We live near a town in the States that is called "The Artichoke Center Of The World". There are loads of fields full of big, green, globe artichokes that are just beautiful. And they are shipped all over the world, for sure. We love them, and enjoy them as dinner, with some roasted potatoes on the side. Yummy.
This being said, I was pretty excited about being here for the annual event, "Chiusare in Piazza in Primavera". Each April, weather permitting, (it was, thank god) on the weekend before, as well as the 25th of April, this very small medieval hill town hosts a festa celebrating the regional artichokes known as Morellino artichokes. From what I have heard, they were almost completely gone, extinct, but were brought back as part of the whole Slow Food movement here in Italy. Now the town holds them in high esteem, and people from all around come to eat, drink, and be merry with the little purple wonders.
We drove close to two hours to partake in this event. The drive is a beauty, and gave us a chance to show our guest and good pal, Tasha, the lovely country side. The drive up the hill to Chiusare is a doozy, but offered some outstanding views. We were glad to have arrived early, because parking spaces were limited. The first artichoke-y thing we came upon was this very cool wall planter...we saw them all over town.
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| Fantastic color combo here. |
There were a few local food producers set up to sell their goods, and we bought some treats to bring home. It was really easy to figure out where the real action was, though...
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| Arriving into the main Piazza of Chiusare. |
There was a ticket booth with the main "menu", and we checked it out to see what looked good. Everything. A very short, artichoke-centric offering, to be sure. We bought our tickets to present to the main food booth, and moved on.
One interesting item on the menu were "carciofi crudi", or raw artichokes. We didn't order any, and later, watched a young couple as they each slowly devoured these tasty delights. We ended up buying some to try at home later. They were really good, dipping each tender, but crunchy leaf in salted olive oil...
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| The artichokes to be eaten raw, plus the lovely color, shows here. |
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| Raw artichokes before and after being cleaned for eating raw. So pretty! |
For me, well.... it was all about the carcifi fritti, fried artichokes. What can I say..... they just looked so good. How could we resist? Johnny went for two cones, right off the bat. I restrained and had only one, and Tasha totally bowed out and just took a shared bite. Good Girl...(what was she thinking? I could have eaten 5 cones!)
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| Crunchy, salty, yummy. Oh, kind of nutty, too. |
The other non meat options on the menu were a local pecorino cheese, to be eaten alone, or with the fresh fave. Tasha had a bowl of the artichoke soup, which really was awesome. The plates came with a small bowl of salted olive oil for dipping the fave in. Oh, scrumptiousness.
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| A lunch fit for Kings & Queens. |
Having stuffed ourselves to the gills, we needed a nap, but went for a walk around town instead. Good choice. The small walkways and arches offered all kinds of great photo opts and views.
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| A back "street" in Chiusare. |
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| Johnny wants a nap, but takes the high road and walks, instead. |
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| The view from the top of town. It was pretty windy, but the sun was warm. |
It was fun walking all around, because we came across a nice local garden full of the artichoke plants we had just eaten from. The purple color of the artichokes with the grey/green foliage is a match made in, well, Chiusare. So different from our variety at home....
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| Another great garden we found on our walkabout. |
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| What appears to be a row of old chicken coops, or maybe for sheep.. |
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| We, too, are grateful for the wonderful Carciofi. |
We all agreed it was a long, but fulfilling day, and a good way to see the countryside, and share a special time with a great friend. I will be happy to attend next year!
Ci vediamo prossimo anno!
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