Blizzards, biscotti, and improvised entertainment

As per the starred note on the post below, two days ago we had a storm of EPIC proportions. About 1-2 meters of snow in one day!! Plus, there was thunder and lighting and everything...very strange for December. The storm has left us without power for the past two days, which has actually been surprisingly easy to deal with. We can still cook using the gas stove/oven and the wood-fired oven outside, read/play dice by candlelight, and crowd around the wood stove for heat.

I've quickly adjusted back to life at finocchio verde. There are two long-term wwoofers about my age staying here until at least spring. Andrea (26-ish) and Dimitri (20) make life really entertaining around here, though I have to guard myself from snowballs and being thrown face-first into snowbanks. They're good fun, and have taught me lots of italian profanity (which will come in handy for Italian 202, I'm sure). It's a good deal. Both boys have horses, one of which is due to give birth in late-January.



Each morning and evening, Dimitri and I go to the barn to feed the sheep and goats. While they eat, my job is to make sure all of the lambs get enough to drink from the lactating sheep...which is SO much fun. They've all grown attached to me, especially one beautiful little guy (who I've named Hercules) that comes running when I call his name. Strangely, they love my boots and my pants, nibbling away at them as I try to get them to drink from their mom's udders. No baby goats yet, but I'm hoping one will come soon. One more lamb was born last night, and I got to see it in it's first moments. What a beautiful thing to watch! I'll put up pictures later.


To entertain ourselves in the snow, we invented a new game involving cars, snowy roads, and sleds. Fun stuff! Lots of shoveling snow too, which can be fun as well. Andrea has been teaching us how to juggle too, but I need a lot more practice. Maybe we'll make an igloo too? Who knows.


Until later,

K

Il fino del viaggio lungissimo.

***Sidenote: I'm posting both of these today due to lack of power for the last few days, and i didn't want to make one big blog entry. SO, enjoy!

Ciao a tutti!

I've arrived safely back at the farm, after an unnesessarily long, cold trip (every form of Italian transportation I took was at least a half an hour late, if not an hour and a half). Plus, I had a little mishap in the airport due to stupidly leaving my passport on the plant somehow...don't ask. Either way, I definately got to practice my Italian. It didn't surprise me at all that I slept soundly until 4 in the afternoon the following morning.

What a winter wonderland! There's about 3-4 feet of fresh, untouched snow everywhere. I could probably ski anywhere I wanted to. But it's not too cold, which is nice as well. SO GORGEOUS!




Lots of lambs too! 5 males and 3 females, plus one female born the morning after I arrived. She's been here as long as I have!


Also new to the farm is the cutest kitten ever (named Fortunella), who loves to jump on my shoulder and ride around while rubbing my face and purring crazily. She also enjoys snuggling up with the lambs for a nice nap. Obama and Hillary (the two cats who were kittens when I first arrived this past summer) are also just as sweet as ever, though a little on the chubby side.


We've been eating well also. For lunch today, antipasti di peppers in bagnocaldo (sauce with anchovies and garlic), prociutto made by a friend, and salami made here, minestrone of pasta and borlotti beans (YUM), and formaggio (of course). Sweet, juicy oranges from Sicilia and fresh almonds from france per dolce. And the wine...oh god...the fruitiest, most delicious dolcetto ever from Michele, a friend. We got a big 25 liter tank-like object full of it and distilled it directly into bottles for lunch.



Even though its winter, we still find fun things to do here. More to come later.

Baci! <3

K

PS. Buon compleanno Nick!! (though a little late...)

Ballando in the Alps

This past week has been full of festivals and parties: wine, food/drink, dancing, singing, and overall great fun. On Sunday was the Passagiando de Murrazzano, a walking tour through my town to checkpoints that coincided with different courses and foods of a "typical Langhe" meal. There were 12 different stops, and our station served segundi and contorni: 2,000+ arrosticini de pecore (sort of like a sheep kabob...) and ensalada. My job, along with Marco (a friend of Mario and Isa's) and my Theta friend, Lauren, was to chop lots and lots of tomatoes, cucumbers, and onions to keep the salad going. All the ingredients were fresh out of our garden, and we were able to feed 750 or more people with what we had (the garden still has a lot more coming). It was a lot of fun, especially seeing the little cheerleading squad perform a routine. Absolutely hilarious. Unfortunately, I don't have any pictures from this festival because I left my camera at home. Perhaps one of the other wwoofers will donate some for me to post later on.

