I open the window and …. look how the day has began!
With a weather like this, don’t you want to go and help Giuseppino?
This is the company Sapori della Toscana, Val di Chiana. https://www.facebook.com/saporidellatoscana
The boy at the top is Giuseppino Genca, and the man on the left is Pellegrino (I think he is now known on the web … ha ha). And then there are the loaded branches. This year, really loaded with beautiful and pure olives, you can’t hear the buzz of a fly: no oil fly, no damaged olives. Fantastic
The gatherers spread the nets and drop the drupes with electric combs. The olives have not yet fully matured, as is customary here in Tuscany: those that fall do not rot, they are still young and firm. However, they would not have the time because the olives that same evening will be oil.I
But did you know that the genes ( we are talking about DNA) of extra virgin olive oil (this time , about pure olive oil, zero acidity) interact with our DNA? Extra virgin oil is rich in polyphenols which are those substances – such as antibodies – that plants develop independently to defend themselves from bacteria and parasites. To tell the truth they develop these substances when they do not receive an external help, such as insecticides and other devilry, because in that case they would have no reason to go through all this effort to develop their defenses. In fact, plants grown with pesticides are “empty”. The extraordinary thing is that the olive oil genes can “talk” with the genes of humans, helping them to improve their immune system, also through their powerful polyphenols.
If olive oil has always had a sacred value, there are perhaps also scientific reasons. Biology was unknown to the ancients, but they certainly saw the results too.
I like having artisan oils at school: I take them – sometimes I buy them, sometimes they exchange it with the oil produced by Pellegrino – from “safe” friends, like Giuseppino Genca from the company https://www.facebook.com/saporidellatoscana or by Nicola Mastrocola, who last year won the first prize in Val di Chiana. I will dedicate another photo post to Nicola. But I also get the oil from Rosetta Lombardi, from Aldo Gualdani, from Antonella Mattera, an islander girl from the Giglio Island who produces her very own oil on the Argentario.
I try to understand the nuances and make to my students to understand them, looking for combinations with food.
I also make sweets with olive oil ( no cholesterol….) What else…? Try it too!
Marcella Ansaldo