MORE ABOUT THE CUCUMBER VISIT

Maggie asked what the cucumbers were like. Silvio led me into the kitchen and we sat at the table. There in front of me he placed a plate with 2 of the cucumbers on it and he said "Eat it, like an apple". He and Maria watched me take a bite. It was very crisp and fleshy - not at all watery - and quite sweet. No need to peel. An excellent cucumber. He said a friend of his cuts them up and puts them in fruit salad. Maria often uses them in cooking, when they get to be past their best stage for eating raw and they are then treated like a zuccini because they hold together well when cooked.

Another thing Silvio told me was about cornflakes. He explained that, as a child, they grew a lot of corn and ate a lot of polenta, even for breakfast. On the top of a wood stove they would fill in all the rings so there was just one big, flat surface. This would be oiled and thin slices of polenta would be fried to a crisp all over it. They put these in a bowl, hot, and poured over cold milk ! The original cornflakes !

Laura from Mas du Diable kindly sent me the template she made for making nice seed packets that you can fold up and seal, so I thought I would put Maria on the front of these cucumber seed packets, since they are from her family. Now we can easily make seed packets with any info we like on them...like this.

While I am writing this I am eating more of that toast with fried olives, for breakfast - it is my new favourite thing. I am nearly out of olives now and soon it will be just another memory, until we get some cuttings of that tree. Silvio has found it difficult to propagate but all we need is 1 success at first to keep the variety going. So much to do, how does anybody find time to work? Or am I just hopelessly addicted to blogging? (Don't answer that!!)