The Allegre Pastorelli, the group of shepherds that we belong to, hosted the next major party in Murrazzano: una cena d'Allevatore (roughly translating to "the dinner of the breeders"). Think sheep. For about 80 people, we served a big dinner in a covered piazza: antipasti of crema di formaggio (a very good creamy sheep cheese), junca (a fresh sheep cheese), sheep salami, and sheep liver pate; primo of pasta with sheep ragu; segundo of arrosticini of sheep and ensalada de pomodori; lots of aged sheep cheese; dolce of gelato alla crema e cioccolato made with sheep milk served along with a sheep-ricotta dessert; caffe; grappa and vino from a local vineyard; and pane made by one of the allegre pastorelli. A delicious success!

Fabrizio and Giovanna preparing antipasti for la cena.

The next day, the sheep festival continued in Murrazzano with a sheep show (yes, we washed our sheep to make them pretty...and this took Isa and I ALL DAY. It is not as easy as it sounds). We didn't win any prizes, but a few allegre pastorelli did. There was also a market and a lunch for the people who organized the cena d'allevatore. Not as good as the food we eat here, but still a nice get-together.

A newborn lamb at the sheep show.

Two other allegre pastorelli (Marco and Serena) with their trophies and sheep.

A succulent plant stand at the market

A bread and pasta stand at the Market. Alessandro is the Allegre Pastorello waving in the background.

Finally, this past Sunday Mario, Isa, and I ventured westward toward the French/Italian border in the Alps for a HUGE Occitano celebration(I don't know the english equivalent...something like Occitan? It's the culture and ex-country of south France, North Spain, and NorthWest Italy). We arrived on foot to reach a small town called Becceto, where the party had been going on nonstop since Friday. Traditional Occitan music, dancing, food, and overall revelry made it an absolute blast. Plus, I didn't realize how gorgeous this area of Italy actually is. Simply breathtaking! And the architecture is really different too: hand laid stone houses with wood trimmings and stone slab roofs. Although I didn't know the dances in the first place, they were pretty easy to learn and I got the hang of them (more or less) pretty quickly. By the end of the day, I had danced with more than six different guys, who were eager to show off their moves and pride for Occitan culture.

A pretty field on our hike to Becceto.

Isa and Mario on the trail.

The fountain in the town square. Multi-purpose: water source and refrigerator for wine, refreshments, etc. Notice the large watermelon floating in the background.
Mario attempting to slice the large chunk of bread that I brought along for our picnic with a pocked knife.

Traditional House
Becceto
Occitan dancing

Parties Parties Parties

With summer being as gorgeous as it is over here, it has been perfect weather to host a plethora of get-togethers at the farm. It seems like every night we have people over, which is awesome as I get to try all sort of foods and meet many different people. I will focus on two main family parties in this post.

Gala and de Caria Families

Two weekends ago, we had a sampling of both Mario and Isa's families over for a big lunch. Isa's brother and sister-in-law, her French cousin (and his wife and a couple of their French friends), and Mario's sister's family and his mother were in attendance. It was a lot of fun to meet the fam and practice my French and Italian. Isa's cousin ended up taking me on a thrill ride on the back of his very nice "moto" through the countryside. So much fun!

A picture of me getting ready for the moto ride

Hanging in la cucina L -> R: Errmana (the elderly lady staying with us for the summer), Me (a very bad picture of me, might I add), and Isa)
Isa's Side of the Family (minus her brother): Two French friends, Michel's wife, Michel, and Isa's sister in law.

