Today at the farmer's market was more peaches, white nectarines, tiny plums, and apricots--maybe the last refuge of the truly seasonal in America? These summer fruits are the only food I really can't find at other times of year.
But it wasn't just peaches. There were colorful carrots, and heirloom tomatoes (not as many tomatoes as I would have expected, though); there were the most perfumed herbs-- basil, thyme, rosemary, mint (the one's we tried growing this year are inedible!) I wonder if fish is seasonal here? Today was Alaskan salmon, halibut and swordfish--and the most staggeringly huge scallops, which I didn't dare get.
And dahlias.... the flower man calls them "his tequilas" and if you don't buy three armfuls for $20, he complains that he won't have enough money for tequila... he says, that some of his customers don't like his jokes...!!
Dahlias were named after a Swedish botanist who "discovered" them in Mexico, where they had been cultivated--thank you very much-- by Aztecs since the beginning of time. They were eventually brought back to Europe by Spanish explorers, where my book says they did not take Europe by storm--except that I once read that they did indeed take Europe by storm. It was in the book about tulips, I think, where I read that dahlias became high fashion after the tulip bubble burst and French ladies went mad for them--paying enormous prices and wearing them in their décolletage like diamond necklaces!
They are also the national flower of Mexico and remind me of my sister!
In Japan, it was so easy to follow the seasons since in Tochigi people base their menus around them. For summer, is eel! But also shaved ice, cold noodles, ayu (fish), watermelon, and the much loved (by my son) ramune drink! Sake is--of course-- served cold.
Thinking of sake, my mind turned to wine--were the seasonal wines? I guess Rosé is a famous summery wine. I much prefer Cassis.... but for me the most summery wine of all are the Etna Biancos--New York times article here! I love the volcanic quality--reminds me of the sulphur hot springs up above Nikko where we used to go. Maybe because we always did that in summer --and the smell of the sulphur overwhelmed--or maybe because walking in Volcanoes National Park (my second favorite national park), where it smolders sulphur, it is always hot and humid.... for whatever reason, I associate volcanic smells with summertime.
Who would make wine near a volcano anyway, right?
The first time I had an Etna Bianco was in Italy. It was a glass of Occhipinti wine (SP68 bianco Arianna Occhipinti) which I was served as part of a tasting menu at Massimo Bottura's famous Osteria Francescana in Modena (at that time considered the best restaurant in the world). Arianna's wines were not terribly expensive, and I fell totally in love. It was the first time I have ever been bowled over by wine --and I guess that Sicilian bianco really was my "first." I also love her reds --and think she is totally awesome! (I love it with Pesto Trapanese)
I was recently intrigued to learn about amphora wines, though.
Not only are these natural wines harkening back to the original manner of creating wine--dating back thousands of years in Georgia--homeland of wine and great opera singers! But that Italians and Oregonians to name a few had also taken up the trend of amphora wine--and in Sicily none other than Arianna's famous uncle, Giusto Occhipinti, was involved in a successful amphora wine project at his vineyard COS. (O=Occhipinti).
Did you know that Georgian wines are still primarily made in amphorae? Not a barrel around!
I once read that the invention of pottery extended human life by a decade.
Think about it. A decade! How many inventions can be said to have had that kind of impact on human life?
I am reading a fantastic book about Georgian wine (Armenia and Georgia are places I long to visit!) called For the Love of Wine, by Alice Feiring. Also really interesting is a book, called Tasting the Past, by Kevin Begos, about a very quixotic journey into a glass of wine the author once tasted in Jordan. Unable to get it off his mind, he traveled back in time along the ancient wine routes (read Georgia!) to figure out what it was.
If Amarone is the perfect Christmas wine (That is what I think anyway), then these refreshing and really unique amber amphora beauties (join the amber revolution) are perfect for summer. In fact, I am wondering how the COS amphora white might go with Japanese style eel... hmmm...?
Heaven and Hell in Modena (2016 3QD)
Simon Woolf's Amber Revolution: How the World Learned to Love Orange Wine
Kevin Begos' Tasting the Past: The Science of Flavor and the Search for the Origins of Wine
Alive Feirling's For the Love of Wine: My Odyssey through the World's Most Ancient Wine Culture
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