1973 Cooking into Europe

[Maggie/915]

Especially for 3G

 

[threegee]

That's pretty much it Maggie, except it doesn't mention the "Mare" (seafood).  Don't go near that myself, as I draw the line at eating things that look back at me or have suckers.

Brits keep getting asked why they reside here. It's a mystery to the Italians as many of them want to get to Northern Europe or the UK to get employment - the EU having completely b*****ed the once strong economy for at least the last decade. If you say the climate they never quite understand this, so it's easier to just say the food. Then, they just smile broadly and agree.

One of the first things you have to get used to is the growing seasons - and this certainly isn't high summer, which kills things like normal grass stone dead, and just about everything apart from the cacti struggles to survive. So, UK style lawns are a huge luxury, and very few waste time and effort growing things you can't eat/sell.  There are actually two growing seasons a year, and things like tomatoes have to be kept in partial shade.  Even oranges, lemons, etc. grow best with a bit of shade from other trees.  I killed the one banana palm here the first year by not turning the provided irrigation system on every day.  No one bothered to tell us it needed loads more water than the other palms - something we were apparently supposed to know!  Root veggies don't do at all well in this soil though, so things like spuds are mainly imported into the region.

Practically everyone has plenty of land, and lots of produce swapping goes on, even if you didn't actually tell them they could help themselves.  The attitude is that they know you would want them to have it, so they are doing you a favour by not bothering you!  If you don't want to swap a little for personal use you put up a fence, and there aren't too many fences.  So, healthy and varied diet, and (when you need to buy them) many (but not all) foods are cheaper than in the UK - especially the wine!