Prairie Boy

Wed. Oct. 19

Off to the Mercato (Market day in Sulmona) we go.  Don and I head out on a walk into Sulmona while the others drive to be sure to maximize the shopping time.   This turns out to be a great day of people watching, market exploring, and eating.  We find information about Confetti candy which originated right here in Sulmona.

Cathy surrounded by Confetti candy.

  Cathy and Linda go wild in a fabric shop.

Lunch today is in a restaurant where the waitress is confused as the group decides to skip wine at lunch.  She genuinely appears puzzled when she finally understands we mean 'no vino'.

Our afternoon begins with our host Mike GioMarco taking us to visit his farmer friend Ernesto.  

Ernesto the farmer.

What a joy it was to see Mike and Ernesto greet.  They were genuinely interested in answering our questions and showing us this farming operation. 

Part of the welcoming was Ernesto's small dog who padded along beside us the whole visit. 

Erensto and his wife, who unfortunately was attending her ill mother and was not available to visit with us, have a plot of land that would feed the whole village.  The two of them farm this operation and produce a dazzling array of delectable fruits, vegetables and livestock. 

The greenhouse alone seemed to produce enough work for two people working full time. 

Peppers, tomatoes, two types of corn drying on open tarps, artichokes, grapes, cabbages, cauliflower, persimmons, apples, pears and numerous other fruit and nut tress were all evident in this 'out of season' time. What a garden of Eden.

Artichoke plants 

Artichoke fruit.

Grape vines already harvested.

One corn for Polenta and one for feed.

In a typical Italian way Ernesto has built two houses on the lot next to his for two of his sons.  

One has a major business manufacturing strings for guitars and other stringed instruments. 

This was a fascinating chance to glimpse into a world of whirring machines, piles of completed strings and discussions of world economics for marketing a specialized product like guitar strings in a global economy.

It was very interesting to see a worker take a piece of nylon, attach it to each end of a shaft, hit a lever to stretch it, attach a fine wire and turn on the motor to spin the nylon.  The fine wire wound around the central core in a few seconds and presto he had a finished guitar string.

A requisite bottle of vino appeared, was consumed, and enabled more discussion of farming in two very different countries. We were so pleased to have this opportunity to visit with a local farmer and learn more of this complicated country.