Full-blown Season Change

No sooner do we get back to Italy, Will's dad put us to work! Farm work. Olive picking. From a tractor.

Living in Manhattan, I don't often get a chance to see a tractor, nevermind ride in one! And in the scoopy part, too! That's right, Will and I climbed into the bucket and up we went to the heights of the trees and picked picked picked our little hearts out.

I never really knew much about the life cycle of an olive-- from the tree to the martini. Olives don't start out as those salty little guys like you might think. After your workers (in this case, me and Will) pick them, there is a 3-day to 3-month process by which you de-bitter them before you can soak them in vermouth.



Using a mix of water and patience, you soak the olives for 3 days with lye or three months without. They turn the strangest and most beautiful shades of green while the lye sucks all the bitter gunk out of them.





Will's dad stores them in water without salt, so when you eat them, the flavor is more reminiscent of olive oil rather than a jar of olives. The field work is definitely worth it!




Everything else around here is turning the orange-y golden shades of fall. The leaves are long gone and there's a hint of frost and a ton of fog first thing in the morning. The kaki (persimmon) tree, however, is holding out just a bit longer. It's like nature's little modern art piece.