Gala Family Gala

Yesterday, for the Italian National Holiday of Madonna's ascension into heaven (not that we are religious here at all), Mario's entire family came over for a lunch extravaganza. Very fun. I especially enjoyed talking with "nonna," Mario's head-strong mother. After dessert, she taught me how to make Orechiette pasta from scratch! It's a lot quicker and easier to make than I thought it was, but still requires practice to get right.
The Orechiette that Nonna made for our meal

Mario's sister-in-law helping make Mario's speciality appetizer: Grilled eggplant rolled with fresh ricotta and topped with chopped tomatoes and basil

The antipasti: Eggplant doodads, raw beef with olive oil and grated sheep cheese, zucchini sauteed with mint and olive oil, sauteed eggplant, and young pecorino cheese
Nonna's pasta plate: Orechiette with tomato/capretto sauce (baby goat from our farm)

I dont' have a picture of the meat plate, but it was a preperation of turkey with pesto and fagiolini (green beans). Dolce was gelato from Murazzano, apricot tart, and pesche ripieni. Yum!
Nonna demonstrating the art of pasta making
Nonna is a star
My Orechiette! And my thumb.
There was a huge thunderstorm going on during dinner. Thunder, lightning, hail, rain, etc. Made for an extremely muddy and slippery pasture experience afterward
Bellisimo!

I'm back!

So to briefly condense the happenings in the past few days: Silvio's farm did not work out for me. So, I'm back in Piedmonte at Finocchio Verde! :) And very happy about my decision to leave.

Today we have 23 people coming over for dinner (como ristorante) and four French agritourism guests arrriving for dinner and staying for a few days. Busy, busy, busy! Right now Isa is busy preparing a crostata con ricotta (i'll try to copy down the recipe) for dolce and Mario is dry grilling thinly sliced eggplant with salt to make antipasti of rolled eggplant filled with fresh ricotta and topped with a salsa of tomatoes, olive oil, basil, salt, pepper, and garlic. Got to go!

Last Day...Kind of

Well, today was officially my last day at Finocchio Verde after a whole month. Tomorrow, I take a train from Torino to Forli' to move on to my last farm, owned by Silvio and his family. There, I hope to learn about cows, pigs, and bio-dynamic farming. I'll be there for two weeks...but the catch is that I'm not coming back to Seattle afterwards! That's right, I've extended my stay in Italy until the 16th of September. I will either stay a week or two longer at Silvio's farm and then come back to Finocchio Verde, or just come back to FV after the two weeks are up. Or maybe I'll travel a little. Either way, I'm coming back to Seattle just before UW starts in the fall. :)

Here are a few flora pictures from Finocchio Verde that I've been really late in adding...



Perennial Sweet Peas (They're everywhere, and the goats love them!)



Meliloto (fantastic fragrance and flavor)



Clematis (All over the forest, apparently the only native vine to Europe)

And I'm not exactly sure what these are...



(Calceolaria maybe?)

"We go to the SEEEuh"

On Friday, Mario, Jessica, and I went on a day trip to the coast of Liguria to get fresh fish from the fishermen and relax on the Mediterannean beaches. This sounds very ideal and all, but the trip itself turned out to be a bit more of a disaster... Long, twisting, nauseating roads wound through the hills; Mario got seperated from Jessica and I due to a miscommunication problem and he was so mad that he didn't talk to us until we were driving home again; and it was cloudy and the beaches were really rocky and crowded. Still, it was definately a cool experience. I appreciate the being here in Piedmonte so much more, although the drive through the Ligurian mountains to the "SEEEuh" (as Mario calls it) was absolutely breathtaking. Here are a few photos from the trip.



(this is while driving through the ligurian mountains)

Unfortunately, I didn't end up taking pictures of the fish (I would have risked my cool, blending-in-with-the-Italians coverup) but oh well. We bought a flounder-like fish called St. Peter's fish or something like that, some merlin, and lots of little anchovies. We cooked the little fish by gutting them, lightly rolling them in flour, cooking them briefly in hot corn oil, and then eating them hot (with our fingers) with squeezes of fresh lemon juice. Yum! The other fish were cooked with roasted potato slices, olive oil, salt, and I think rosemary. We celebrated our "catch" at home by inviting many of Mario and Isa's friends over and throwing a huge feast. It was SO much fun, and let's just say that many many bottles of wine were involved.



