WELCOMING THE WINTER - 1

My dear friends Roberto and Roberta, who will be away from Sicily at Christmas, decided to invite all their friends to a "welcoming the winter" get-together at the agriturismo La Tenuta Carbonara in nearby San Giacomo yesterday lunchtime. An agriturismo is a converted farmhouse that serves meals and sometimes provides bed and breakfast accommodation. Sometimes parts of the farm are still producing. First of all, I want to show you some of the interesting objects displayed in the lovely dining room:

1. Traditional bread or grain basket.

2. Wall of the converted room, showing where the animals would have been tethered.

3. Traditional olive jar. These now fetch quite a price at antiques markets!

4. Sicilian dresser - note the marble surface, so it has to be Italian. Note also the traditional lace decoration on the shelf edges. [Sorry about the glare here.]

5. These pretty objects were crocheted, then stiffened.

6. Hay forks found in the loft during the conversion.

7. Scales of a kind which dates back to Roman times.

8. Scales of a type which is still seen on the little trucks which sell fruit and vegetables by the roadside.

9. Kitchen implements, many of which would have been used during the making of ricotta cheese. The containers on the far right are called cavagne and they were used so that mice couldn't get at the cheese.

The food pictures will follow!