Olive Pickin'

Over the past few days it has been rather quiet in this Italian apartment. After adjusting to living with my dear friend Sarah for two weeks, it was depressing waking up Friday morning without her here. In fact, none of my roommates were here. Their families were visiting for Thanksgiving and because of my grandfathers health complications, my family agreed it would be best that they stick around the US. I am so happy they did.
After having two days by my lonesome, the roommates have finally started piling back in from their adventures and it is beginning to feel cozy again. Although, Jess hasn't returned yet so it is still pretty quiet ;)
Yesterday, after knocking out a five-mile run around the river, I made a very necessary trip to the grocery store. I stocked up on all things fruit and veggies and headed home to cook up a storm. One thing I absolutely love to do during my free time is bake and cook. I have found that it is hard to cook a decent meal in our kitchen because not only do we have very limited counter space, but we are also lacking basic kitchen utensils (i.e. a spatula!). It is fun to make-do and use what we have though (a spatula= our wooden spoon). I spent the rest of the afternoon listening to Billy Holiday & Norah Jones while making a pot of Italian vegetable & farro soup.

I learned how to make this dish in my Food, Culture, and Society class and have made it several times since. With the colder weather approaching, it is a wonderful & healthy dish to warm you right up. Served with grated Parmesan and a drizzle of fresh olive oil- you will be a very happy camper, my friend.
Where do you go about obtaining fresh olive oil, you ask? Oh, that's easy. Just make a trip to an olive farm in Tuscany and you should be able to get a hold of some there.

A few weeks ago, my Food, Culture, and Society professor extended an invitation to our class to join her for a day of picking olives at her friends farm. Only a few of us raised our hands to attend, and I am so happy that was the case. In my opinion, a smaller group=a more quality & intimate experience. I knew this would also be a nice break from the traditional Tuscan tours, and the perfect opportunity for Sarah and I to do something fun and out of the ordinary.
After a late Saturday night of partaking in all things girly: i.e catching up, contagious laughter, sipping wine, and watching Gentleman Prefer Blondes- inspired by our visit to the Salvatore Ferragamo shoe museum where we saw several of Marilyn Monroe's shoes, including the ones below-

Sunday morning rolled around and before we knew it, we were on a bus to the countryside. We had the most breathtaking views of the rolling hills and vineyards during our ride there.

Upon our arrival, we were greeted by my Professor at the farm owners lovely stone chateau. She made us a delicious lunch of fresh tomato sauce with bow-tie pasta, bread with olive oil (from the farm), and a typical Tuscan dish made of grated carrots, cabbage, and gorgonzola cheese.

After we filled our stomachs with substantial food, we set out to the olive trees to start our picking.

A little heel clickin' to start off the pickin'

We had to place a green net under every tree we picked from so that it could catch the olives. The process of removing the olives from the tree was simple- you effortlessly rake through each branch until the olives fall off- as if you were brushing a knot out of your hair.

The raking process quickly became second nature to us so the afternoon flew by. Throughout the course of the day, we picked olives from a total of fifteen trees, and spent about four hours doing so.

When we were finished, we boxed up all of the olives and set out to grab dinner before heading back to Florence. We inhaled panini's from a local deli that arguably has the best scachatta bread in Italy. Scachatta bread is essentially focaccia bread with olive oil and salt drizzled on top. The panini was out of this world, complete with pecorino cheese and marinated artichokes.

We were each given a liter of fresh olive oil before we left. It is made of olives from the farm we picked at, and has the most unbelievable taste. I have been using it on anything and everything, including my coffee. Just kidding (although some people do) but I do use it on everything else.

Beautiful sunset over the vineyards

Picking olives on an olive farm in the countryside of Tuscany, Italy all day... am I starting to rub it in now? :) Sorry but there is absolutely no way you can make that sentence sound bad! The day was perfect in every single way.