Porch Progress

Todd made great progess on the steps last week, and Tom worked hard on the landscaping (see the black-covered area?). We're waiting to hear from Bill of Twigs & Stones on the landscaping plans. Somehow, the landing is level my my photo is not. It looks like the lattice (square, not diagonal!) will be installed today.

The electrical work is planned for Thursday. I can get grumpy on that. I have. When you want to use conduit the size of a gutter/downspout, it's time to present another plan.

I've really missed having a gas grill this summer. It had to be disconnected due to the porch work. I'm down to only one bottle of olive oil in the house! It's time to do more new olive oil selections at Olio2go. I need more choices at home. Right now I have a DOP from Fontanara that Jeff brought back from the April trip. It's very nice, but it is always more fun to have a selection.

I'm excited to be knitting again. I've been working on the red Ballybrae vest, and am enjoying working with the spongy feel of wool. I'll try to put pictures in the next post.

On the reading front, I've also recently finished In Maremma by David Leavitt and Mark Mitchell. It's another find-a-ruin-and-rehab-it book, but this is set in a less-well-known part of Tuscany. We have Frantoio Franci extra virgin olive oils from Maremma. Frantoio Franci Extra Virgin and Frantoio Franci La Cinciallegra Organic are both from olives grown in Maremma.

It's time for work!

Olive Oil Fraud?

So the hot news in the world of olive oil is an article on fraud in the New Yorker.

I thought it was a bit of a snooze. It's not hard to imagine that the big grocery-store-brand-names have aisles and aisles to fill and tanker loads might be the way to do it. Spanish olive oil has long been sent to Italy and bottled there.

But there's also a movement in Italy, called Slow Food, and consortiums which espouse quality and authentic production, and the oversight and designation in the DOP certification--all of which are very important to the small producers of extra virgin olive oil.

Our very small producers truly bottle their own oil and they often sell out quickly. Their production process takes place only in the October to January time period (the span includes the various climates in Italy).

Carapelli was last used in our house as a lice treatment. If I purchase a grocery store brand, it's Lucini. Given a choice, I'll take Merlano, Getsemani, or Panizzi from the stock at Olio2go.

Currently reading: Slipknot by Linda Greenlaw (well, it's a book on CD that I'm listening to on my commute). More next time on the high school reunion.