Vistas de Valle Azul

A view of the southern end of the valley Azul

Granja Valle Pintado. The community kitchen on the left, garden in the center, and grain field to the right.

Further up the valley. Our farm is the little green patch furthest to the right.

This week I had a chance to hike around a bit. I spent yesterday afternoon exploring the umarked network of trails on the eastern ridge. I found some beautiful views of the valley and a wild cherry tree full of sweet ripe fruit! There´s a lot more to explore. Just a few kms up river from us a fork of the Azul turns up a steep gorge towards Hielo Azul, the glacier at it´s head waters. Further south the river empties into Lago Puelo, a beautiful lake sitting on the Argentine Chilean border. I´ll explore both in the next few weeks.

It´s been a busy week on the farm. I´ve been focusing on pest managment, and construction of the new invernadero (greenhouse). Aphids are starting to show up in our brasillicas, and pilmes are reaking havoc in the favas and potatos. We don´t use any chemicals on the farm, so our pest managment strategies involve strategies like not weeding in well established beds to create pest habitat, and hand removal. When we make sweeps through a bed to remove pests, we dump them in a bottle containing water and a little bit of oil. We leave the bottles full of the pests near hot spots. Within a few days it begins to ferment and the bugs clear out. Usually u can protect a 10-15 meter radius with one well filled bottle. Other strategies are the use of ash, crushed eggshells, and fermented herb solutions. Every pest/plant combo requires a unique solution.

I´ve been reading a lot since I´ve been here. I just finished One Straw Revolution by Mirukami Fukouka, the Japanese farmer famous for achieving very high yeilds with a very passive approach. He talks a lot about the infiriority of human developed systems in comparison with the complexity of nature, pointing out the inherent instability of a cultivated ecosystem and the many advantages of farming methods with mimic natural ecosystems and allow plants to follow thier natural form or life cycle as closely as possible. Some pretty interesting points. My favorite being "the farmers greatest tool is observation". I´ve also been reading about how to hatch and raise a new batch of chickens. We´ve started to allow eggs to stack up in a few nests to stimulate brooding. We aim to hatch 60, hoping to raise 30-40 new hens, and harvest about half of our current flock. Yum!!!

Another thing that has really peaked my interest is fermentation! I´ve been reading a couple of books on culturing, brewing and other fermentation processes (Wild Fermentation: The Flavor, Nutrition, and Craft of Live-Culture Foods by Sandor Elix Katz, and Sacred and Herbal Healing Beers: The Secrets of Ancient Fermentation by Stephen Buhner). Did you know humans were making a primitive form of mead (fermented honey and water) well before we´d figured out how to manage fire!? The world of fermentation is super interesting! I love the idea of using all sorts of tiny creatures to render unique artisan brews, breads, preserves, cheeses, and other things. Fermented food posses some amazing probiotic properties, and are really darn good. I´ve already had a chance to help with brewing some lemon rose-hip wine, an IPA pale ale (the locals pronouce it "eepah pawleh awleh"), and some ginger ale. I have also started keeping kefir! I´ve had some experience with a different form of kefir in the past that eats milk and renders a yogurt-like superfood. This is a different kind though. This sort of kefir eats a sugar water solution, and creates a slightly carbonated, very refreshing, and nutritious drink. I am maintaining two jars at the moment. I´ve added slices of oranges and peaches for flavoring in the large one. Lemon, mint and sage in the smaller. We drink a bit every couple of days and refill the jars with fresh agua y azucar integral. It´s very simple.¡Y que rico!

My Kefir expierement!

Musica Americana del Sur

It´s crazy how easy it´s been to get by without electricity! I rarely think about it. Probably the toughest thing for me is the inability to listen to recorded music. Fortunately there are lots of talented musicians around, and we make our own. They´ve introduced me to some of their favorite South American artists. I really like a lot of them, particularly some of the old folksters. Here are a couple:

Siento el Ritmo de la Granja, de la Vida

Rachael, our cheese expert, preparing chives during harvest.

