From the field and the market

As the month-long vacation in Italy comes to an end,
the work begins in the fields and at home to deal with the abundance of treasures.
Quiet mornings have now been replaced by the sounds of tractors working the fields
in preparation of the wine harvest and then the olive harvest.
As soon as one ends the other begins and winter is full or work!
Grapes are harvested, pressed, fermented and aged.
The olives go from the trees to the press and bottled.

I don’t have vineyards or an olive grove although I live in the middle of one.
But I do have some of my own harvesting to do!

On a recent walk near my home I did a little “street foraging” and came home with these fabulous blackberries.

Just ate them warm from the sun with unsweetened yogurt.
PERFETTO.

But now, there is a rush to harvest tomatoes!

sold by the case, it is time to make sauce, pomorola

What is Italy without its tomato sauce?
The weekly markets are filled with tomatoes
and the tools to work with to preserve them
for meals later in the year.
some of the tools in the market
and more tools

need garlic? perfect timing with the tomatoes

Recently,I was inspired by Mark Bittman’s Tomato Jam in the NY Times
I have been working on a Harissa, which I tried to “soothe”
with some roasted red pepper.
I tweeked it now with Mark’s tips for this tomato jam as I was going to add tomato too.

May have a winner.
One more try!