Fruit shops. Figs. Odd facts. Out and about ... or not.

On Wednesday, as well as shopping at the market, I went to the Italian fruitshop in Uppermill. Years ago it used to be run by the family of someone our daughter went to school with: an old fashioned Saddleworth greengrocer’s shop. When the owner decided to sell up and retire, the business was bought by a pair of Italian twin brothers and it became Alimentari Alberti. The brothers quickly absented themselves from the business. A good looking pair, very Italian, all dark hair and brooding eyes, and muscles apparently for their absence was explained by their success in body building competitions. Their sister, equally Italian-looking, the same dark hair and eyes, runs the place with a variety of very English staff when she has childcare problems. 

It’s a fine greengrocery, justifying its Italian status by selling Italian soft drinks, Italian bread and odds and ends of Italian delicacies. The delicatessen farther along the road, Oliviccio, is not run by Italians. The owners claim no direct Italian connection but say they know some good suppliers. And so they sell a fine range of olives and sundried tomatoes, cheeses of various national origins and florentines and other Italian cakes and biscuits to tempt your sweet tooth. 

However, Alimentari Alberti has been selling figs in recent weeks, something that as a rule you do not find in English greengroceries. Consequently we have had oven-roasted figs, in a nice marinade of honey, lemon, red wine and sage, as a side dish to a number of meals lately. And yesterday I made fig clafoutis for dessert. You see, you have to take advantage of the figs while they are there, which is only for a limited time, unlike strawberries, which used to be a summer fruit but nowadays appear all year round. And so I have become a strawberry snob. For best strawberries are English strawberries in season, around the time of Wimbledon. The ones grown under glass in various parts of the world at other times of the year simply do not bear comparison.

The fig clafoutis was a great success. And here is an odd fact about fig biscuits:-

(Biscuits by the way are so called because originally they were bread baked twice - bis = twice and cuit = cooked.)

The fig roll was invented as a health food.
Medieval Muslims were the first to add sugar to the dough for twice-baked bread, and transformed biscuits into a luxurious health food. Sugar was seen as a medicine that kept the body in a perfect state of balance. The medieval Arab physician Ibn Butlan recommended eating biscuits filled with warming figs and nuts.

Fig rolls only ever came out at Christmas time, or on occasional Sundays, in my childhood. I was never sure whether or not I liked them. And I had no idea what a fig looked like. So it goes.

Yesterday the rain held off sufficiently for us to walk up Lark Hill again. There are fine views from the top of the hill, and the autumn colours are still spectacular.

Today there might be a Diggle Chippy Hike but I suspect that rain might put a stop to it.

Life goes on. Stay safe and well, everyone!