Last night I found myself sitting around a table with a group of 10, a single candle lighting the room, eating pizza after pizza and chocolate cake from our woodfire oven, drinking homebrewed beer and ginger ale almost till the dawn. Laughing, conversing (multilingual), singing everything from "Shady Grove" to Chango Spasiuk. There´s a guitar, harmonicas, clapping, stomping, and pounding on the table. We're a tight knit group from many different places, and many different backgrounds. ¡Que buena onda!

Daily, I am pinching myself. Moments like this really stick with you- and I´ve had so many already. I keep catching myself wondering "how in the heck did I wind up in this situation"? Take it from me, grass-roots traveling is the way to go! There´s got to be no better way to soak up the culture of a place. And what a culture this place has! The art, music, and community I´m finding here is so rich! Three months here are going to fly by.

Life on the farm is very rythmic. There is always so much to be done, yet it never becomes stressful. We do what we can, we apply ourselves and work hard. But we never over-work. The farm community generates an inertia which carries all of us on. Some daily tasks are recurring, but no two days are alike. The seasons progress, the crops grow. We work, and we enjoy the fruits, veggies, cheeses, beers, and breads of our labor. It´s a vital, tangible, and satisfying existance.

Un Dia Tipico:

We wake up just before the sun peaks over the eastern crest of our valley, about 8 am. The mornings are cold and damp. In a jacket and beanie I make the quarter mile hike from my log cabin to the community kitchen. On the way I fill the water basin for los gansos (geese), and top of the chicken feed, water, and whey at the hen house. The first person the the kitchen prepares breakfast, usually oatmeal, bread, or flatbreads. We eat, share a round of maté, and discuss our plans and goals for the day. Every monday we start by taking an hour or two to stroll through the granja, noting the state of all the crops, and making a to-do list for the week. Once the list is made, each of us can do whatever job we´d like whenever we´d like to do it. Alex really makes a point of involving us in the short and long term planning for the farm, creating a sense of ownership in the farm and it´s community. We´ve all traveled and worked quite extensively and each of us has a unique perspective to offer. There´s a lot of idea sharing, experiementation, and a lot of learning that happens as a result.

We start work at 9 and go about our tasks untill 1. Lunch and dinner are prepared for the group by one of us on a rotating basis. With anywhere between 5 and 8 people working any given day, you end up cooking a meal every third day or so. Food depends largely on whats available from the garden, if there are extra eggs, a batch of cheese that for one reason or another we won´t give out to the Associativa, ect. Beans and rice are staples. There are a lot of stews, veggie stirfrys, and polenta casseroles. Several of the weeds commonly seen in the granja are actually great for salads. There are wild turnips, lambsquarter (sp?), and something else... I can´t remember it´s name. Its leaves are very tender and have a lemony flavor. I´ve cooked 3 times so far. The first turned out asi asi (it´s a mud hut with a wood fire and camping stove, gimmie a break!), the second two though- muy bueno, if I may say myself! Butter is sparse though, which makes it a challenge for me... some of ya´ll know what I´m talking about.

After we eat we siesta till 5. Thats 4 free hours in the middle of the day, EVERY DAY! I go for short hikes, play guitar with Jeremy or John, go for a swim, read, do yoga by the river, whatever I feel like that day.

At 5 we resume working, and eat dinner shortly after sunset at 8. I love our free rein, task focused work method. I like to finish what I start, and this structure gives me the ability to either indulge that, or change gears and work on something different if a task isn´t jiving. Some tasks I´ve been involved with are caring for the gallinas, weeding and tranplanting in the garden, seeding in almasigos, I helped seed trigo sareceno with the horse drawn plow, construction of the greenhouse (so far that´s involved cement and rebar work, and some basic carpentry), making a lemon rose-hip champagne for our Christmas boxes, and of course harvest! We harvest every wednesday and send our boxes to all the families in the Associativa. This week´s boxes had lettuce, kale, chard, chives, radishes, turnips, parsley, eggs, strawberries, mountain spinach, an herb boque, and the member´s choice of jam, chutney, salsa, cheese, or beer.

We eat dinner at 8, and kick around in the kitchen socializing by candelight till 9:30 or 10, when people start retiring for the evening.

Wow, another novel. I wonder how many of you made it through, haha!

Hasta luego, salud y felicidad!

The new invernadero, in construction

A better angle of the farm... maybe. Still searching for the right spot to capture the feel of the valley.

