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My aunt of Belluno origins: from Mel to be precise, who always has excellent advice in store regarding the use of herbs or fruits, sent me this video
Hats off to The Guardian of the Wood Ferruccio Féro Valentino, and admiration for Tuenno, the Tovel Valley and the Non Valley.
Obviously my attention went to coffee made with dandelion roots.
Have you ever drank dandelion coffee?
Could you prepare it?
I know that the uses of dandelion are many, but I immediately associate it with the blow
Its little Ether Hood
Doth sit upon its Head
The millinery supple
Of the sagacious God
Till when it slip away
A nothing at a time
And Dandelion’s Drama
Expires in a stem.
Emily Dickinson
Emily reveals the drama yet I find myself rethinking the playful aspect that the Dandelion gave me in childhood, when the slip away was yet to come.
Have you ever run in a meadow like this?
The Dandelion’s pallid tube
Astonishes the Grass,
And Winter instantly becomes
An infinite Alas
The tube uplifts a signal Bud
And then a shouting Flower,
The Proclamation of the Suns
That sepulture is o’er.
Emily Dickinson
The Proclamation of the Suns.
These “suns” give us color, hope, apparently coffee too, and then what?
Do you know other ways to use dandelion?
Or can you use other wild herbs in some kind of preparation?
Hi I'm Claudia and this is KCDC.
Buongiorno 🙂
Buongiorno Tony!
Qui bella giornata di sole che invoglia ad andare a cercare uno di quei bei prati.
Tu come stai?
Già bevuto un buon caffè?
Da noi ce ne sono tanti, a volte mi incanto a guardarli, sinceramente non so se proverei il caffè, ma mi sono innamorata di ferruccio, che personaggio fiabesco.
Vero Paola?!
Anche io sono rimasta colpita. L’aggettivo che hai scritto: fiabesco, credo sia perfetto.
Sicuramente un uomo da cui imparare moltissime cose.
Hello Claudia,
I have never tasted dandelion coffee yet but I ate lots of dandelion salad as a child. A had a very “green” German grandmother, from the father’s side, who made dandelion salad, not with the yellow flowers, but the green leaves. It tasted delicious.
Ciao Olivia!
You know, I think I would have loved your green granny!
My great-grandmother was German too, but in my case from mom’s side.
Here we use to call the leaves CICORIA.
This memory of yours that you shared made me think back to when they taught me to pick up the soncino for salads, to be enjoyed with the addition of hard-boiled eggs. We used to call it MOLLETTA.
Ciao, Claudia!
How interesting, this generation of grandmothers knew a lot about the use of greens. They used various herbs for coffee, tea, salads, soups, deserts …
My dear grandmother MARIA had a huge garden, with vegetables in rows, flowers in rows, fruit trees … All neatly and orderly in a clear row, as is the German custom.
I loved my granny dearly. She taught me how to eat healthy food and lead a healthy lifestyle. We can learn so much from our elders.
Oh your grandmother’s name was Maria! I don’t think it’s a common name in Germany, am I wrong? Instead it is perhaps the most widespread Italian name ever.
Olivia like you I admire the generation of our grandmothers SO MUCH, for what they taught us and for how they have been an example for us.
Even my grandmother, in this case on the father’s side, took care of the garden and vegetables garden as long as she could and she was particularly fond of it. She had time to show my son some things too.
Maria used to be a very popular name for Catholic women in Germany, at least in the area where my grandmother Maria lived. Nowadays it might not be so much in fashion any more.
I understand. Also here now the name Maria is a little less common than before. But I learn with interest about this populairity also in Germany. Nice!
My grandmother’s name from the mother’s side was Alide, and that of my great-grandmother was Emiliya. I have Jewish-Russian heritage from the mother’s side.
Alide and Emiliya!
Both beautiful names!
Here we have the name Alida with the final a, and I suppose the origin is German, while we write Emilia with a simple i and I think the origin is from Romans.
My grandmothers names were Francesca and Cesira, but none used to call her like that: she was Angelina for everyone.
While my great-grandmothers names were Libera, Giovanna, Maria, like yours! And Luisa, the greatgrandmother from German I already told you about. My mum was named Luisa too.
All of these names are beautiful. I like them all. It is good to cherish our female ancestors and keep their names in our memory and heart.
Oh Olivia I absolutely agree with you!
I also keep them in my heart as precious parts of my history, of myself and of who I am.
Yes, we carry their genes in us as part of our family heritage.
Right!
For this reason I am sad that I have not had the opportunity to know any of my great grandparents. The photographs are also very few.
All I have are the stories of my grandparents and my parents.
I also would love to know a lot more about earlier generations, my ancestors’ lives. As a child I was simply not interested, now as a grown up person it is too late. My ancestors are dead. I should have asked my great-grandmother Emilya many questions! She talked very little about her former life in the Russian Empire, and I did not ask … In fact, she never said a word about her parents, her husband, and I do not know if she had brothers or sisters. The family’s past is a dark black hole for me.
What a pity indeed!
The same goes for me too.
From Germany I have only a few letters and a photo album showing family members but I have no way of knowing who they are.
