In the paradise garden of the "Decameron"

„The dawn from vermeil began to grow orange-tawny, at the approach of the sun, when on the Sunday the
queen arose and caused all her company rise also.

The queen, then, with slow step, accompanied and followed by her ladies and the three young
men and guided by the song of some score nightingales and other birds, took her way westward, by a
little-used footpath, full of green herbs and flowers.

Amiddleward the garden was a plat of very fine grass, so green that it seemed well nigh black, enamelled all with belike a thousand kinds of flowers and closed about with the greenest and lustiest of orange and citron trees, the which, bearing at once old fruits and new and flowers, not only afforded the eyes a pleasant shade, but were no less grateful to the smell.“

With these sentences Boccaccio introduces the stories for the third day of the “Decameron”, wherein
„is discoursed of such as have by dint of diligence acquired some much desired thing or recovered some lost good"

Here you can find the full text on page 98

We don't have orange trees in our garden, but we do have fennel.

Amira has grown it  and she harvested it a few days ago.

From this she made us a delicious carpaccio with oranges and olives.

Here is her recipe:

Fennel and orange carpaccio

Ingredients for 4 persons:

2 fennel bulbs, 2 oranges, a handful of black olives without stone, fresh rosemary, salt, pepper, olive oil

• Cut the fennel into very fine slices and keep the leaves.
• Peel the oranges and cut them into very thin slices.
• Cut the olives into slices.
• Arrange the fennel and the oranges on a plate.
• Add the olives and sprinkle with olive oil, salt, pepper.
• Decorate with fresh rosemary and fennel leaves.

from Amira

Orange Blossoms

And of course my dad has to add a tango that came to his mind while eating the orange carpaccio:

Naranja en flor, sung by the famous Argentine singer Roberto Goyeneche

A tango with the scent of orange blossoms ...