Magical autumn vegetables from the Lagoon
This is the authentic menu Venetians eat on 11 November. It's also the lush start of the agricultural year in the Lagoon!
Did you know that in the Lagoon of Venice, people used to celebrate the “New Agricultural Year” on November 1st? And some of them still do so. Celebrating means creating lush menus, at least until November 21, when the special Venetian Thanksgiving takes place.
That’s how it was until the 1950s and 1960s, grandmother told me. On the islands and in the estuary, ancient culinary traditions are still pretty much alive, so that’s why I start November with the first “food story” based on Nonna Lina’s recipes from her life in the Lagoon.
Grandmother grew up in the northern Lagoon in a magical place, where the marshlands (barene) and sand banks (velme) slowly turn into swampy but very fertile territory, criss-crossed by irrigation canals lined with reeds, willows, wild herbs and edible flowers, like elderflower and rosa canina (dog rose). Now you can imagine how important these wild herbs and fruit were during and after WW2!
Even in November, this enchanted place where grandmother grew up is ideal to go foraging for wild herbs (thymes, rosemary, portulaca, etc.) and rosehips along the canals.
In the past, foraged ingredients went into nourishing winter meals, healing drinks, but also adding magical flavors to “simple” dishes like polenta enriched with wild thyme, miele di barena (Lagoon honey), and rosehip jam.
Recipes like these, sounding rather “unusual” in our times but “normal” in the Lagoon just 60 or 70 years ago, were the main reason I started writing this Substack. We must no longer forget our culinary heritage, passed on by our great-grandparents. Thankfully, the number of Venetian restaurants taking up ancient specialties is growing, and the quiet years of Covid-19 have influenced what food is served now at the restaurants. In short, the selection is getting wider month after month. So much for you to discover!
In the Venetian vegetable garden, 11 November represents the beginning of the “New Gardening Year”, grandmother used to say, right in the midst of the colorful harvest season.
Just imagine that just a few steps away from the winding canals, on the magically flowing border between Lagoon and estuary, colorful winter vegetables are thriving on tiny plots of land. Just think of radicchio, cavolo rosso, and lush green, purple and white cauliflower. And it’s the dense fog arriving in the wake of scirocco winds1 enabling all this bounty in winter!
This fog, called CAIGO in the Lagoon, is essential for the lush vegetables that from now until March will dominate in the Venetian kitchen. Although it might freeze in winter, caigo will mitigate the effects of the cold winds coming down from the Dolomites towards the Adriatic Sea.
So this is the background story of the authentic Venetian menu for San Martino that you’re going to discover in a minute. And of course, there are a few tips for you to recreate it in your own kitchen, and where to taste it in Venice!
By the way, you’ll also find a secret but very effective recipe of how to cure chronic bronchitis, coughs and colds: It’s part of the menu for San Martin!
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