Picking fennel in the grove beside the house at sunset, which we dry and sift and grind and make into little 20mg packets that we then send off to a dear customer all the way over in Florida . These happy little yellow flowers are growing everywhere in the grove at the moment, and make a wonderful spice for seasoning meats, vegetables, rice, and pasta in traditional Tuscan and Lazio cuisine.

The fennel has bloomed early this year, taking over from the early summer cycle of little purple chickory flowers and lots of white wild carrots, which in turn replaced the beautiful bright red poppies that flower every Spring. We love this because it’s pretty, but we’re committed to it as a farming principle; we use no pesticides or fertilizers in our grove, and building this virtuous cycle of biodiversity enriches the soil, protects the trees, and makes our products truly distinctive and 100% biological.