Il Mercato e l'Orto

Hi everybody!

I'm still in Italy, my flight has been cancelled for strike!, and so I have decided to write a post about my Italian habits for what concerns the ingredients I use in the kitchen. In fact, just stop a minute reflecting about the huge amount of foodstuffs that everyday is used by each of us while creating wonderful dishes. Most of the time we just think at the final result, losing the most important thing: the FOOD and its ORIGIN.

I have always been educated to the importance of knowing WHO, HOW and WHERE produce what I buy. As far as I remember me and my family have always buy products at the local market (Mercato) where local producers sell seasonal products. I have always eat meat coming from local farmers (except for when I was vegetarian, of course...!). Above all I have always had the luck of have a wonderful vegetable pot (Orto), lovely grown by the wisdom of my grandparents and my father. I know I am absolutely lucky from this point of view, and it's for this reason that in those "Italian days" I have decided to dedicate a particular importance to this subject once back in New York.

In Manhattan I use to go to the farmer's market but where does what I buy come from? How does they grow the plants? Do we reflect about the importance of LOCAL food? And about the importance of the biodiversity? And what about the rhythms of the nature? Do you ever think about this when you see hundreds of perfectly identical tomatoes shown during all the year on the shelves of a market? Sometimes I use to go to Whole Foods where lots of products are local, but what does this really means? What I really know about their being "organic". Too often the world ORGANIC or GREEN are just a smart marketing idea, behind which there is nothing more than a way to calm our conscience. But what else?

I think that we are all strongly request to reflect about those problems...I want to reflect about this, and I will look for books about this subject to share with you. If you have any suggestion ...

In the meanwhile here are some pictures, about this subject, I took in Italy!

First of all the vegetable pot of my grandfather:

Than the market where I buy cheese, fish, vegetable and fruits since I was a child. The market is located in Giaveno, a village next to the mountains in Piemonte, where I passed the first years of my life and where my father was born.

While here I have cooked some amazing Italian dishes with my mom: I have the pictures and I will post all of this very soon! I have been so busy, sorry!

A presto!