Experience Sicily

Category: Seasons

  • Where the Chestnuts Grow

    The end of October also marks the chestnut harvest in many parts of Sicily, where chestnuts grow abundantly. 

  • The Joy of Sausage 

    This weekend in Petralia Sottana in the Madonie Mountains, the townspeople are celebrating the Festa dei Sapori Madoniti, a harvest festival celebrating the abundance of autumn from their mountain-driven agriculture. When talking about the Madonie Mountains, that means outstanding sausage. My cousin Salvo makes a regular pilgrimage from Bagheria (on the coast) to Caccamo or…

  • Press It Good 

    In Sicily, the olive harvest for making olive oil is in full swing right now. Today, it is a highly technical process with stainless steel equipment exploited in squeaky clean, laboratory-type workshops. Before the modern press, this block of limestone, as one example, was the base of an olive mill. Imagine a series of wheel-shaped…

  • It’s Ferragosto. Let’s go to the beach!

    Sicily is shutting down. Well, all of Italy is really, because it’s Ferragosto! After Christmas and Easter, Ferragosto is the most important holiday of the year. Monday, August 15 is the holiday; however, most Italians use it as the centerpiece of a longer vacation. The cities empty out, and citizens head to the mountains or…

  • The Grapes of Sicilian Wine 

    The terraces and stone walls of Randazzo on Mount Etna’s north face make for a special environment to grow grapes from ancient vines. Grape varieties such as Nerello Mascalese and Nerello Cappuccino grow about a half a mile above sea level, where the salty sea winds meet fresh, crisp mountain air that converges with volcanic,…

  • Sicily’s Potato: The Eggplant

    Eggplants are to Sicily like potatoes are to Ireland, and now they are in full season. This weekend in Santa Maria, a hamlet of the town of Milazzo, they have been celebrating this staple with the 28th annual Eggplant Festival, or Sagra della Melanzana. Farmers brought their prized eggplants to compete for the grand title,…

  • All the Fields are Brown

    By now in the summer season, the sun has been beating down on Sicily’s landscape. The wheat has been harvested and the fields are brown. 

  • Beat the Heat with Granita 

    There are many ways to beat the heat in the summer, and one way is with a chilled granita. Granita in Sicily is serious business. I enjoyed this lemon one pictured, exactly a year ago on a hot day in Scicli. Granita is best when flavored naturally with the juices of a fruit (or another…

  • Sicily’s Wines: Taste for Yourself

    In recent years, Sicily has attracted the interest of serious wine connoisseurs. And with good reason: its terroir offers rich, volcanic soil, many grape varieties, numerous microclimates, and multiple generations of vines. Combine that with a new generation of vintners, and that equates to fantastic wines. You may be familiar with Nero d’Avola, Marsala, Grillo,…