Queso de vaca.

Freshly transplanted tomato plants. I did 60 plants on one of our hottest days and didn´t lose a single one!

The group playing totem. Ask me to teach you at home, its way fun! From front clockwise to back- Jeremy, Jillian, Partick, Jenna, Alex, y Sebastion.

Bottling the champagne! Mariano eating a lemon in back is a fantastic musician.

A weeded and mulched bed on the right, compared with an unweeded bed on the left. We weed, trim the flowers, and mulch the bed with what we pulled up. This inhibits regrowth and acts as a green manure! Pretty darn clever.

El camino a Valle Pintado

A photo I took from the trail on the way  to town.

Hola Amigos! It´s my first entry from the south! Pardon me if it seems rushed and disorganized. It is! By the way these computers have no spell check... just sayin'. The trek to El Bolsòn is quite a bit longer than I had anticipated. It´s only 3 km to town as the crow flies, but you must climb over a mountian. I´ve got a limited amount of time before the internet cafe closes, but I´ll convey what I can.

I´ve been at my farm since wI had a few canceled flights due to volcanic ash. Got stranded for a night in Houston, and was rerouted through Miami. Two and a half days after I left California I landed in a hot and humid Buenos Aires. I got there a day late, so I could only spend one night in the city. Lucho, my couch surfing host helped me make the most of it. We took the train from Belgrano, the neighborhood where Lucho lives, to Retiro. From there we meandered back through the city and the parks near the sea. There were art and craft markets, drum circles, and bands playing in several of the parks. It happened to be an Argentine holiday, so the streets were packed with people- an enormous block party! We ate empanadas under the raining trees in Plaza San Martin. The air was so saturated with moisture that it would condense and drop off the leaves. At night we were joined by some German travelers, aslo couch surfing with Lucho. We took the train to Plaza de La Republica, were we saw the Argentine capital and walked across the widest street in the world. From the we headed to San Telmo, BA´s old downtown, for a night of Tengo clubs and bar hopping.

In the morning I caught a bus that would take me to San Carlos De Bariloche, a 22 hour trip. All day we drove across the pampas, a sparely populated flatlands across the center of Argentina. As night started to fall you could see thousands of fireflies stiring thick grassy air of the plains, a living reflection of the night sky above. By day break we were in a mountainous desert. Jagged snow capped peaks could be glimpsed in the distance. I arrived Bariloche before noon and took the bus into town. A fellow traveler told me about a mountain climb trail that was a few km walk from the city center. I befriended a group Argentines at the top, and we shared a round of maté, the local drink of choice.

Wednesday morning I was on another bus to El Bolsón. A cab ride ride and a short hike later I was in Valle Pintado, on the banks of the Rio Azul. I hiked upstream through a pasture spotted with wild rosebushes until I finally spotted signs for the granja. After almost a week of touch and go traveling, I´d made it!

The farm sits on the easter bank of the Rio Azul, in the green and narrow Valle Pintado (Painted Valley). The glacier melt river is born roughly 20 km upstream- a long day´s hike from here. I will do it some time. To our east and west, forested valley walls rise steeply. El Bolsòn, a town of around 20,000 is just over the ridge to the east, while the western side of the valley rises all the way up to snow capped peaks of the Andes. The peaks aren´t visible from our farm, but climbing up the eastern side of the valley one can see they are quite near. On the floor we are at only 200 meters elevation. The air is warm and pungent. I´m told that all of the wildflowers came into bloom a few days before I arrived! My first few days here were in the 80s-90s F, almost warm enough to swim in the icy, icy river (I got in up to my waist, haha). The water is running swift and high. There are many deep, vibrant tourquoiz pools teaming with fish! We don´t have fishing poles here, but I think I will try my luck with a stick and line.

The farm is run by a guy named Alex. He´s a stand up dude! Alex was born to American parents in Indonesia, where he lived until he was 18. He went to school in the US near Philadelphia where he created a customized major composed of courses in sociology, environmental sciences, anthropology, and comperative theology. At 21 he and his brother bought the land where the granja now sits. He has been here farming it ever since. He´s now 29. Alex wakes, works, and grubs with all of us, and is a bountiful rescource or all things farm and homestead related.

