PAT M

Yes, I recognise the scene, people love to collect "cicoria" here, as Indie says Dandelion leaves, it is the typical Puglia greens that go with dried fave, ( dried broadbean puree - "fave e cicoria"). I used to dislike them as I thought they were bitter but a friend told me to soak them in cold water for an hour before boiling to get rid of the bitterness. They are great in beef broth too.

We must be doing something wrong, our roses are spindley and poor, yet we have fabulous geraniums and ibicus even now in January.

bricwood

yes thats what it is, if you google cicoria there are three or four pictures, they are getting the young leaves, there are lorry selling the full grown ones at the side of the road here with cicoria written on a board, it looks like giant celery , come to think of it when I go in the coop which is a great shop salad is lacking , never seen celery or spring onions as yet, they have beetroot in packets like england and the plastic packs of salad that they say you shouldn't eat, no radishes celery or spring onions, unless I haven't found them yet, have not found wholemeal bread either , I might try radishes in the garden and spring onions next year but I think the insects would chomp through them here, when people say what they miss what about malathion!

angeli

Brilliant way to grow radishes and to keep creepy-crawlies at bay is to sow the seed in plastic guttering - half moon - fill with good compost, sow seed and put in warm place...in days they germinate...dont even need light to do, as soon as showing green put on windowstill or anywhere outside (away from the cc's) water and in a months time bite into crunchy gobstopper sized radishes....May try some spring onions this year too.......

angeli

Forgot to say the young leaves are nice too to eat in salad...old ones good in stir-fry and also make good and tasty pasta sauce.....

bricwood

I love radishes , prefer them to sweets, I even make radish sandwiches , where I live the insects have to be seen to be believed , lines of soldier ants there marching about, when I first moved my biggest outlay was insect killer, soldier ant will not cross cillit bang I discovered , when I had my satellite dish installed a swarm of fly s arrived and covered the installer, I am planting marigolds as they are supposed to keep insects at bay

angeli

Yes B, marigolds keep white fly at bay and you can munch on the flowers in a salad too yum yum...may try in a sandwich.....Also can dip flowers into batter for garden Fritto Misto...

Lorna at Vicenza

Hark at you two going on about your greens and flowers.

Bricwood - there is loads and loads of celery about here. Very strange that you say you haven't found it.

I've seen spring onions and radishes too in season. The spring onions are bigger than the ones my mum used to buy in England.

angeli

Hi Lorna, Yes, am itching for spring and to try for the first year growing things to eat....Just read a quote.....'Housework is not my thing'.....in most cases it is not productive and very arduous...but gardening housework is different....... Soooo true, have dug (so far) 4 new beds to try to grow things I can eat.....have a guru....one bed for salads, another for herbs, one for root crops and the other for zucchini.......am just soooo excited......!!!!

bricwood

I am surprised what is in the supermarket and what is not, there are about 20 sorts of oven chips, Heinz ketchup, liquorice allsorts although not as good as bassets ,I must admit I am still finding things as there is no logic to the lay out probably to make you browse, I found soya milk after a few visits but its revolting not like the one I used to buy in tesco, Italians always eat chips when they come to london as they say you cant get good ones in Italy the oven ones here seem ok to me, horse meat I am spoiled for choice

PAT M

I'm also surprised you haven't seen any celery or spring onions, the celery is wonderful here. There's a great Sunday market at Sant'Isidoro beach on the coast between Nardo and Porto Cesario, fabulous fresh fruit and veg, plants, (I bought a fig tree this morning, only 4 euros, they charge 11 at the garden centre), clothes, pots and pans etc etc. There is also a fishmongers there, great mussels and prawns. We use blue pellets to keep slugs and snails at bay, I know, not very organic but nothing would grow otherwise. We buy our compost and repellents at the Consorzio, where the "agricoltori" farmers get their supplies, it's a lot cheaper than garden centre prices.

angeli

B, are you sure its horse meat ????
Not sure about blue pellets tho' would always try 'natural' stuff...
Here am thought of as mad...as shell surplus walnuts and buy seeds from consorzio to fill bird feeders - birds invading garden now and some do keep slugs and snails at bay so thats good... Nice to hear about cheap fig tho' made some nice fig ice-cream this year.....

bricwood

thanks a lot I will try the places you recommend, I have a fig tree in the garden already and a few apple and pair trees plus a pomegranate tree which is handy if you want cricket balls, everyone raves about pomegranates and goes dolce dolce but I notice they all leave them to rot on the trees, never could see the point of pomegranates I had planned to juice them but they go from not ripe to splitting open with wasps all over them in days, I have to go to nardo to visit a shop that makes divans and there is shop that sells sort of aztec stuff the woman had a stall in the market here, I have seen slug pellets in the coop but not seen a slug and only tiny snails so far, my garden is full of nice birds especially robins so I must be careful what I use, I always thought puglia was a sort of parched desert until I first came but its very green and lawn mowers are in the shops

bricwood

its horse meat definitely,a third of the meat department, Italians like horse meat there was a horse meat butcher in vicenza too, there was a story they eat cats in the war in vicenza or it could be verona one or the other

Lorna at Vicenza

Do you have a market day?
There are plenty of fruit and veg stalls on mine and the flower stall only sells cut flowers but the plant stall also sells loads of packets of seeds and bulbs too. My sister took a packet of ruccola (rocket salad) seeds back with her to the UK so she can grow it there.

Lorna at Vicenza

It's Vicenza but supposedly a legned - or could be true. Bit like Robin Hood or Romeo and Juliet.

When I was weaning my child the Italians told me horse meat would be very good as supposedly it's packed full of iron. I haven't ever bought any though.