And in any case, I also know practically nothing about Italian great-grandmothers. Just think that my grandmother got a photo of her mother just a few years ago. For her it was a gift and an immense treasure.
I admire those people with pictures of huge family trees, branching out in all directions. And they have got all the names,dates, connections of their various ancestors of many many former generations noted down. I wonder how they have done it.
I have nothing of the sort, and it is difficult now to reconstruct all that has been lost in the fog of the past ….
I also really admire those families with large family trees!
For example, in the book that I have just finished there is a page dedicated to the family tree, of which some members have also had the opportunity to meet important Italian historical figures.
On the other hand, I know nothing about my family branch in Germany. My aunt told me of even more distant origins: musicians from Ireland but no one can tell anything anymore.
When my grandmother turned ninety, my brother had the idea of giving her a photo album of her entire life so we started looking for picture and information, but it was very difficult even for her place of birth: despite being here in Italy, by now everything has changed.
it is mainly aristocrats who have long and impressive family trees. For us simple people, no such thing exists.
Right.
But that’s a shame.
I would like to know what happened to my ancestors during their lives.
Me too! I would love to have a family tree going back to the year zero! These people – our ancestors – certainly existed, otherwise we would not have been born.
Yes. And otherwise we would not be as we are.
That is so true, dear Claudia!
“We certainly would not be as we are”, for sure.
I would like to know which of my character traits can be traced back to whom.
Once my dear aunt Thea (Thaddea), my father’s youngest sister, told me a family anecdote:
My paternal grandfather, her father and my father’s father, is supposed to have said, when he heard the news, during WW II, that the German Nazi General Rommel wanted to import camels from Africa, after his African adventure:
“Camels in Germany, that is what we surely need most!”
I had to laugh so hard! My granddad certainly had a sort of very dry humour. “Yes”, may aunt Thea acknowled, “he had some humour and a certain talent as writer. He wrote a daily diary with notes about what was going on in his life.”
Unfortunately, this diary disappeared. I would have liked to read it. By the way, he was no writer, he was an entrepreneur, leading his own shoe factory in Hauenstein, Pfalz.
Maybe I inherited my writing streak from him?
I am also astonished at the underhand criticism of the Nazi war in my grandfather’s words. Maybe he did not like General Rommel? Or maybe he just wanted to say that camel hide was not good enough for German shoes?
The family fared well during the war, nothing bad happened to them, except that my father was wounded and his leg crippled, during the war.
Oh how many BEAUTIFUL things Olivia!
First, your aunt’s name: Thaddea. I like it very much.
And Thea is even more beautiful and by the way is the name of a wonderful quality of roses.
Then the fact that your grandfather made shoes reminds me a lot of what my job was. At the beginning, many years ago, we also had customers in Germany.
Then his sense of humor! Extraordinary. As we said, irony is always important in life.
And surely your skill and passion in writing inherited a part of the dedication in writing that diary. Fantastic.
What a pity it got lost!
Maybe my family’s factory was one of your customers? I know that my father went twice a year to Italy, to the Milano and the Verona region, to buy leather and model shoes. I do not think he bought machines, though. The factory was fully staffed with machines, when he inherited it from my grandfather.
I used to accompany my father once in a while, as a teenager, because I loved Italy. And he always bought model shoes in my size which I loved to wear. They were so fashionable. You could not get such shoes in Germany, or only at a very high price.
What a BEAUTIFUL memory Olivia!
Yes: the trade fair was in Milan, then it was moved to Bologna for a while, but in recent years it has returned to Milan.
In Veneto, in the province of Verona and beyond, there is an important footwear district.
I am very happy to read how much you liked Italian shoes.
I liked them and still like them today, Claudia. I think that Italian shoes are very fashionable and chic.
Indeed in Italy many people follow fashion and pay particular attention to shoes.
There are manufacturing companies that set their brand on the quality of the materials and on the total attention to detail in a way that can be defined as artisanal.
I think that Italian fashion – clothes, shoes, bags, accessories – is well-known and appreciated worldwide. In my opinion, Italian is the world leader in fashion.
THANK YOU!!
Really thanks for your compliment!
Obviously I really like the Italian style, but as an Italian I am not objective, while your opinion has great value since your knowledge is transversal and rich in many different cultures.
It is not only a compliment, Claudia, it is the truth! Of course, taste is personal, we cannot argue about tastes, can we?
To my taste, Italian fashion is the absolute top. I was introduced to it very early, as I told you, because my father took me on business trips to Northern Italy where he bought leather for his shoe factory. And he bought beautiful, exquisite model shoes for me.
I was the star at school; wearing these lovely shoes – and all the girls envied me.
No, you’re right Olivia: we can’t argue about tastes.
Your memory of travels in northern Italy with your father is precious and so beautiful!
You really started being a traveler very young.
And for me it is a joy to read that you were so happy with your Italian shoes!
Hug <3
Yes, true. I started to travel very young.
My first trip was with 5. My parents sent me to a boarding school in France, actually in Alsace, at the border between France and Germany.