Other characters I´ve gotten to know on the farm are Patrick, a 28 year old American who has been living in equador for the past 8 years. Nico, a farming in the making from Uruguay, a really facinating guy! Jilly and Jillian two American wwoofers. Jilly spent last souther summer working at the south pole station. Thats Antartica!! There is also Nacho and his son, Argentine farm residents, and Rachel the cheese expert. There are a few more, who so far I´ve only had sparse interaction with. All of us are 30 and under. There´s a great community vibe here, everybody teaches everybody. Almost everyone speaks a bit of english, but spanish is the default language. I´m getting a lot of practice!

Ok, running out of time! Here´s a quick outline of the farm. We have 1 hectare planted with staple crops: wheat, barley, corn, potatoes, and lentils. There another hectare beside it, which is essentially and enormous garden. Here we have all sorts of greens, squash, beans, berries, tomatos root veggies like carrots, radish, turnips, and more. This piece of land also has a green house. We will be constructing one more while I am here. The farm owns one milk cow, which currently has a calf. We milk her once a day, and make cheese every other. Most of the cheese we sell, but the cream we keep to eat! There is a flock of 28 laying hens, which I will soon be in charge of. We are looking to harvest this flock in a month or two and raise up a new flock of about 40. This will be one of my focus projects while I am here! The farm also owns one horse, but we have about 5 or 6 grazing on the land. Oh yeah there are also geese.

Ok thats all I have for now! I have to get back for a party tonight! It´s one of the wwoofer´s birthday. I didn´t even get to touch on the food, living spaces, and our rustic lifestyle, but there will be more to come in a week or two!

Looking over the farm towards the mountains in the north.

Rio Azul, at our doorstep.

Caballos. One has a baby!

Our community dinning room and livingspace.

Our orange kitten named Blu.

Oso, the crybay puppy. He´s constantly tripping over his overgrown paws.

Looking over Bariloche towards the Andes.

¿Donde voy?

View Larger Map

¡Aqui!

The farm I'll be staying at for my first three months is called "Granja Valle Pintado". It is located 6 kilometers outside of the lively artisan town of El Bolsón, Argentina among the Patagonian Andean mountains on the 42nd latitude, and along the banks of the Río Azul river. The farm is on 8 hectares (20 acres) of land that were bought as a community living project in 2003 by a group consisting of Argentines, Chileans, Americans, and Canadians. Currently Alex Edleson, farmer, founder and my contact, is one of several residents on the land. They work the land through manual-style, low-till, organic agricultural practices, inspired by the principles of Steiner’s biodynamics, the natural farming of Fukuoka, and permaculture.

The farm organism of today has an important social responsibility as not only an economic nexus, but also an educational and therapeutic one, as it is an entity that manifests and connects us to the active forces and processes of nature. The Granja Valle Pintado community seeks to apply ancient wisdom to the necessities and contributions of the modern context, cultivating good food while increasing the health of the land, farmer, and local community.

Life on the farm is simple and rustic. They do not have electricity and heating is mostly from firewood. The farm is still in its formative stages. For the last couple of years on 1 hectare (2.5 acres) they have been growing small-scale grains, vegetables, fruit and pasture, saving seed, raising chickens, geese, bees, a milking cow and a horse that helps with farm work and transport. The farm is pioneering the community-supported agriculture model (CSA) in Argentina, which they call “agricultura asociativa”. They believe it is not enough to practice cultivating by organic methods, without also cultivating a socio-economic model that will sustain such farms. This means liberating agriculture from malicious market pressures by empowering local community economics. The farm is sustained by a group of El Bolsòn townspeople who financially and ethically support the Granja Valle Pintado. The harvest is divided into boxes and delivered weekly to share among farm’s member families, along with a range of other products we make like cheese, yoghurt, beer, dried herbs, jams, and chutneys.

The farm has a well developed infrastructure, including two houses (I think) and a central community kitchen. Structures were built using natural building methods like straw-bale, cob, adobe, and rustic carpentry.

I'm leaving tomorrow, and will get to the farm via Buenos Aires and San Carlos De Bariloche. I am so STOKED! Happy turkey day everyone!

