Botanics’ blog
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Spring preparation
This nuc will soon be transferred to its new home. Despite the recent cold temperature and battering wind, day light is already one hour longer and flowers are blossoming. Bees are enjoy today Sunshine, many at their first fly to the outside world. Varroa mites are present but treated. While the B&B stays closed to humans, it is well opened to bee lives.
The Gospel of the Lord
Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or drink; or about your body, what you will wear. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothes? Look at the birds of the air; they do not sow or reap or store away in barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not much more valuable than they? Can any one of you by worrying add a single hour to your life? And why do you worry about clothes? See how the flowers of the field grow. They do not labor or spin. Yet I tell you that not even Solomon in all his splendor was dressed like one of these. If that is how God clothes the grass of the field, which is here today and tomorrow is thrown into the fire, will he not much more clothe you—you of little faith? So do not worry, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall we wear?’ (Matthew 6:25-31).
I do believe. No I am not a dreamer. I do believe in what I see. And what I see is a beautiful dress on an otherwise dry bush. Its name is Glicine, its colour is so unique that is a well known wall painting pattern, so next time you paint your housewalls, think about us first. And what I see is Lavanda, which is neither a soap nor a visage cream, it is a beautiful herb which we store in buckets to refresh our drawers. And what I see is dill, or wild fennel, which we use to make delicious recipees, and it is a wonderful painkiller for stomach too. I do believe in what I see, and you do not have to believe. Come for a visit with your eyes open without prejudice. You will find your belief, and you will never be worried about tomorrow.
From grains to breads
Few posts ago, I showed you my hands with few grains, now I am pleased to offer you the true outcome, the Primo Passo bread from Timinia (Tumminia in Sicilian slang). Now you can appreciate the first conception of Primo Passo project. One site in Sicily where we offer different ancient autochthon varieties of grains that we use to make different breads. One site where you experience: the scents of fresh wheat harvest, the music of watermills spinning out flour, the sound of firewood oven crackling and finally the scent of fresh bread that is just like the scent you experienced on the field. This experience takes about a year, are you ready for it? What you see here is Timinia bread, it comes from this darker slimmer grain and that is why stays so dark even if it is not a whole wheat bread. The flavour is intense, and it is best appreciated on its own with just a splash of extravergin olive oil, organic, needless to say. This bread is as rich in flavour as poor in glutyne. That makes it more digestible too. It lasts for a week or even more and gets actually tastier as it settles after few days it has been baked. Can we call it just bread? For more info, where to find it, how to place an order, go on contacts page. Cheers!
panem nostrum cotidiànum dà nobis hòdie
Today is Sunday in mid June, and it is time to harvest the wheat… golden wheat field of different varieties are now colouring Primo Passo’s estates. I attach the different pictures of two different varieties. One is ‘Simeto’, selected to be rich in glutine and yield, it is easily recognized for being short thick and straight. The other is ‘Tumminia’, an old authoctone variety which is nowadays rare to find because less productive and not suitable for making pasta. Tumminia wheat has however a strong flavour, and it is more digestible than Simeto.
It is a great gift for me to experience with my own eyes and mouth that wheat is not a commodity to trade on the Chicago stock exchange and I am pleased to share it with you. And let us pray ‘Give us this day our daily bread’
Shooting capers
Last weekend I was shooting capers. Shooting capers, word-by-word translation from Sicilian way of say ‘spararsi la chiappera’ would better translate as ‘showing off with capers’. In the old good days, capers were a limited flavour enhancement in the kitchen. Collected once a year, it was stoved with salt in ceramic jars. If you had dining guests and wanted to impress, you would have taken out the jar and use the capers.
Shooting capers
So last weekend I collected the not-yet blossomed caper flowers one by one including some delicious fruits, washed and taken to dry up in the sunlight with plenty of salt.
Two weeks and they will be ready for more guests to come and to impress across the whole year. Shooting capers takes its time but it’s lots of fun.