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Visiting private gardens in the Chianti region

One of our charming, gracious garden hosts was watercolor artist Barbara Giuffrida. Originally from Connecticut, she met and married a dashing Italian in England where she was attending finishing school and, so, Italy became home.

Barbara now resides near her children and grandchildren in a tiny Chianti village in a centuries-old house with a rambling hillside garden. She is passionate about painting the wild flowers of Tuscany, so beautiful and fragile in the face of the region's popularity and any potential new development in the countryside.

The magazine article pictured at left is written by Barbara about her garden and illustrated with several of her delicate, vibrant watercolors.

Barbara, at left in the group, shows some of our travelling companions a book featuring her watercolors.

TUSCAN GARDENS IN OCTOBER reveal a wealth of good eating potential, from sweet peppers still ripening on the vine to olives a month away from the oil press.

Sweet peppers do very well given the hot Tuscan summers, something we in the Pacific Northwest do not usually get. However, one thing we have in common is having to cope with dry summer weather.

Barbara looks for plants that can be self-sufficient because water sources in the region are limited.

Barbara tells us northern Italy produces the smaller varieties of olives used to make olive oil; southern Italy produces the larger olives which are spiced and preserved for eating.

She takes her olive crop to the local press to have her own fragrant virgin olive oil pressed.

However, for great eating out of hand, nothing beats a sun-ripened fig!
FIGS enjoyed a hotter, drier late summer which sped up their ripening considerably. We were lucky to find a few leftovers still on the tree!

PERSIMMONS lent an amber glow to many gardens during our visit as the succulent fruit continues to ripen on the tree into November.

THE PRACTICAL ITALIAN GARDENERS make use of the most concentrated plots of land, and take advantage of their favorable growing climate. Everything is put to good use.

These late October gardens feature the last of the tomato crop ripening on the vine, the hardier kales and salad greens which will remain through the winter.

Notice also, how the practical meets the aesthetic. A green wire enclosure is dressed up on one side with a row of plants that has long gone to seed but still provides a "soft architectural" feature.
THE GARDEN BELOW features one of the emblems of the Italian countryside, an umbrella pine tree. Their broad, flat, spreading shapes are stately figures of the landscape, either as single trees or in a row lining the autostrada.
But, did you know that these large, ornamental trees produce a delicacy we in North America have taken to our culinary hearts?
The umbrella pine tree is the source of those increasingly-expensive pine nuts, commonly known as a staple of pesto sauce. Now they are appearing everywhere in North American kitchen, added to everything from salads to pasta and even desserts.

We were surprised to see the little seedlings littering the ground underneath a particularly prolific specimen. In the photograph at left, the seed (pine nut) is still attached to the top of the tiny seedling. The seedling is less than one inch high -- notice the moss and pine needles beside it.

Now, time to step inside for a while, into the kitchen in fact. Join our cooking classes to see how the luscious bounty of the Tuscan garden is tranformed in the Tuscan kitchen!

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