Hailstorms Cause Pesto Shortage in Italy

[On the Road]

By ARIEL DAVID, Associated Press Writer
Mon Aug 21, 5:24 PM ET

ROME - Lovers of pesto, the tangy green pasta sauce, are bracing for increased prices or even shortages after unseasonable hailstorms in northern Italy destroyed much of the most prized variety of basil, the key ingredient in the Genoese specialty.

Hailstones the size of tennis balls smashed glass panes on scores of greenhouses and pummeled fragile basil plants this month, wiping out entire crops near the town of Pra, west of Genoa, the capital of the Liguria region in northwest Italy

"The heart of basil production has been hit," Andrea Sampietro, director of the Ligurian chapter of Confagricoltura, an Italian farmers' lobby, said Monday.

---snip

The greenhouses are partially open to the outside environment, with the air's salinity and humidity influencing the quality of the plants. Sampietro also credited centuries-old farming practices that cultivate higher-quality basil. The basil is hand-picked by workers who are suspended over the plants on boards laid across the greenhouse to avoid trampling the plants and disturbing the soil.



http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20060821/ap_on_re_eu/italy_pesto_pummeled

No, this is not a joke. Even the part about the workers suspended over the plants. Frank Sinatra’s favorite pesto, however, may be another casualty of climate change.

[Viva_La_Revolution]

1. No skin off my back...

pesto is gross, ruins everything you put it on.


feel bad for the Genoesians though. :(

[On the Road]

4. You HAVE to Try it in Macaroni Salad

It is my secret ingredient.

[Viva_La_Revolution]

6. heratic! blasphemer!

ruining a good Mac. Salad like that!
icky!



:hi:

[On the Road]

13. Seriously, Try It --

Even the Contadina stuff is OK. It doesn't have to be overwhelming, but a little pesto gives pasta salad a wonderful je ne sais quoi. Pasta salad is by nature bland. It's waiting for an interesting taste to be added. And food rules are the death of innovation.

[Tyrone Slothrop]

2. Peak Pesto is here, people!!!

Buy tuna!! Stick it under your bed!!!

Seal yourselves inside your homes with duct tape!!!!

Rapture is nigh!!!


:hides:

[Tyrone Slothrop]

3. Peak Pesto is here, people!!!!

Wake up!!!!

Buy tuna!! Stick it under your bed!!!

Seal yourselves inside your homes with duct tape!!!!

Rapture is nigh!!!


:hides:

On edit: D'oh! First double post...

[CTyankee]

5. Truly, the world is coming to an end

and I mean it. When you can't get heavenly pesto in Italy, it's all over for mankind, and I mean that. The one place on earth that I figured would never run out of great food no matter where you were in Italy is now suffering a pesto shortage.

Che peccato!!!

[GeorgeGist]

7. Did it ruin the spaghetti harvest too...

http://www.museumofhoaxes.com/spaghetti.html

[On the Road]

12. That Was My First Thought, Too

I had to check to make sure it was not April 1 today.

[GeorgeGist]

8. Did it ruin the spaghetti harvest too?

http://www.museumofhoaxes.com/spaghetti.html

[wryter2000]

9. I make my own

I guess I'll hoard it from the starving hordes.

[Odin2005]

10. NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!

[doc03]

11. This is a true disaster, I can't live without my pesto.

I am going out now and start stockpiling the stuff. What next will the ice cream harvest fail. The world is coming to an end repent!