Español Argentina

I'm headed to Argentina in 2 weeks, and I'm getting pretty darn excited! I've already discovered a pretty awesome Argentinian band! Onda Vaga (Wandering Wave) is a group from Buenos Aires. I bought their album and have been using it as a study aid. It's been a great way to get exposed to genuine Argentinian spanish!

- tù = vos
- vos = ustedes
- ll sounds like "jzhe"
- j is pronounced "kch"
- "y" at the beginning of a syllable makes a "sh" sound

I also read that the dialect in Patagonian-Argentina (especially the slang) is heavily influenced by Italian.

¡Qué suerte! ... or is it ¿Què fortuna?

Dail an Inbhire

I spent two weeks at Dail an Inbhire, small a farm in Scotland with with the kind and knowledgable veteran farmers, Rosie and Nigel. The farm is extremely remote. It is located in a fairly harsh environment, near the tip of a windswept peninsula on the Isle of Mull. In an environment like this good organization is key to maintaining a farm ecosystem. Nigel and Rosie manage the farm based on concepts drawn from the "Rural Stewardship Scheme, which has resulted in an increase of natural flora and fauna, suited to the specific mirco-niches they have worked to create around their farm. The croft (garden) was situated at the bottom of a small ravine, and hardy fruit trees such as rhubarb, were tucked away in just about every wind blocked nook on the property. 22 hectares of grazing land support a small flock of grazing sheep and poultry. Two windmills provide almost all electricity, and the garden, chickens and sheep provide a large proportion the food. At Dail an Inbhire, I spent a good deal of time in the garden, harvesting, weeding, transplanting, and alleviating an aphid breakout. I also spent a few days helping Nigel and Brendon (R & N's son) frame up a roof on a neighbor's house. Working here was a wonderful experience! Nigel and Rosie had so much to teach. I only wish I could have stayed longer!

Un Altra Saluti

I am getting tired of goodbyes. On to another month and another adventure. Tanti Saluti Christiane, Ruben, Bruno, and all of the other fantastic people I have met in Cagli. Grazie mille per tutti! It's been another unforgettable experience!

Facciendo Pane / Lavorare in il Bosco / e piu

I've made several entries about my free time, so here's one about the work. Forgive my disjointed topic jumping...

During this time of the year, most of the work in the winter gardens is weeding. We joke that we spend more time and energy uprooting unwated plants, than encouraging wanted ones to take root. I guess, this is the reality of mechanical weed managment. Every 4 or 5 days we make a pass through the garden with our zappas chopping off the weeds and loosening the soil. We follow this up immediately with water. It's a good system because the water soaks in to the loosened soil nicely (here there is a lot of clay), and the freshly chopped weeds drink less, leaving more for the veggies. Currently, we are also transplanting plants and seeding the summer garden. There are about 160 pomodori (tomatos), as well as peperoni (peppers), zuccini, melanzana (eggplant), and several types of beans. I don't have a picture of myself working in the garden, but here is one of Jes. A surprise change in travel plans landed here her with me for the last week at the farm.

Coral fencing in Italy is quite different than in the US. It's janky. You could call it okie-rigged, if only we used duct tape. We use a heavey iron rod to dig out a post hole. The posts are just branches from the woods, all different lengthes and diameters, some of them very crooked. To connect them, one or two wires does the job, maybe even string in some places. The gates are where things get really creative. I've seen everything from pallates tied with rope to box springs serving this purpose. I guess if it works, it works!

Every year Ruben thins out their woodland. The trick is to have enough sun on the forest floor for young trees to grow, but not cut faster than the trees are replaced. This optimizes the wood production, and keeps the forest in a nice healthy state. They use some of the wood for their own firewood, and sell the rest. This year ruben felled about 40 trees. We have to load all of this wood and bring it the house. It's heavy work, as some of the trunks are around 2 feet wide. But the forest makes a nice office. I can't complain! When we work in the forest we are usually joined by Ruben's friend Moreno, an avid backpacker, and fellow english speaker. Today was his last day of work. Tomorrow he flies to spain to spend a month packing on the Camino de Santiago, a 1,000km trail through the heart of Spain.

