Fennel questions
At the moment, there are sweet-smelling peaches in abundance, little hard but tasty pears, frierelli (probably not spelt right) sweet green peppers and Coche della Monica, the local variety of plum supposed to be so smooth and luscious they are like Nun’s thighs. Apricots too are everywhere, it seems the more ugly the tastier. I have been making apricot jam, then making Crostata di Albicocche (Jam Tart) out of the jam and topping it with fresh apricots.
However, the thing I need help with is fennel. The Italians talk about male and female plants producing thin weedy tough bulbs or heavier chunky bulbs. The larger type being sweeter and the thinner better for cooking. In the market you see the Tuscans picking out only the fatter ones. From my reading on the web, I see that male and female fennel doesn’t actually exist, merely different gene strands making a different shaped plant but I can only find one reference to this, any other ideas anyone??