Change of the Seasons

The look of the landscape is changing. Long gone is the yellow mustard and the various shades of green are replaced by hues of reds and browns.
As the spelt matures, the beards of the wheat have given the parcels of land a maroon colour and the bright red poppies are out in full bloom. It truly is amazing how the nature here really works in harmony with it’s colour schemes. Apparently I am witnessing something really beautiful because the poppies usually are done by now as are most of the flowers…but the rain is changing the landscape this spring.
Life in the caseificio (pronounced ca-zey-fee-cho) is the same. Although apparently I have come up with a novel idea of blending sun-dried tomatoes with basil and garlic into the caprino fresco (soft goat cheese aka cream cheese). They really like it here and to my surprise they havn't eaten this combo. I thought it to be strange since it is the ingredients of the famous Italian ‘margherita’ pizza and the colours of the Italian flag. But I guess as a cheese spread it is something new.
They are always a little worried when I am making some ‘interesting cheese’. I always tell them it will be “buonissimo” (oh so very good) and I get the reply of “spero” (I hope).
Well no matter how big of a batch of the ‘formaggio margherita’ I make, there is never any left over. Even though the last batch I made had maybe a little too much garlic – it was all gone. I actually woke up at one point in the night thinking, “My god something stinks like garlic….”
It was my palms of my hands next to my face so I hid them under the blanket.

I really am enjoying the group of us WWOOFers on the farm. It is nice to have the company of the 2 girls and the guy and we all seem to get along really well.
The guy. I won’t mention his name or where he is from because I am about to make fun of him (I’ll give a hint though, starts with a U. and ends in an S.A.). I truly do like him -he is REALLY nice, a softie and very intelligent– except when he said this:
“Can I, like, borrow your electrical converter and adapter for my shaver…or wait maybe my shaver cord won’t fit with your adapter because… do you use the same kind of electricity as we do?” he asked.
“Umm...yes you can borrow it. Our cords are the same” I replied.
He replied, “Oh I wouldn’t know because I have never been to Canada.”
Right…
Then the thought of:
“Oh wait a minute you don’t live in igloos down there! Our electricity IS different. We have special electricity that doesn’t …you know….overheat the wires too much because if it did, our igloos would melt and there would be a massive flood. And hell! We would all drown because we don’t have boats as there is no need for them because there is no water in Canada, only ice!”
Then as the four of us were talking about travelling to somewhere that was 120 km from the farm here, he turns to me and asks, “What is that in miles?”
“I dunno…should be something like 70 miles. 100 km equals 60 miles. We use kilometres too.” I said.
“Really? I didn’t know that!” he exclaimed.
Right…
Then the thought of:
“Yeah when we start to build wooden houses like everyone else we might switch to using miles too.”
I like the guy. I really do but he was just too easy to make fun of.

With summer trying to creep in to Tuscany, there have been some new arrivals in from the vegetable market. In the kitchen comes fresh produce like bright red cherries, SWEET orange cantaloupe (it is so much better than what we get in Canada) and the big fresh bag of fragrant green basil that Massimo bought. To my delight, Sandra decided to make basil pesto with it (and yes there are different types of pesto).
I love pesto di basilico. Especially on fat little gnocchi.
Tonight the pesto was served on long, lanky linguini. As I savoured the flavours of the first green forkful in my mouth, I noticed a different taste.
“Is there nutmeg in here?” I ask Sandra.
She squints at me with this look of “is she gonna get it?”
“Ah wait…no - it’s cloves right?” I ask. CERTAIN I was right.
“No I think it is the old cheese I used from the fridge – I thought we’d use it up. It had a very strong taste.” She replied.
I guess that is why Maaike said she had to use gloves when chopping this cheese it was that strong of a smell. Maaike even grabbed a handful of lavender to chase the smell away from her hands.

The result of eating this cheese?
A farting fiasco in my trailer later that evening.
I guess you could say I was really cuttin’ the cheese!
Which I guess was kind of ok because I woke up in the morning and all of the ants that have been crawling on my shelf for the past month were dead.

Ok not really…but they should have been.

You know that cheese commercial,
“If you want them to leave home….stop feeding them cheese!!!”

If you want them to leave home even quicker just start eating smelly old cheese

Just Stuff

Why did God invent flies? Is there a particular purpose they serve other than to help forensics determine the time of death of someone? There are a lot of them here at the moment – warmer weather and all. There are 2 in my trailer that are flying around like they drank 10 espressos and are really annoying me right now as I am typing. I can’t kill them damn things.

Then there is the other day i was asked to bring some of the smelly, mouldy goat cheeses for some guests. Well, i had to perform the maggot check (or so as they so kindly refer to them as JUST 'bugs'). Yes, there were maggots so i picked them out of the cheese and put it on the table. One of the wwoofers at our table was saying how good this cheese was and that I should really try it. Hmmm... did I dare tell him that i just finished picking maggots off of it and thus think that it is the grossest, stinkiest cheese and that there is a reason that flies like it? I tend not to enjoy the same cuisine as flies do thank you very much!

The weather here is actually crappy. I am sure Alberta has had more sunny days these past weeks than we have. I got to suntan for 2 days and it has rained or showered almost everyday. But if the sun peeks out it is hot. So much for, ‘under the Tuscan sun’. It’s more like, “under the crappy, cheap umbrella I overpaid for from the guy on the street in Rome”.
I am sure you have all heard that too much of a good thing can be bad. Well how about too much pasta? Yes that is lunch and supper. ‘Basta’(enough) with the pasta! Sure it always tastes great...but I know that I will put on some weight with this pasta and so now am trying to limit the amount I eat – especially at supper. I even had a great scare one day as I put my underwear on and thought, “holy shit did my butt ever get big!” Then I realised I put my underwear on backwards. Thank God.
You know as great as Italian cuisine can be, I realised that I am truly thankful of our Canadian cuisine. The variety in Canada (and America in general) from all of the different cultures is exceptional. I mean you can go to Sobeys and find a Taco kit in the chip isle, perogies in the freezer section, Olivieri ‘fresh’ pasta in the deli, and Chinese ‘take out’ at the deli counter. Or you can barbeque a good ol’ hamburger and eat potato salad. As one guy put it, you can go to a Chinese restaurant in Rome and they still somehow incorporate pasta into the dishes. Granted, some of our restaurants may not be the most authentic...but it is great to have such a variety as a part of everyday life.
I do have to applaud the Italians for the freshness of their food. I guess we could have something similar for part of the year if we chose to grow our own food in our own gardens.
Two girls have joined Il Casale. Maaike from Holland and Astrid from Bolzano (north Italy – German speaking area). It is very nice to have some girls around here. Ronald has left here to go to the coolness of the Swiss Alps for the summer.
We have changed the cheese schedule to making it every three days so that Ulisse says I can get out of the cheesery for a few days. That’s a good thing. I was a bit afraid that to many more days in there I might be growing mould under my arm pits. The humidity is incredible in there – but alas it is good for my skin. Except for the salt bath (the cheese sits in it for about 6 hours) it burns the scratches on my hands.
Non cheese days I have been using my experience from Ukraine which is that of raking up hay. I roll the hay with a pitchfork into a round-type of bale and pitch it onto the wagon. I have also been ‘trimming’ the grape vines in the vineyard so that there are only 6 vines every meter or so. In the vineyard I get to work with Shima from Albania and have learned that a mouse in Albanian is miu and glasses are suje.
I think tonight warrants a visit to Capitoni! §