The other day we took about 65 kilos of wheat berries to the mill to be ground. 20 years ago this was a comon practice. Now, there is only one mill in the vicinity that will grind small quantities of flour for individual farms. After an hour drive, with several stops to ask directions, we arrived. It was an interesting little place. Full of noisy machinery, it was sort of rimenicent of a small print shop. Instead of smelling of ink and acetone, it smelled like bread! I've read a bit about the process of harvesting wheat berries and grinding them , how to get different types of flour, ect, so it was facinating for me to see the process in person. Chris has already made pizza dough with the fresh ground flour. È buonisimo! Yesterday we made a starter for the yeast, and today we made 20 loaves in the woodfire oven.

Mt Petrano

Cagli is a the base of a plateau called Mt Petrano. It's a very unique place. The drive to the top takes about 20 minutes from Cagli. You wind through dense forest getting occasional wide views of the country side below. Nearing the top, the forest gives way to grassland. During the week, you will see many locals mushroom hunting around it's edges. This area is famous for its fungi and truffles.

Jes and I drove up to the top saturday evening, hoping it wouldn't be to crowded. We ended up being the only people on the mountain! t's an incredible place. The plateau is at least 1 km wide and maybe 2 or 3 long. Gentle rolling hills covered with wildflowers stretch out in every direction. The grass is trimmed short in the early spring by grazing cattle, so now it is like an enormous lawn. To the east there are incredible views of the Umbrian Alps, and to the west the Marche campagna and the Adriatic Sea in the distance. So, beautiful! In the winter, Chris says it is all covered in snow. I have never seen anywhere else like this. Really, the photos don't begin to do it justice!

Zuppa di Herba

On this farm, my work has been very diverse. In a little over a week, I've done a little bit of everything; weeding, watering, harvesting, gathering herbs, preparing new land to be planted, making soap, installing coral fencing. One thing I have found particularly interesting is Chris's solution to pests: herb soup.

Here are the ingredients:

- Ortica (stinging nettle, this is the most important ingredient)

- Farfara

- Equineto (horse tail)

- Cousolida Maggiore (comfrey)

- Acchilea (yarrow)

Mix with water, and let it sit in the sun for around a month. It becomes quite a stew! The soup smells like a mixture of fresh cut grass and barnyard yuck, and as you can see below, it looks delicious. The bee's love it, but I keep it at a distance when possible.

When applied to the leaves of plants, whether it be garden veggies, herbs or a wild cherry tree, this concoction is quite effective at deterring pests, and protects against a myriad of diseases. Being made of decaying plant matter, it also makes a great soil amendment. You could drink it if you really wanted to! But trust me, you wouldn't want to...

Either way, I am definitely going to be trying this at home.

Pesciamo in Italia

I did not expect to be fishing in Italy. Yet, here I am, watching my bobber, not entirely sure I want to catch one of these half meter carps. When you walk down to their private lake, you arrive at the near side where a small area has been cleared of trees and brush. The grass cut, so it makes a nice little area to sit and fish. The lake is small, and sort of murky, but still, its a nice place to sit, think, and practice my Italian. By the way, "fish" = "pesce".

Fishing with Bruno is a crack-up! Its quite a different method than any I've used before in the Sierra Nevada. We use bait and bobbers. Contrary to my typical strategy of stealthily dropping my bait in an optimal position and waiting silently, hoping to catch an unsuspecting trout, Bruno starts his fishing routine by stomping loudly on the metal framed dock. This must be to wake the pesce up. Then we casts out six or seven different poles baited with corn, polenta, pasta, whatever. Next he tosses out handfuls of bait into the water around each bobber.

We haven't had much luck yet, but I have enjoyed the sessions anyway. "È tranquilo", says Bruno. I have to agree.

Ciao da Santa Barbara (Cagli)

Here I am at the farm, called Santa Barbara, in Cagli. Oggi e lunedi (monday), e sto arrivato qui giovedi (thursday). As always, when moving to a new location and new life, there is a period of adjustment. But here, it was quick and easy.

