Blood Orange Picking

I hope you all had a wonderful Valentine's Day with your loved ones! I do agree that it can be overly sold as a "Hallmark Holiday" .. but so can Christmas or any other holiday. I personally love V-day because it is soley about telling those around you how much you care about them!

This year we decided to spend it with our girls as I blogged earlier. We got up bright and early and met some other families in our FRG (Family Readiness Group) out in the countryside. Emilio and Mariska are a wonderful couple who frequently let us American's come and pick oranges, and to top it off cook a very large several course meal for everyone at their home! You pay for this of course, but it's worth it!! However you don't pay for the oranges, we took home several BAGS full (to share with friends!) and they are the juiciest oranges I've ever had in my entire life. Valerie loved squeezing the oranges in a press to make blood orange juice- it is so sweet in comparison to the regular Tropicana you get in the US. It was a great day!! To end our V-day, Derrick made eggplant parm over spaghetti (yum!) and we watched a movie together. It was a perfect Valentine's.

Here are a couple of photos from our day-

Mt. Etna is at the top still covered in snow, you can see how large it is in comparison to the surrounding hills. All you see in Sicily are rows of olive trees and orange groves! It's very beautiful, although VERY country!

Emilio our fine host, explains about how they sell their oranges and the different types,etc. We learned a bit about the Mafia taking charge of what kind they can sell and for what price, etc.

We had to eat while we picked of course! fresh off the tree!