A sign welcomes you to "Nonno's Garden"

Tony Ranieri stands next to one of his potted pepper plants outside his home in Staten Island.

The front of Tony's house doesn't have much space to plant in the ground, but he takes advantage of the sunshine with many potted plants.

Larger plants are potted in 5 gallon buckets set off the ground on 2 by 4's for drainage.

Spicy peppers will soon turn red.

Basil grown from seeds brought from Tony's hometown of Mola di Bari in Puglia.

A close up of the beautiful basil!

A potted rosemary plant, and the back of the Ranieri's collection of garden gnomes.

A beautiful bay tree is potted in a large container out front.

Tony Ranieri under a branch of his persimmon tree.

The persimmon tree is loaded with fruit that will ripen in late Fall.

On the front steps Tony is drying tomato and pepper seeds for next year, along with oregano.

A close up of the tomato and pepper seeds. When they are thoroughly dry, Nick will store them in a glass jar like the one in the photograph.

Oregano drying in the sun.

A potted eggplant sits next to the basil in front of the house.

Tony shows us the blackberry vine which he has trained into an arbor on the side of his house.

Close up of the beautiful blackberries.

A small patch of garden under a blackberry vine.

Cabbages are started in a pot. Soon they will be transferred to the garden.

Cucuzza are trellised over a small garden of newly started parsley on the side of the house.

Closer view of a baby cucuzza.

Oregano continues to grow where some has been recently been harvested.

More basil from Mola. When the basil flowers, and goes to seed Tony will collect the seeds to save for next year.

The gate into the larger back garden. Notice the rose bush next to the gate and the parsley and mint planted at the end of the bed.

A view of Tony's backyard garden from the back porch.

Tony stands between rows of tomatoes in his garden. He also grows beans, cucumbers, squash and peppers in his backyard.

Tony points out the trellised cucumbers hanging on the vine.

Rows of boards serve as a pathway between newly planted beds.

Tony shows off his sweet Italian peppers.

Fromm left to right - trellised cucumbers, staked eggplant, baby rapini, and staked bell peppers.

A row of baby rapini is planted between rows of eggplant and peppers.

Tony creates small wells in the ground to help collect water.

Tony is very proud of his artichoke plants. He cuts as many as 75 artichokes a day from only 4 or 5 plants in late June and early July, at the height of the season.

After the artichokes have been harvested, Tony cuts back the woody leaves and stems and mulches them to use in his garden. A smaller second crop is beginning to grow and will be harvested in September.

These long beans, called fagiolini pinti, are originally from Mola di Bari.

Two varieties of garlic brought from Italy over 40 years ago.

Tony plants the garlic in October or the beginning of November, and harvests it in late-June or early-July.

The second variety of garlic has smaller cloves.

A downspout empties rainwater into barrels.

A large basket of tomatoes sits under the table in the garage kitchen. Rufina planned to jar them later in the day.

Rufina is busy heat sealing several jars of tomato sauce.

In addition to heat sealing jars of sauce, Rufina was also cooking some penne pasta for lunch.

Rufina had also just finished making meatballs stewed in tomato sauce which she used to assemble a dish of pasta al forno to bring her children.

She cooked and drained the pasta.

She then layered the pasta and the meatballs in sauce in a large casserole dish.

She added cubes of cheese between each layer.

More cheese on top, before covering with tinfoil and putting it in the oven to bake.

Another dish was already baking in the oven when she added the pasta.

She had also prepared a braised fish dish to bring to her children.

She pulled out some homemade bread which she makes in large batches and stores in the freezer.

She let us taste some of her homemade dessert cherries.

The cherries are soaked in alcohol and sugar. Delicious!

Tony just harvested apples and pears from another property he owns north of Staten Island.

Tony's wife Rufina shows off the zucchini blossoms she just harvested and plans to prepare for lunch. See our blog post “Squash Blossoms Three Ways” with a recipe from Rufina.

Tony and Rufina sent us home with a big bag of beautiful cucumbers and tomatoes. Grazie!

Mola di Bari