An Italian Afternoon on the Hilltop
Sometimes you just have to stop and smell the roses.
After a hot morning working hard to carve out a garden on this rocky hilltop, we knew we had to stop. Take a moment. Really enjoy the fruits of our labor. Ray and I had just moved a table into a beautiful, much-needed shady spot under the oak trees — and that's where the afternoon turned into something else entirely.
What we put together wasn't complicated. It never has to be. Sometimes the simplest things taste the best — and quality really does matter. 🌿
a little Tuscany in Fredericksburg, Texas
We built this around what we had and what we loved, more than a strict recipe.
What went on the board:
Fresh Figs
Prosciutto di Parma
Organic cherry tomatoes (we'd run out of our own farm tomatoes that week, so these filled in beautifully)
Fresh basil, snipped straight from the garden
Fresh buffalo mozzarella, sliced about ¼ inch thick — or however thick feels right to you
A generous drizzle of good olive oil
Baja Gold salt
A crack of pepper, or a pinch of crushed red pepper if you like a little kick
Warm ciabatta on the side
To put it together: slice the mozzarella, halve the tomatoes, tear or snip the basil (small kitchen herb scissors make this easy, though regular scissors work just fine — sometimes we just leave the smaller leaves whole), layer it all on a platter, and finish with the olive oil, salt, and pepper. That's it. Let good ingredients do the work. Quarter the figs and wrap with prosciutto slices or serve to the side. Today we just love them as is - separate.
A small note on the salt, because it matters more than people think: we only cook with high-quality salt, and for this platter we reached for Baja Gold. A good salt can bring even an ordinary tomato to life — it's a small swap that makes a real difference. 🍅
Want to add more to the tray or don’t have figs? Prosciutto-wrapped melon is one of our favorite additions — sweet melon, salty prosciutto, a little fresh basil or mint. No cooking, five minutes, and it's basically summer on a fork.
Prosciutto di Parma simply wrapped around fresh cantaloupe - the flavor contrast is amazing!
Melon is so important this time of year — melon and cucumbers both. They're some of the most hydrating things you can eat, and right now, that matters. It's been a real heat wave here in the Texas Hill Country, and we've been making regular trips to the melon truck that sets up in town. There's something so simple and good about that — buying what's actually in season, from someone right down the road, instead of reaching for whatever's shipped in from who-knows-where. It's an easy way to "eat your water" on a hot day, and it tastes like summer. 🍉
A Closer Look: The Olive Oil
For the drizzle, we reached for Jovial, an organic extra virgin olive oil from Lucca, Italy — and it's worth knowing the story behind it, because it's exactly the kind of thing we love to support. 🫒
We’ve been fans for a while…
Jovial has been a favorite since we lived on the East Coast - their family lives in Connecticut part of the year too!
Jovial's oil comes from three ancient olive varieties — Favarol, Grignano, and Nostrano — brought to Italy's Veneto region by the Romans roughly a thousand years ago. It's grown exclusively in the Valpantena area and the hills above Lago di Garda, hand-harvested by a small group of farmers working to keep these old varieties from disappearing altogether. The olives are pressed within about twelve hours of harvest by a local family-run press just minutes from the groves, which is part of why the flavor stays so fresh and the acidity stays so low.
It's a family-owned company, always organic, and rooted in a kind of quiet, unhurried pride in doing things the traditional way rather than modernizing for the sake of it. That's a philosophy we can get behind.
Shop Jovial Organic Extra Virgin Olive Oil →
The Bread
Izzio Ciabatta - love that it bakes in just 12 mins!
We always keep Izzio ciabatta in our freezer — ready to bake in about twelve minutes, and somehow it still tastes like it came fresh from an Italian bakery. What we love most is the ingredient list: flour, water, sea salt. That's it. No yeast shortcuts, no dough softeners, no unnecessary chemicals or preservatives. If you can't find it in your freezer aisle, their website will point you to where it's sold near you — and we're always glad to support artisan bakers doing things the honest way. 🥖
A Few More Small Details
The platter itself is one of our favorites — a melamine piece from Williams-Sonoma, a wedding gift years ago. It's light, it won't break outdoors, and honestly, it reminds us of the beautiful hand-painted ceramics we fell in love with traveling the Amalfi Coast.
The wine was a simple, affordable Tuscan red blend from our local HEB — proof that you don't need anything fancy to set the right table. That said, we're just as quick to reach for a bottle from our own Texas Hill Country wineries. If you've never been to Fredericksburg, Texas, it's a trip worth taking — more on our quaint little town deep in the heart of Texas coming soon. Stay tuned. 🍷
A Memory From Sicily
This is the moment we described in this week’s very first Farmopathy podcast episode where we tossed the Lyme protocol and just soaked up the true healing of God’s good food, beautiful people, great wine, sunshine, the sea and wedded bliss! - first day of our honeymoon in Cefalu - more on this trip. Stay tuned!
We're planning a full travel blog of trips, and the other places we've wandered - if there’s a spot you’re looking to go, drop us a note. We’ll prioritize the places you’d like to learn more about first.
Agrigento, Sicily — steps from the Valley of the Temples, where we spent part of our honeymoon at a small boutique hotel with a beautiful pool, a wonderful restaurant, and a piano player most nights. You could actually hike from the hotel right up to the temple. More on this stop soon. ✨
One Last Thought
We love supporting companies like Jovial and Izzio — small, family-owned, and rooted in their values rather than chasing scale. The most powerful vote we can make is the one we cast with our everyday choices. Action speaks louder than words. Vote for the change you want to see in the world — together, our light-filled choices can crowd out the darkness in the food industry, or in any industry. ✨
With love from the hilltop,
Heather & Ray
The sunset this evening…God’s artwork never dissapoints 🎨