We only travelled for about an hour, but Chianti feels worlds away from the
Val d'Orcia. Immediately Chianti has shown evidence of being an incredibly fertile land with many types of wild herbs and vegetables growing freely amongst the grape vines and in the forests. These two photographs are a demonstration of exactly that. The first picture is of a local relative of the fava bean. Our guide referred to them as favelino. At first I thought she was saying that these were just baby fava beans, but she went on to explain that they are a different variety of fava, which does not get any larger than the beans in the photo. We peeled open the pods and ate them in the field raw. They were very similar in flavor to the fava beans I am used to in the United States, but they also possessed a pronounced sweetness. Perfect for snacking on with some local pecorino cheese and Chianti. The “Silence of the Lambs” reference is purely coincidental. Captured in the next photo is wild fennel and nepitella, growing side by side. Nepitella is a very fragrant variety of mint that is usually eaten with porcini mushrooms and very hard to come by in the United States without paying top dollar. The third Photo is of the olive oils produced by Felsina Winery. What makes them so special is that most olive oils in Tuscany are a blend of all or some of these olive varieties. However, Felsina choses to keep the olives separate so they can produce four distinctly different oils. Today’s tour with Gourmet Destinations opened my eyes to new and exciting products and ingredients that with any luck we will be able to bring to Spiaggia to everyone to try. Come and get it…