I stayed there for a year, it was a “pensionat” with primary classes. I learned to read and write there – all in French. When I returned to Germany and started school as a six-year-old, I could read and write in French but not in German.
What a hassle!
I can imagine the hassle you say, but on the other hand it is also a great experience that explains very well how much and how you are polyglot and so proficient in so many languages!
How many people start school at the age of six already knowing how to read and write in a different language?! I think very few.
I do not relly know how many people grow up bilingual or even trilingual. I get the impression that Jews especially learn several languages because they travel a lot, and often they have a primary and secondary residence in different countries.
My mother’s family was bilingual: Russian and Latvian. The older generations would probably have spoken Yiddish as well (but I am not sure about that).
Unlike most Italians who have problems even with English …
But we are very attached to our dialects 🙂
I am not familiar with Jewish culture and so far I had not considered the aspect that you have rightly pointed out to me.
I have the great regret, as you know, despite having a German great-grandmother I managed not to be bilingual all the same.
You, on the other hand, are a polyglot family at all times!
Is there a reason your mother’s family spoke both Russian and Lithuanian?
Russian and Latvian (not Lithuanian).
My mother’s family are Russian Jews. They were born in Riga (Latvia today) which was part of the Russian Empire.
My grandmother Alide, born in Riga, in 1899, under the last Tsar, went to school in Saint Petersburg. She spoke Russian and Latvian fluently. Even today, many people in Riga, (Latvia, part of the EU) still speak both languages, Russian and Latvian.
I’m sorry: I was wrong. Olivia sorry for the mistake! I apologize.
Think what a curious coincidence: just tonight the TV is broadcasting the Eurovision song contest which this year is in Turin and among the first songs there were the song of Latvia and the song of Lithuania.
The members of the group originally from Latvia wore white, red and green clothes, the same as the Italian flag.
Your great-grandmother Alide was born in 1899! We could say that she walked together with 1900 …
I must admit that I do not care much about Latvia today. It has turned into such a tiny, whining little country, always complaining how it is “afraid”‘ of big brother Russia, now turned into the greatest enemy. And Latvia always begging for more troops, more money, more this and that from EU and NATO. What a despicable dwarf! The poorhouse of Europe!
PS
I despise Latvia because it puts Russian entertainers and a sports coach on its ‘black list’ and forbids them to enter the country.
Well, who would want to enter that little “shithole” dump, in the northeastern corner of the EU?
They do not even have enough gas and fuel to heat their homes in winter, when GAZPROM shuts off the pipelines to Europe.
A Third-World-country, that’s what Latvia is nowadays. Long gone are the past days of glory, when little unimportant Latvia was a part of the mighty Russian Empire, and later the Soviet Union.
SPLETNIK / RUSSIA reports:
Latvia has declared rhythmic gymnastics coach Irina Viner-Usmanova persona non grata , as well as artists Philip Kirkorov , Vladimir Vinokur and Evgeny Petrosyan – this was announced on Twitter by the head of the Latvian Foreign Ministry, Edgars Rinkevics.
They are banned from entering Latvia for an indefinite period. The decision was made on the basis of immigration law.
Посмотреть полностью: https://www.spletnik.ru/buzz/chronicle/106042-latviya-vnesla-v-chernyy-spisok-kirkorova-vinokura-petrosyana-i-viner-usmanovu.html
I don’t understand why immigration law is mentioned sincerely.
And I am sorry that professional athletes who have worked for a long time to participate in international competitions are excluded.
As for gas, not even Italy is an independent country in terms of energy, unfortunately.
I am heartbroken about the exclusion of sports athletes: in my opinion sport should be a symbol of union and an opportunity for an important message.
I really don’t understand how we end up increasing divisions instead of uniting! I find it totally absurd and senseless.
It makes sense for the USA. Their government wants to dominate the world, if they can’t, they try to create divisions to weaken other countries. They are playing one side against the other, they are playing EU against Russia. True to the motto “Divide et impera!”
True.
And this is terrible.
“If the ants agree, they can move an elephant.”
The problem is that men don’t know how to agree. Absurd.
It has been eight months since we had this long conversation, Claudia.
I would like to add that I like the photo of the dandelion in this post. I love photos of nature, especially plants and animals.
Many thanks Olivia!!
You know, thank you for bringing me back here: it has also been months since my last country walk and I miss it so much.
I also really like to photograph flowers, nature, maybe simple things but beautiful for me.
You know what, Claudia: I came back here because I was searching for posts about topics that I understand, on your blog. All the new posts are about things that I understand nothing about: very technological and rather futuristic, to my mind. So I am in search of older posts where I can leave a comment without making a fool out of myself, due to ignorance. Ha!
PS With the exception of the ARMANI post! I love fashion, I love Armani, I will always stay up to date on this topic. Thank you.
You are always welcome here Olivia, and write wherever you like.
I’m sorry if the last few posts have been uninteresting or too focused on slightly more niche topics.
In the end, this blog is a bit like me: a sum of contradictions 🙂
Feel free to write whatever you want wherever you want.
It’s me thanking you!