Italian-American Women's Club

Do you have special memories of Italian heirloom fruits and vegetables grown by your family and friends? Now is your chance to grow and sample vegetables from your favorite regions in Italy and share this vegetable heritage with future generations.

We're looking for volunteers to grow an Italian heirloom fruit or vegetable this season. Some possibilities include: Radicchio di Mantova, Italian Torpedo onions (Rossa di Milano), Costoluto Genovese tomatoes and more. We've already started some of the seedlings! At summer's end, we'll feature these vegetables in a wonderful lunch, dinner or "special tasting" event to share our successes.

To participate you will:

• need a small, sunny area to grow a few plants in a container or garden
• choose the plants you wish to grow
• share your memories, growing tips and the vegetables you harvest.

We will:

• help match your plant choices with the available varieties
• give you a limited number of seeds, plants and containers
• offer advice for growing these vegetables
• develop a menu and prepare a special community event to taste and showcase our harvest
• create a display for Festa Italia on this culinary history project.

Together we will:

• use photos and interviews to capture our "taste memories"
• record our results, impressions, recipes, preservation tips and even garden designs for future generations.

For more information or to volunteer, call:
Susan Streich-Boldt, 849-8199

This project is sponsored by:
Italian-American Women's Club, Italian Workmen's Club, Madison-Mantova Sister City/Slow Food Partnership, Seed Saver's Exchange and the Greenbush Heritage Foundation of Madison, WI