It has been another wonderful, colorful and very tasty summer in Sicily. I hope that you will enjoy the pictures and will consider visiting next summer!

This video clip featuring Jamie Oliver, the renowned chef and food activist, is an extremely powerful call to arms. I can’t recommend it highly enough. Watch this with your children, your parents, your family, and forward this to anyone that you care about.

“Diet related disease is the biggest killer in the United States right now here today. This is a global problem…We need a revolution.”

Jamie has dedicated himself to saving America’s children, who now have a shorter lifespan than their parents due to preventable diseases related to what we are eating and feeding our kids.  If you haven’t signed Jamie’s petition calling for a Food Revolution, please do so now.  The NYTimes Magazine featured an article on Jamie’s efforts to revolutionize the way children in Huntington, West Virginia, the unhealthiest metropolitan area in the United States, eat.  His television program about this effort will air next Friday, March 26.   Check out the trailer here.

Thank you for sharing this with me, Angelisse.

I am very excited to announce the imminent opening of Central Bottle, the new ‘wine + provisions’ spinoff from celebrated Cambridge restaurant The Blue Room. Maureen, Liz, David and Nick dreamed of opening Central Bottle during their summer trip to Venice, Italy, one of the most magical places on earth. Check out Central Bottles’ great web page where they also put a live countdown to opening day on November 11. Here is a quote from their web page that says it all:

Our focus is on small production, handcrafted, sustainable, organic and biodynamic wines from all over the world. We intend to feature high quality wines that offer great value from responsible producers and offer a well-chosen selection of microbrew/craft beers.  And tasty cicchetti and gourmet food items.

It is our goal to educate and experiment with the marriage of food and wine by demonstrating a few widely accepted guidelines as well as exploring new ones with our customers

In addition to wine, Central Bottle will feature also a line of private label provisions, all hand-made by them, such as cranberry mustard, and caponata (my favorite overall Sicilian food). Wait, there is more. What about olive oil? You guessed right! I am proud to report that Central Bottle has chosen Olio Taibi to be their only provider of organic extra virgin olive oil. The first shipment of Olio Taibi has arrived and bottling is under way. When I went to visit the Central Bottle team I was so energized by their high entrepreneurial energy. They had the ‘startup smile’ in their face

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