Late August and early September was the time for a bit of a break here in the Ligurian Hills and as they say there is no place like home!
We have enjoyed welcoming Adoptive Parents to the farm and showing off our trees and all of the work we have achieved here over the years.
This month we have started to reap the real rewards of the vegetable gardens with an abundance of the Mediterranean vegetables we planted earlier in the year.
Now the temperature has dropped from the mighty 42 degrees we baked in during mid-August, to a much more manageable 30 degrees. It is as if the vegetables too have come back to life and are making up for some sluggish weeks over the summer.
There are beautiful blackberries growing in the woodland next to our groves and our fig trees are laden with soft gooey figs.
Whilst I love a good forage for wild berries and herbs it is the produce in our gardens that needs attention at the moment.
Now it is time to get out the bottles and jars to make jams and chutneys and to preserve as much of the harvest as we can for the winter months.
This week everyone is out and about in the groves keeping a watchful eye for any signs of the potentially devastating olive fly and generally preparing for the harvest in the coming months. Everywhere I go in the valley people are tidying their land, checking their nets and making sure everything is ready for the start of harvest that will be here before we know it!
The lovely essentials oils we produced last year remind me of the coming citrus harvest and I am hoping for another bumper crop of lemons and oranges from our trees.
