Discovering the medicinal herbs in Val d'Orcia

Interesting initiative combining a beautiful walk in Valdorcia 

with learning about local wild herbs and their use in medicine

On Sunday August 20th

The meeting point is in Bagno Vignoni 

in front of the Herbalist's shop at 10AM. 

The event is free of charge. 

Info and reservation to info@hortusmirabilis.it

Here comes the olive harvest 2015

Along with the wine another celebrated produce of this blessed land: the olive oil. I made these pictures few days ago during a walk around Montepulciano west side. Farmers were quite happy of the 2015 harvest outlook. Olives looked rich and healthy to me. It seems this summer long drought didn't affect the trees too much (or at least not in this area). Look forward to get the first sample of oil!

Old Olive Trees in the surrounding of Montepulciano

2015 Olives

October and November has been one of the best season for wild mushroom hunting.

These pictures comes from the woods around Montepulciano and mostly show the king of local mushrooms: the porcini. Once harvested and cleaned the mushrooms are freshly cooked in a variety of recipes but one of the best is simply stir fried in olive oil with garlic cloves and local catmint.