice again and for a while, so it will be back to work.
The grapes are fermenting nicely and can't wait to see what comes of this batch. The 2007 is getting more drinkable all the time, but still is young. The white grapes we hung on the cables to make a passito are getting more than their share of moisture, so we will have to see if they get moldy of if the wind dries them quickly enough to stay healthy.
Thursday, Bacco and I finally got around to climbing my birthday mountain. We headed up the canyon of gola d'infernaccia and then I turned right at the cows, picking a summit straight up, not knowing what I was getting into. It was a bear! Luckily, my little mountain dog didn't slip and roll down the hill. When this newly crippled guy got back home, I looked up the "peak" on the map and found it was unnamed, so we can call it Mt. Bacco henceforth. It was 900 meters from the valley floor to the top and straight up with no trail. Never again! I am too testardo to quit something I have started, unfortunately, although I thought about stopping 3 or 4 times.
The trees are changing colors here in the mountains and there are spots above 7000 feet with a bit of snow.
The next task is olive harvesting and hopefully when my friend Bill comes from KC, he can experience that bit of work as it is quite fun. We will then be able to make the oil the same day at my neighbors frantoio or olive press.
Raffaele has escaped finally for a bit of vacation, so I am here with a couple of guests and some friends visiting.
The pictures are of our little hike in the mountains with the 3rd one being the bump we hiked up at 1930 meters, which has left me disabled, but hope to heal shortly and my patient dog waiting for the hobbling master and the last one I thought looked like Moses parting the Red Sea.
Have a great weekend and root for MU!
dds PS distrutto means destroyed which is how i felt after the 5 hour hike.