Down on the Farm

Home sweet farmhouse

I had an incredible 2 weeks working on a Tuscan farm. I met some great people and really enjoyed getting to work with my hands; after reading and writting about it all year, it was nice to actually DO it. My first week coincided with the beginning of the olive harvest, so any available moment was spent picking olives. It was nice work, you didn't have to think to hard about it and often there were 2 other people picking the same tree, so lots of time for chatting...it made the work go by quickly. I joined the other interns at the press for the first week's harvest- nothing tastes better than JUST pressed olive oil that you have had a hand in creating.

One of the olive groves I worked over.

Our first week's haul

So beautiful...so tasty!

For some reason, olive pressing calls for grilled ribs. While we waited for our turn at the press, we chowed down outside...no complaints here!

The second week was mostly spent working with the Salumi (cured meats), cleaning the salami, tagging everything, rotating racks of curing pork belly into and out of drying rooms. I developed an odd rash on my arms from all the mold that I was dealing with, but I didn't really mind...I just thought of how tasty everything was going to be! The farmhouse I stayed in was rustic at best...no heat, only about 1 hour of hot water, and lots of big spiders everywhere. I spent most of my free time huddled by the fireplace. Meals every night were prepared my an elderly lady who could certainly cook. Almost everything that we ate was produced on the farm...and everything was delicious! It was so nice to finish a full day of work and have such a great meal waiting!

Impromptu chestnut roast

Me and the salami

Spannocchia

After having about 2 weeks of downtime to finish writing papers that were due back in September, and getting over a little bout of illness (I made myself chicken soup), I begin the 2nd phase of my internship on November 1. I will travel to a farm in Tuscany (yes, as painfully clicheish as it is) where I will be a volunteer for 2 weeks doing various farm tasks, hopefully getting to participate in the slaughter and making of cured meats. The farm is called Spannocchia, and is run by an American foundation. There is an agriturismo/bed and breakfast as well. Hopefully, I will learn a lot about organic farm management and get to spend some good quality time outdoors getting my hands dirty. I also hope to pick up some great techniques from the house restaurant, where I will be eating all of my meals. I will be sure to update when I return!

Armenia

My first stage of the 2 month internship period was spent in Armenia, the small country wedged between Georgia, Turkey, Iran, and Azerbaijan. It is now a republic, but was occupied by the Russians until the mid 1990s. The purpose of the trip was to develop a gastronomic tourism itenerary for this relatively unknown country (and at the behest of a friend of a friend who lives there.) I went with my Colorno roommate Aviva (a 60+ year old Dallasite). Though it was good to be exposed to something new and unfamiliar, I have to say the country was pretty unimpressive. The people don't really have any sense of "society," so they take care of only what is theirs and everything else is someone else's problem, and this worked fine when the Russians were there to take care of things, but now the Armenian government is completely uninterested in fixing most of the problems. And the food was really not all that great either. It had its high points, like kebabs and the occasional borrowing from Turkey and Iran, but I'm afraid the Russians left their presence on the food too! Here are some pics...

Aviva and I checking out the unfamiliar spices in the huge market in Yerevan, the capital city. And of course, buying as well.

Here I am with a lady who wanted me to marry her son on the spot! She took me into her backyard orchard and loaded me down with quinces and apples and asked to take a picture with me. During our visit, she stayed very close, and took every opportunity to give me things, including a jar of the best plumb jam I have ever tasted. In general, the people were very hospitable and generous.


Here is a typical example of an Armenian church. I think there are more churches per square foot than any other country in the world. One of Armenia's claims to fame is that they were the first country to officially adopt Christianity in 301 AD. Their church architecture remains fairly congruous throughout the country, with many fine stone engravings.

One of many bread making examples we were apart of. Their most common bread is Lavash, a very thin bread cooked on the walls inside a buried pit oven. In most cases, as in this pic, three generations of women are involved. Each household usually cooks their bread every other week.

La Vendemmia

Between the last week of class and the beginning of my internship, I had a week free. Over here, September and October mean one thing...Grape Harvest! So, I finally used my WWOOF (http://www.wwoof.org/) membership and found a cantina that needed some help. I traveled back to Piemonte to a small town called Canale, half way between Asti and Alba, a prime wine region, with a colleague-friend. We stayed with the agronomist of the vineyards for about 5 days and we worked HARD- we received room and board as pay. Some days we put in 8 hours in the vineyards and it still got pretty hot in the afternoons. I can't remember the last time I felt as dirty as I did at the end of a harvest day, with the dirt, vegetation, sticky grape juice, and sweat covering every inch of me. I also can't remember the last time I slept as well! Nor the last time I have been so sore! But I met some great people and I feel like I have a new appreciation for the wine making process and the price of a bottle!

