For the Love of Cherries

This is the time of year: many of the villages in the area host festivals, usually to celebrate a local harvest (but not always!) Our village wrapped up its "Sagra dei Bisi" last weekend, and now we turn to the two neighboring villages for their sagre, though we know nothing can top the pea festival.

Yes. I can't believe I said that either. Just trust me that you have to taste the peas to understand. A friend told me her father took some of the seeds to his garden, about 20 km away, and the peas just weren't the same! I totally believe it.

The Italian cowboy DJ's are often part of the nightly entertainment, and they have kind of a cult-like following of country line dancers who follow them from sagra to sagra each weekend. I've been often enough that I recognize some of the followers.

It's interesting to watch this embracing of a part of American culture...even if it's not exactly the way it would be at home. I love it because it's so close and so very far simultaneously.

The cherry sagra has something a little different this year: the good folks of Castegnero have finally included cherries on the menu rather than solely for sale as whole, freshly-picked fruit.

We had cherry risotto, local cheeses with cherry jam, and cherry beer! My favorite was the cheese plate, with selections from a nearby organic goat farm. Hmmm....organic goats?! You know what I mean!

I posted a short video of the dancing on my Instagram feed. Check it out.  

Have a great weekend! I'm off to have a few of those freshly-picked cherries! The season is in full swing here and they are oh-so-good. I just might be obsessed. 

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I feel like I need to apologize for the crappy iPhone photos...it's just how life is running lately. The big camera gets left behind more and more. It makes me a bit sad, really.

Posted with Blogsy

this weekend

Things were hopping in the paese this weekend, and there were a few very specialized pop up shops to take advantage of the extra visitors. Nice. 

cherry pickin' in the paese

This year Francesco invited us to to make ourselves at home in his trees in the paese.
And that, my friends, is exactly what we did, with Young One eager to climb as high as she might.
And we hope to do so again before the short season ends.
The best part is that we now have permission to frolic in his fields whenever we like.

Access to a campo makes my cartwheel turning girl happy.
Cherry pickin' does it for me.
And Richard? He's happy if the girls in his life are happy!

Grazie, Francesco. 
.........

Have a super weekend!
Find some cheeries :)
(Or some friendly Italian neighbors.)