Today I picked up the plaques for the new members of our olive tree adoption project. These plaques are hand-painted by a local artist and good friend, Agnese Andreucci, who has her own tiny work-shop in Montalcino. Every year’s design is slightly different so you can tell at a glance when our members joined.

We will be hanging them this week, tramping up and down the steep slopes of the olive grove, GPS to hand, so as to match each plaque with its owner’s tree. Our members have already received their oil and, after the fuss of packaging and sending everything out, I now am enjoying the positive feedback from our friends who are savouring their IGP 2010 harvest oil all over the world. More information : http://www.turismo.intoscana.it/allthingstuscany/tuscanycious/adopt-an-olive-tree-in-tuscany/

Agnese works painstakingly in a very small space. She has an amazingly well-behaved son who manages not to ever break anything while she works. She works on commission and can create entire sets of crockery, or personalised corks and cupboard handles. http://www.toscanaceramiche.com