We were not able to celebrate Thanksgiving with a traditional turkey dinner for local butchers make the birds available only after December 8th, the feast of the Immaculate Conception. Nevertheless several interesting things happened in this last week of November .
Here is a quick rundown.....
Conference at the Prefecture of Viterbo with archeologist Francesca Ceci
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| Prof. Stephen Steingraber, Francesca Ceci, Lt.Col. Luigi Grassi |
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| Conference at the Prefecture, Viterbo |
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| Archeotuscia conference |
On Friday evening a large group of Air Force NCO Academy students with
Lt.Col. Luigi Grassi followed the interesting conference on the Viterbo area’s rock
hewn necropolis.
Winter is the best time to make outings to the numerous Etruscan sites that surround Vetralla, Viterbo and Blera. For information and dates for excursions check the website of Archeotuscia. www.archeotuscia.it
Discoveries in the Duomo
While preparing
the new tourist guide for the town of Vetralla’s Pro Loco (a volunteer position!) I came upon
this terracotta sculpture which had been hidden under a side altar
for at least a century.
It depicts a very effiminate Adeodato, one
of the town’s early patron saints before St. Ippolito was
given this title. The blonde wig, dagger, clothing and sandals shows he was a
Roman martyr.
Another special discovery was this marble ciborium dating from the Renaissance period. It
needs a good cleaning and the door, which was probably of silver, is missing but at least
it is still in place. A precious altar cloth (paliotto) seems to be missing.
Medlar (nespolo) Tree with Ripe Fruit
This single fruit tree
set among our 80 olive trees, is
a rarity today but they were often depicted in medieval frescoes and Renaissance
tapestries.
The fruit is almost
ripe and they have an ancient, unusual taste.
Have any of you ever tasted them?
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| our single medlar tree |
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| Rosemary/rosmarino |
Olive Marmelade –Marmellata d’olive
A few well laden
olive trees were spared from
the recent harvest and this week the big, black fruits were
gathered by hand and made into
marmellata d’olive.
It is a very time consuming
task for the olive pits must be
removed one by one- by hand.
Hours
of cooking and canning follow. The resulting marmelade will be used in several traditional Vetralla meat dishes during the year.
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| Fulvio picking the best olives for marmelade |
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| the best, biggest olives are used to make this marmelade |
Looking for
the recipe ? It can be found
on p. 84 (next to the photo of Milena
picking olives) in Fulvio Ferri's recipe book “Olio e Ricordi in Cucina” available only at the Anglo American
bookshop in Rome, Libri di Natura in Vetralla or better yet, directly
from the author with an inscription and free postage to Italian addresses.
Visit this page to find out more and make your order in time for Christmas. DEc. http://www.elegantetruria.com/fulviorecipes.htm
Where to
find Mary Jane next week
Tuesday, Nov.
29 San
Silvestro Church, Rome 3 p.m. book signing. 4:30 p.m Santa Susanna
Church, Rome with books for the Christmas raffle.
Saturday, Dec.
3 Loyola University Rome Campus, for
Democrats Abroad meeting
Monday, Dec.
5 Università della Tuscia,Viterbo USAC Study Abroad
Program-meeting with Creative Writing group.
Bill & Cyndy Vorih wrote, "I read with interest the 50 years blog. As always, new discoveries. What a wealth of material and information must still be hidden in the Area. Also, we had allready made some Olive Marmalade with the recipe from Fulvio's book. It was a hit."
ReplyDeletegreat info..think I will buy the olive marmelade...tho.
ReplyDeleteWe also have a single medlar tree and it was loaded with fruit this year from which we have made some medlar jelly.
ReplyDelete