Delicious summer delights

In Finland everyone is excited about how rainy summer has produced lots of delicious mushrooms like chantarelles not to forget blueberries! Well, in Tuscany we are expecting lots of blackberries which are called "more" in Italian. I simply adore them! My mother-in-law has taught me the easiest marmelade recipe (just add sugar :-) but still my attempts often fail. My "marmellata di more" is simply too liquid even though I let the berries boil in a modest amount of water for a very long time and I stand by my cookings until midnight...

I think that most of you are familiar how home marmelade is done (and do it much better than me), so I don't share the receipe here. Nevertheless, my children are happy to eat Mom's marmelade!

We have a huge fig tree close to our house and went to check the situation yesterday evening. Figs are not mature yet. One more week and we will return to see how things are evolving.

Wine producers are optimistic about this year's harvest althoug they don't want to say anything too concrete yet. Weather has been hot and dry despite some heavy rains every once in a while. According to my friend Paolo who produces a spectacularily good red wine, we might be expecting a good 'vendemmia'. The harvest will probably start on the first or second week of September so grapes have still time to grow and get bigger.

By the way, if any of you would be interested in knowing more how to take part in the harvest don't hesitate to write us and ask more!

Ella