Step 1- Collect empty crates and space them among the rows where you anticipate needing them.

Step 2-Pick grapes, shearing away the dried and over/under ripe seactions from the bunches.

Step 3-Place grapes in crates. Once full, haul to the end of the row where they can easily be collected.

Piemonte

Over the last few weeks, I have taken my final stage of the year (to Piemonte) and completed my classroom hours. Piemonte is a region in the far northwestern corner of Italy. Torino is the largest city and the whole region has quite a lot of French influence. Apart from this, it is one of my favorite regions. It is renowned for its wine, including Barolo, Barbaresco, Moscato d'Asti, and many others. It is also the capital of the white truffle, Italian rice production, and home to many wonderful gastronomic traditions. My class traveled there for 4 days...needless to say we ate and drank very well! As the grape harvest season is here, we passed kilometers and kilometers of huge green vines loaded with beautiful, deep purple grapes. At the end of the stage, we atended the annual Slow Food Cheese Festical in Bra, where the Slow Food headquarters are located.

We ate a lot of cheese on this trip. Almost every meal replaced the meat course with a cheese plate.

At the cheese festival, I took a seminar on American Cheese and Beer. It made me proub to be an American...we are producing some GOOD cheeses

Hobnobbing with Carlo Petrini and other Slow Food big wigs.

Our visit to Aquerello Rice included a tour of the very well preserved barracks that the migrant rice workers used in the past. Primarily women worked the rice fields who came from the south every year for about 6 weeks.

I don't want to eat rice again for a LONG time. We were served nothing but rice for 3 meals in a row. Here is a sampling of 3 different varieties, served with what else but rice beer.

Osteria Francescana

Chef Massimo Bottura explaining his creations

This past weekend, I experienced perhaps the most interesting meal of my life so far. An example of the main strength of the university- CONNECTIONS- my colleagues and I enjoyed a private lunch at a restaurant ranking 13th in the world on the Pellegrino list. Chef Massimo Bottura, who visited the school in July, opened his restaurant, Osteria Francescana, exclusively for us. We enjoyed a 10 course meal with 3 wines, and were given explanations by the chef for each dish. We were 11 in number, there were 6 waitstaff. The meal was followed by a Bottura led tour of the restaurant, including his own private office and experimental kitchen. Though I have certainly read and studied it, this was my first actual encounter with molecular gastronomy (a growing movement which combines food memories and cool science to create mind blowing, convention altering dishes.) I will NEVER forget this meal!

The unassuming entrance...they were waiting for us at the door when we got out of the taxi.

Bring it on! Myself, Morimi, and Mandy waiting for the show to begin.

Interpretation of a Mortadella panino (or Bologna Sandwich). Mortadella mouse, gnoccho bread, powdered pistachios.

Foie Gras popsicle, coated with caramelized hazelnuts and almonds, with a 40 yr. old apple balsamic vinegar filling.

"Earth", lots of braised leeks, porcini, and truffles.

Parmigiano 5 ages, 5 ways.


Pasta e Fagioli

Ravioli filled with Lambrusco steamed cotecchino and black lentils.


Veal cheek with jus, over potatoes, with clorophyll on the plate.

"Garden," a surprising, yet aptly named sweet and sour vegetable palate cleanser.

Chocolate-Cherry explosion

Deconstructed Zuppa Inglese, a popular trifle dessert from the area.


And of course coffee to end the meal with petits fours

I say tomato...

Parma, roughly sharing a latitude with the state of Maine, has a much later growing season than what I'm accustomed to at home in Houston. While this time of year, the tomato plants in Houston are on their last leg, the tomatoes here are in the prime of their lives. Surprisingly, Parma is the Italian capital of industrial tomato production, with the headquarters of the leading company being only a 10 minute drive from my front door step. A few days ago we went on a tomato stage, a day of two extremes. In the morning we stopped at Stuard, an organization devoted to preserving both ancient and modern seed varieties. We were given free grazing privileges in their experimental tomato fields, or rather, during the field lecture, the more horticulturally inclined of us wandered off to explore, taste, and gather. I filled my bag, which I had brought in hope of this chance, to the brim with all sorts of interesting tomatoes mostly for the purpose of collecting the seeds. This was the exciting part of the day for me.
In the afternoon, we visited the aforementioned industrial processing company. The only comment I have about this is that I will now do everything in my power to never have to eat a canned or processed tomato ever again...

My field selections, hopefully none of which are hybrids!

The space-saving, less smelly method of preserving tomato seeds involves scooping them out and fermenting them in jars.

I had to improvise by cutting off the tops of water bottles to use as fermenting vessels. Now I wait for yeasts and bacteria to do their magic!