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.