Cefalicchio's Garden and Pesky Hens

One the best parts about cooking at Cefalicchio was that you had access to an incredible vegetable, fruit and herb garden! The gardens were thoughtfully planned out and wonderfully maintained. Nothing tastes as good as a salad made from lettuce and tomatoes picked just 5 minutes before. Or a pasta with roasted zucchini collected that day. Some things that Cefalicchio grows include lettuce, tomatoes, zucchini, carrots, peppers, an assortment of squash, peaches, apples, figs, and blood oranges. The options were endless and the herb garden alone had at least 12 different kinds of herbs including rosemary, lavender, mind, basil, and thyme. Above is a photo of one of the lettuce beds. Here is a close up of a gorgeous head of leafy greens!

Look at this beautiful pumpkin!

And in case I didn't talk about figs enough in yesterday's post, here is a close up of a fig vine just at the beginning of fig season in early August.

And a bowl of freshly picked figs!

Cefalicchio also had a small farm with hens, ducks, sheep and horses. At least every two days I would go and collect the eggs from the hens. A fun and funny task. The first time I was sent to the collect the eggs I came back eggless. The hens were sitting on their eggs and I didn't want to bother them, so I came back empty handed only to be told in a thick Italian accent "Don't come back without any eggs!" So I returned to the small hen coop and spent a few minutes just staring at the hens hoping they would figure out that I was there for their eggs and get up, however I had no such luck. Eventually I worked up the courage to sort of nudge one of the hens off her nest and sure enough she was sitting on 4 lovely light brown eggs. However, I sensed by the way she was staring at me, that she was pissed off with me. I nudged the other hens and collected all the eggs and they followed me out their coop and were squawking away as I closed the gate. With time, these hens warmed up to me and I didn't feel so bad taking their eggs, after all, I had to make brioche!