Experience Sicily

Category: Seasons

  • How To Catch Olives

    Yes, those are nets. He’s preparing them for the olive harvest. The farmers lay these nets on the ground below the olive trees and, if done in the traditional way with their hands and might, they shake the trees and with their fingers prompt the olives to fall to the ground, catching them in the…

  • Citron: A Big, Ugly Fruit

    Take a second look! These are not lemons, but citrons, cultivated by my cousins Evelina and Salvo in their front garden. In Sicily between Christmas and the end of April, the landscape is in bloom with fragrant, juicy citrus fruits such as these. Cultivated for its thick, white, fragrant rind, citron makes an out-of-this-world marmalade…

  • Embracing The Longest Night

    As we observe the winter solstice, the darkest day of the year, I recall how beautiful the UNESCO site Valley of the Temples in Agrigento, Sicily is at night, when the the monuments, like this, the Temple of Concordia, are lit. Even in ancient times (Concordia was erected between 440 and 430 B.C.E.), it was…

  • Sicilian Christmas Cookies

    Pastries made with filling of chopped dried figs, pumpkin jam, honey, raisins, almonds, orange rind, cinnamon, and Marsala wine are closely associated with Christmas in Sicily. There is a larger, round, cake-like pastry called buccellato, which is also made in an elaborate cookie-sized version known as buccellati. Meanwhile, cuccidati, pictured here, are their sister. They…

  • Sicily And The Myth of Demeter and Kore

    The leaf-less trees along my morning walks in the New York City area are a painful reminder that winter’s arrival is imminent. And so, I think of earth’s seasonal cycles, which for centuries were explained by the myth of Demeter and Kore: Hades, the God of the Underworld, abducted the maiden Kore while she was…

  • Cannoli By Season

    Join me! Cannoli Crawls in New York City October 13 and 27. More at https://experiencesicily.com/events/new-york-cannoli-crawl/ Meanwhile, since I’m currently in Sicily, my cannoli research continues! That means tasting a cannoli at a location I’ve been before, but during September, versus May. This one at La Ruota in Piazza Armerina remains top five! “The season makes…

  • Time To Shake The Trees

    The almond harvest is underway in Agrigento Province (Photo Credit: Pierfilippo Spoto of Val di Kam)

  • Sweet Smiles and Sweet Squash

    Meet Chef Antonino Elia and his new friend from Caruso Bar-Pasticceria in Sambuca di Sicilia. They are holding cucuzza, a type of squash that is in season now. Now, these cucuzza are particular because the Caruso family cultivates them to make the sweet paste that they use in their pastries, specifically the Minni di Virgini…

  • Blooming Figs

    Did you know that figs are like flowers, and they open up and “bloom” when the conditions are just right? Here’s a look. It’s fig season right now, and if you are lucky enough to be in Sicily over the next month, you can pick the figs right off the trees, clean them, and eat…