One evening, we turned up to our friend’s house to buy some eggs. They were busy eating a wonderful dinner. All 15 people, mostly extended family and nieces and nephews invited us to sit down and dine with them. As if by magic 2 foldaway chairs were produced and knives and forks were spirited up from somewhere. Our Abruzzo friends always grow very excited at the prospect of unexpected guests feasting with them on their finest foods. So they started eating their hunters feast. All of these families were hunters. We were graciously  offered cinghiale, wild boar stew, which was lovely. Merrily I tucked in and it was very good. It tastes a bit like beef that has been stewed for a while. Our hosts all did the usual Abruzzo thing of piling up your plate every time you looked away to talk to some-one. As usual the conversation was exuberant and excitable and of course, we were interrogated by everyone with enormous and thinly veiled fascination. But next our hostess proudly brought out a huge round wide pan filled with tiny rabbit carcasses and showed it to me with a huge eagar smile. I had never eaten rabbit and didn’t relish the thought of eating something so furry and cute. Panic set in and I told my husband we would have to go. If you have ever tried excusing yourself from a dining table in Abruzzo for any reason whatsoever you will know how hard this task was. But we insisted determinedly and amidst many protestations we made our getaway, phew that was close…..

Since then we moved house and our friends here are farmers, not hunters, however they also keep all manner of things and unlike the last lot of Abruzzo friends, these people know that I am very squeamish and take great delight in tormenting me.

I have been served rabbit, and this time I dutifully ate it. And that was even after I had been to visit the animals in their pens on the farm. Have you ever seen a tiny baby rabbit. To say they are cute is a huge understatement.

I have been served sausages made of offal and minced up lung. Yep I ate that too, to be fair liver sausages taste very good, were it not for the fact that I helped to make them and saw what bits of the piggy went into them I would not be put off at all.

I was once served pigs blood, yes I had a taste. It smelt really good. Tasted a bit strange, not something I would like to indulge in often.

The fact is that nothing is wasted on a farm. Every part of the animal is respected and treated like something that they have worked extremely hard for. Which of course, they have. That is why it is almost impossible to turn down food with the farmer himself sitting directly to your right hand studying your facial expressions and eagerly awaiting praise. In fact all the while the farmer insists that the food produced on his hill is the best in the world. You know what, I do believe he is right.