Lemon Gardens of Amalfi
(This was taken in Positano but it's of a lemon so I relocated it)
Today was my day of rest. I was a little sun burnt and after a few non stop days or has it been a week now, I really needed to just chill. However I had already scheduled myself a lemon tour so that had to happen first.
The lemon groves (or as they call them here gardens) are all around the area and I figured I finally had to see one up front. Let me first start by saying that while I do them, I am not necessarily the biggest fan of tours. They certainly have their place like in historical areas where the information the tour guide provides you as well as the directional guidance are basically priceless, or times where the distance to travel and the logistics are simply just worth paying someone else to figure out. But in general I am not a fan of tours for several reasons. 1. They are usually touristy and expensive 2. They are generally a bit watered down and quick 3. Unless you get a good tour guide they often look dead inside (just my opinion) 4. and lastly but quite big for me, they are Usually filled with middle aged to old white people who are really annoying and almost always American.
This tour had several of the last kind the type where they interrupt the tour guide with severely guided questions that seem either to embarrass the tour guide, show off the knowledge of the asker, or simply get in the way. These people travel because they have money rather than any indication of knowing how to get around a place and I find them extremely annoying when the tour guide is literally in front of us walking and they’re asking “whats next” and “where are we going” like really?
Anyway, off my horse. This tour was generally fine and I learned so much about lemons! More than I thought was possible. I’ll kind of list it off because it’s hard to flow as a story to well and I am remembering it not quite chronologically.
So this region has had lemons since before it was technically “Italy” the tour guide said that they were brought to them by “arabs” so I’m not entirely sure where they got them from but lemons are grafted onto a type of very sturdy and strong orange tree and in this way they can construct them to have multiple types of lemons off of one tree. The trees are so sturdy from coming from this type of orange tree that the oldest one at this particular farm was like 600 years old.
Views outside the farm and from the farm.
Also lemons from the Amalfi coast were used in the recent royal wedding. I just have to say here, team Kate Middleton forever, but still a fun fact. The trees can take like 35 years to really mature so in this way it is a true family farm and the guy running it currently is like 8th generation or something. The other thing about this area is that they really haven’t taken on new technologies and for several reasons. The environment and the quality is really it. They don’t use concrete in their retaining walls, they hand pick the lemons, and they build the structures that the trees lean on by hand and tie them with tree branches rather than plastic. It really is fascinating and they all have reasons like plastic will cut into new growth of the trees but the branches will die on their own and fall off. The retaining walls have no concrete to allow water to pass through and not build up pressure and cause a land slide etc. The downside is that this all involves high cost manual labor and reduces the profits of the lemon farmers. This type of thing seems to plague almost every “old roots cultural” process I’ve seen anywhere in the world. Its harder and more expensive and the price you can get for this kind of quality declines every year. Then you throw in weather conditions and issues, the bureaucracy, etc, and you can see no fault in the farmers who are abandoning (sadly) their crops in the area.
However there is a unique force at play. The Amalfi coast is known for its lemons. The geo terraced hills sloping into the sea is part of the draw of this area so if the farmers abandon the groves then they will eventually erode causing land slides and the area will be less beautiful and the lemons will be gone. On top of that some key farms would cause landslides that would seriously damage towns so they have a unique incentive to work together as a community to keep these farms in tact. The hotels in the area help the farms out (only slightly I’m not sure it’s enough) so that they can stay in business and the hotel can keep charging 600 a night to guests. It is interesting.
The lemon tour was nice though, they slope steeply into the mountains so it was cut down quite a bit to accommodate anyone who might take the tour. We got to walk around in the groves though and they also fed us a lemon straight from the tree. They are all organic certified around here as they don’t use any pesticides etc and instead spray the lemons with a sort of mineral water as I understood it which will keep the bugs away. As a result the lemons don’t have that waxy sheen that you see in American supermarkets which actually is wax I think. So they picked us a fresh lemon from a tree and cut it up into slices for us. When the lemons are pesticide free apparently you’re supposed to eat the entire thing, rind and all. The inside part is the sour part but the rind balances it out both in flavor and in texture and gives it a slightly sweeter more chewy feeling. It was actually quite delicious.
Inside the wooden structures of the farm that support the lemon trees and make picking the lemons easier to harvest.
Later on in the tour we also got fresh lemonade and a delicious lemon cake that they made. Tours with food are always good. We were then taken down into the limoncello area where they turn the rinds into limoncello which is a regional alcohol and that was both fun and tasteful. We got to taste three different kinds and learn how they make it which was fun.
At the end of the tour we were in a small tasting room and also a small museum. If I recall correctly the thing on the right is an old wine making machine but I honestly couldn't tell you
All in all I think this was a fun and successful tour and very worth the 20 euros I paid for it. I also enjoyed that it was done by the farmers themselves and that we were able to directly pay to and benefit the farm.
After that I went back to the room and had a wonderful nap. For a brilliant 2 hours I had the entire place to myself and then a new girl was brought into the room and she’ll be here for 2 nights. She’s quite nice, a PhD student from Connecticut (I had no clue where that was) and we get along well. We actually have a lot in common too which has been nice. I spent the day indoors partially for my day of rest and partially to escape the sun because it’s so freaking hot out. I like tanning don’t get me wrong but I hate feeling hot outside. My burn is gone by today though and I’ll be going for the tan the next three days because why not. I might as well see how far I can push it while I’m here. I avoided the sun so much in Thailand and I was outside so much in Positano, that I’m actually quite dark right now already. Heading to the Fiordi di Furore today which I’m excited for it is a beautiful little beach that looks out under one of the big arches of the highway to the sea.
Oh also her and I got dinner last night and I had squid ink pasta with shrimp and tomatoes and it was wonderful. Squid ink pasta just means the pasta is dyed black and it is visually wonderful as well as tasty. The first time I had squid ink anything was squid ink risotto and that was both beautiful and strange at the same time.