The farmers are Christeane, a middle-aged woman and her sons. Chris traveled extensively in her youth. She she grew up in Germany, near Frankfurt, but moved to Barcelona for several years in her 20s to study dance theatre. To me it sounds like a hipster's life; 2am dinners with famous jazz musicians, living surrounded by artists, immersed in a bohemiean scene. Later on she met Pino, whom she married and helped to start this farm. Pino passed away 3 years ago, but Chris and their two sons, Ruben and Bruno, are carrying on and reviving the farm. She has her quirks, but her unfailibly positive disposition makes it easy to forgive all.

Ruben and Bruno speak very little English. My Italian is usually the more effective way for us to communicate, so that's what we default to. Bruno, at 24, is the younger. He works as a pizza chef in a nearby town and helps out a bit on the farm. He's a joker, easy going, and quick to laugh. He loves it when I stupid things in italian, for example when I say "pulianamo" instead of "puliamo" or "due centro" when I mean to say "due cento". He loves jazz, fishing, and riding the dirt bike. Yesterday Bruno's ragazza, Valentia, and a group of his amici (Alessio, Sasha, Angelo, Laura, and Melissa) came over. We spent the afternoon fishing and picknicking down at their lake. They were tons of fun, and very intruiged by the Californian in their midst.

Ruben is the older at 26. He's the full time farmer. Every time he is with me he is always saying "Va bene?" or "Ti piace?" (It goes well?, You like?). Ruben is a natural mechanic. The grauge is full of his projects. Dirt bikes under operation and tractor guts are strewn everywhere. He's down to earth–laid back in an Italian sort of way. I'll venture to guess Bruno takes after his mother, while Ruben his father. Both of them are very eager to help me learn the language, patient in communication, light hearted, welcoming, and generous.

Other inhabitants of this farm are Stella, the mellow lap dog, and Chris's twin sheepdogs, Numero Uno and Bastoncino. The only way we can tell them apart is that Numero Uno always comes first, and Bastoncino always comes carrying a bastoncino (small stick).

The farm itself is situated on a gradual south facing slope. Their 46 hectares of land curl over the ridge above us and extend to the lake at the base of the hillside. Above the house is a field of lentiche (lentils). Beyond that is woodland. Below is a field of recently seeded ceci (garbanzo beans), and an abandoned house that previously housed their cows and sheep in the winter. Now it is home only to a family of hawks.

Aside from the lentiche and ceci, they have two large vegetable gardens (we will clear ground for a third), and many wild herbs. Chris is quite a botanist. She could easily recite not only the name (Italian and English), but also the uses of just about any plant I pointed out. The vegetables are sold to subscribers in boxes, sort of like a CSA. With the herbs, Chris makes tea, soap, hand salve, and a cream to help induce healing for skin agitation or a wound. She told me "it is very good for your peel" as she gifted me a small container. It is made of herbs collected from around the farm, olive oil, almond oil, and wax. She added, "you could eat it, if you wanted to...". I used the cream on my nose, since I had allergies and had rubbed it raw with tissue. Not only did it help my "peel", but the next morning I woke up pretty much allergy free, and have been so ever since. Va bene!

The farm is in a period of re-growth, so unfortunately there are no animals at the moment.

In front of the house is a hammock under an enormous oak tree with a beautiful panoramic view of the foothills (very green right now) stretching towards the plateau and three not so distant mountain peaks. The tallest still has a bit of snow, and I am told you can hike to the top of it! Allora, I've passed many hours on this hammock with 'Le Miserable'. E bello, mi piace!

Arrivederci il Circolo

I haven't posted in a while. I've been too busy living! Yesterday was my last day with Anna, Dario and Teseo. This month has flown by! I knew it would, but I think my leaving really snuck up on all of us. We stayed up late friday night, trading music, recomending books and movies, making plans, invitations, exchanging thank-yous, and expressing our dissatisfaction that the month had come to an end. In the morning we took some last minute group photos, and the whole family piled in the car to see me off at the train station. I am going to miss them!

The month hasn't been all blue sky and roses, as farming isn't all harvest and glory. Some of the work was quite hard, the days were long, and I spent and week and a half with some of the worst allergies I've ever experienced. But I'd do it all again! I've learned about organic gardening, raising sheep, making pecorino, ricotta and fresh cheese, pruning olivi, curing olives, making oil– yes, I've learned a lot about farming. I'm even picking up Italian, un po. But to live with Anna and Dario and walk a day in their shoes, has taught me more about myself than I could have foreseen. This is why I'm here!

