Sunday, December 4, 2011

From earth to the table

As we traveled to the island of KorĨula to visit the grandparents (this was at the end of October) we stumbled upon a beautiful vineyard that still had plenty of leftover grapes on the vines. Stunning!




My grandfather's first avocado. He planted it 6 years ago!



This is how you buy garlic on the Split market, alongside with some hand made socks! :)



People usually bring everything from home, from eggs to onions, greens...











Now, a very special and unique fruit only from the Dalmatian region. The following information has been taken from a great source on Dalmatia HEREThis tree is generally rare and very hard to find in almost all of Europe. It originates in modern day Turkey and it was brought to the rest of Europe by the ancient Romans. The fruit was used for medicinal tea (good for stomach ache and constipation) and even as a supplement to  flour that was used to make bread. Especially good was the liquor made of the fruits! Service tree fruit has about 15% of sugar. Sweet? That is something you will not even remotely connect with the taste of these beautifully looking fruits once you bite them! Picked straight off the tree, it is extremely gritty and it has to be left toover-ripen – almost rot – when it sweetens and becomes pleasant to eat. In the old days, it was done by keeping the fruit in hay or wheat but you can just let it stay in the basement where you can control the humidity.