This is just a random picture I took while at pasture this morning.

Motovigna, Marmalade di Albicocci, Formaggio, Api, et al

Let me first start off with a genuine apology for keeping you all in the dark for the past week or so. We've been without internet for awhile now, and I've only just recently had enough time to sit down at the computer to create a post. So much has happened here in these past few weeks that it is going to be hard to keep this post relatively succinct. On that note, let's begin.

MotoVigna 2008



Two Sundays ago, a 200k+ motocross tour happened in the Piedmonte area. As part of the track went through the woods near our cascina and passed by the house, we volunteered to be a food checkpoint for the race. And so, for two hours, Luca (an Italian friend of the family about 16 yrs old) and I served wine and plates of bread, salumi, apricots, and cheese to the approx. 250 racers (all male) that passed through. This was fun for the most part, as I got to practice my limited Italian skills and became quite the tourist attraction as an American. One group of guys even asked me to go home with them...I politely declined. Mario and Isa will never let me live that down.

Api




With the recent death of the bee colony this past winter, Isa was elated when Jessica and I discovered a wild hive of bees along the road. She and Mario quickly harvested the hive that evening, and we got to watch the whole spectacle. VERY interesting. And, the best part is that they captured the queen, so the bees have stayed in the box since then. Above is a picture of Isa in her bee garb, and another of her trudging off down the road to the hive (I'm on the left).

So Many Apricots!!!

Last Thursday, as Isa and I were on our way back from Torino (I visited a Theta friend and she worked at a library) we stopped in Mondovi' to purchase some second-rate apricots to make jam. Okay, so "some" is an understatement. We came home with eight crates full of apricots; more than 100 kilos total. I think she wants to sell some jam this year also in addition to cheese. Either way, on Friday we cut up all of those apricots and put them in a large vat with sugar (about 20 kilos of sugar, I think). Separately, we cracked open all the apricot pits, removed the nuts inside (they look like almonds, and taste like them too except they're a tad more fruity), and boiled them to remove the skins. The fruit/sugar sat all day and then Saturday we set out to cook the jam and can it. Unfortunately, we ended up burning the jam badly and spent the rest of the night scrubbing the pan clean of the thick layer of carbon. Then, all day Sunday Jessica and I canned the boiling hot jam and set them on a table upside down to seal. I don't think I will be able to eat another apricot for a long, long time. (gag)



To cook the jam, we strained out the liquid first and brought it to a boil before adding the fruit and boiling it all together (so that it had a fresher taste).

Cracking the pits (the nuts are in the bowl)

A small sample of our finished project.

Also, on that Sunday we held a festival at our house on behalf of the Allegre Pastorelli (Happy Little Shepherds--a group of local shepherds that Mario and Isa belong to). Lots of meat. Mario's contribution was sheep kabobs (rostaccini) -- pictured below.



Another Allegre Pastorelli named Serena contributed a whole pig, which she had roasted in her wood-fired oven. The head (which is leftover in our fridge) is pictured below.


Formaggio (Murazzano)

Surprise, surprise that I have been dabbling in cheesemaking in my time here. It's sort of difficult to succinctly describe the process (they make 15 different kinds of cheeses here), but I'll give a little sneak peek into how we make a hard sheep cheese called 'Murazzano'--typical of this area. First, we heat the sheep milk in a large pot until it reaches 38 degrees Celsius. Then, we add about 2 mL rennet for every 10 liters of milk. We stir it in and then let it sit for a couple hours. We then cut the cheese with a metal blade into cubes and then stir with a huge whisk-like tool until the pieces all become about the size of large dice. Then, we use a strainer to put the curds into molds (as quickly as possible with the least amount of liquid) and lightly punch them down. We then flip the cheese and push them down again. And then we wait...and flip. Repeat many times. Here are some random pictures.






And, to complete this post, I've added a (very poorly done) video created while we made cheese in the caseificio (dairy).

More to come later!!

Love you all.

P.S. Mom and Dad: Mario and Isa want to adopt me. Is this okay? :)