Olives and Brambles

Not only do we now know how to herd goats, but we can conquer olive trees! Our Italian WWOOF farm was located in Southern Tuscany near the coast. The town is perched high up on a hill and surrounded by an old medieval wall. On the farm we helped trim the olive trees for the upcoming harvest this fall. We also worked on a neighbor's vineyard one day gathering the grape bunches in exchange for a ton of last year's wine. Yum!

The couple was pleasant, if not quite authentic Italian. She was a jittery English woman and he was an old Italian guy resigned to a faded marriage. The meals were pretty good -- risotto, fresh basil pesto, frittata, etc. BUT TINY!!! We were hungry the whole time :-) Needless to say, we have been making up for it now that we are on our own again.

Below is a favorite (and simple) recipe from our stay. Even though she used these portions to feed four, it just feed two Americans!

PASTA CARBONARA cook up half a package of fussilli pasta fry up a handful of chopped pancetta (italian bacon) probably about 4 slices drain the bacon and scramble a couple eggs Stir some parmesan cheese and the bacon into the eggs and toss with the hot pasta.

Bon Appitito!

Love - Tera and Jim