Anna, Dario and Teseo, thank you!

Storia del il Circolo

Anna and Dario's farm is called il Circolo, meaning "the circle". The name came from their house, which has been refered to as il circolo in Montefiascone since the second world war. When they bought the house, it had been long abandoned. The roof and interior needed to be completely redone. But in the 1940's and 50's, this was a cultural center for the town. No one lived there permanently, but many in need of a temporary home passed through. The living room was used as a town meeting place for various community circles (hence the name). The downstairs bathroom had been a community sewing center, and my room was used for boxing. Yes, like Mohamed Ali, boxing. This was also the home of the very first televison in Montefiascone, which the whole community came to watch.

Dario and Anna bought the house 6 years ago, and restored it themselves. Now, it is beautiful! Below is a photo of the downstairs living space. "ROT" means red in German.
And just for kicks, here are a few photos of some il Circolo farm inhabitants: the sheep, Tesoro (our constant feline companion in the olive orchard), and Emma the Italian sheep dog.

Un pomeriggio a Montefiascone

This weekend I finally got the chance to check out the city center of the town where I am staying, Montefiascone. It is a small town, but it has a very rich history.

As I mentioned earlier, this area was a center of the Etrucian society. There are many caves here that date back well before the Roman Empire. The city itself is thought to have been built on the ruins of an ancient Etrucian temple. The first record of the name "Montefiascone" is from 853. It was a very wealthy medieval city, and a strategically important fortress. The castle hosted many popes on their way to cities north of Rome.

There is a popular local story about a catholic bishop who was traveling to Rome many centuries ago. As the story goes, this bishop sent a servant ahead with instructions to scrawl "Est" (latin for "it is") across the door of inns that had good wine. When the servant came to the inn at Montefiascone, he loved the wine so much that he wrote "Est, Est, Est!" The bishop drank so much of the wine that he died, and is now buried in the crypt of a local church. Today, Est Est Est is a large commercial wine bottler.  Dario concluded "it might have been good once, but now it is crap!"

The city center is built on a hill with a beautiful park at its peak. I spent some time reading in the park, checked out the cathedrals and castle ruins, and got some food a a local cafe.

Photos from top to bottom: 1) The view from the park. 2) Cathedral Santa Margherita. 3) Could this be it!?

Facciamo Formaggio

Every three days Anna makes a wheel of pecorino. It is surprisingly easy to make. The difficult part is aging it. I would try it at home, but I'd need a cave.

The milk is heated to room temperature and the lactose eating, cheese rendering culture is added. The milk is then brought up to about 98º, since the culture works fastest at body temp. After about 30 minutes, the rennet is added. In another 40 minutes the milk has formed a solidified layer in the pot. The second photo shows Anna, breaking up the solids from the liquid whey.  The solids are then drop into a form and left for a few minutes to drain. The remaining liquid is then boiled, and ricotta "gratis" comes to the top.

The cheese can be eaten at this point. Anna calls it "fresh cheese". It is very mild and creamy, and delicious with a little salt and olive oil poured over it. We often have it as a topping on salads. Usually she will fill a small form for fresh cheese, along with the large form for the pecorino.

The solids in the large form are then packed, flipped, packed again, and again, and again. It's then left in a dry room for a few days, and finally moved to the cave to age.

I don't know the nuances of aging yet, but I do know the cheese needs to be in a cool, humid place. The cave is perfect for this! Cheese is aged anywhere from a month to 2 years. The longer it ages the firmer, and stronger tasting it is. At first, they have to scrub the wheels to prevent the buildup of mold. After a month or two, the skin is hardened, and mold can no longer permeate it. The mold that forms on pecorino is commonly eaten, but too much of it will ruin the cheese. Dario says its tasty. I'll take his word for it.

Photos from top to bottom: 1) A salad with fresh cheese topped with oil, slices of pecorino, and ricotta spread on panè. 2) Anna separating the solids from the whey. 3) Cheese solids in the form. 4) After several packings. 5) Wheels of pecorino, aging in the cave.