Welcome to my blog

Join me as I share my recipes, family gardening secrets, travel tips to Calabria, and all the best this Southern Italian region has to offer. You'll probably have questions, such as those my cooking students always ask: How do you cure your olives? How do you produce so much food in such a small garden? When is the right time to forage for wild fennel? Where do you find authentic Calabrian products? What are the best hotels in La Sila? Where are the good places to shop?

Calabria is still off the beaten path for tourists, and the best dishes are found in farmers' homes, not fancy restaurants.  As a cooking teacher in the San Francisco Bay Area, I introduce students to dishes served in homes in Southern Italy and  I show Calabrian ways of turning fresh, simple fare into dishes fit for a king. As a good Calabrian mother, I pass on these secrets to my kids the way my grandparents passed them on to my parents, and my parents to me. With this blog I can share them with the rest of the world, too, lest they be lost forever.

I hope you enjoy what I post here and learn more about my cooking, my garden, and this wonderful unspoiled region of Italy, my Calabria.