Jeff at the Market Hall in Florence, Italy. Check out those Romanesco cauliflower to his right...inspiration! I was going through a bunch of photos looking for pictures to put up at our wedding in a couple of weeks and I found pictures of the indoor Market Hall in Florence, Italy. Jeff and I were there two years ago and spent a lot of our trip exploring farmers' markets and market halls all over Italy, France, and Spain. My favorite was a two story indoor market hall in Florence smack in the middle of the train station ghetto. Seafood, vegetables, spices, mushrooms, bread, espresso, beans, pasta, you name it, this place had two or three vendors selling the best and freshest available. We were there in January so there were predominately greens, brassicas, and roots in the markets. At the time, a lot of the produce seemed obscure and different from that in our area. Now, however, when I look at my pictures, I realize that we now grow many of the same things. Many things that we now grow, like Romanesco cauliflower and rapini, were always on our minds to grow, but it wasn't until we saw them proudly grown, displayed, and widely enjoyed, that we had the confidence to dedicate precious planting space to less known crops. Now, as we pick gorgeous, delicious Romanesco cauliflower which will be enjoyed on tables across Sonoma County, I am so glad that we did. It turns out that those random Italian veggies can be enjoyed just as much in California as in fair Italy.
