Fall has arrived in Southern Italy. Enjoy these photographs that capture the sights near Naples Elementary School. By Don Gawlik.
- The hazelnuts are emerging from their pods and falling to the Earth to be collected and turned into a spread called NUTELLA.
- Walnuts are falling also, usually in their green coverings.
- The figs, however, remain in their branches right now, eagerly picked by hikers like myself to snack on right away. They are a most unusual taste.
- Chestnuts fall in their very prickly skins called pericarps, and are difficult to hold in one's hands. As the weeks move along, the pericarps will dry, shrink and turn brown, cracking open to release their seeds - the nuts many villages here collect and roast during their Fall chestnut festivals. Their chestnuts will be used to make pasta, miele (honey) from the Spring flowers, and dolce (sweets).
- This is the end of the dry period, where we have not seen rain for 2 1/2 months, and hillsides may burn from the dryness.
- The plants know that this is the time to make not only large seeds (nuts), but their small seeds, too, like the ones locally that "drill" themselves into the ground.
- Olives are maturing, too, and are almost ready for the big harvest in November.
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