Life on the farm

We had beautiful weather yesterday, so we were able to have our pizza lunch at the rustic farm, and the we visited the shepard to watch him make cheese.

We spent the morning photographing things around the farm and then Tom and I went into Sora to find a suitcase. While we were in Greve I bought a beautiful pair od Italian leather boots! They are knee length and this caused a dilemma regarding the size of my backpack. We have aquired a thing or two along the way, so rather thn pay to ship it all, we decided checking a suitcase at the airport was the answer. We found our suitcase and returned to the farm to await lunch.

We hiked to the rustic farm with Megan as our leader. It was a beautiful (uphill) hike and I was peeling off layers as the day, (and I) warmed up. The hike is through a forest, and you come out through olive groves and fruit trees such as pomegranite, pears and persimmons, which are all currently loaded with fruit.

The guys had already started the fire in the outdoor oven, and while the ladies made a salad, Tom was off taking photos and Joe took me on a tour of the property. I am familiar with a lot of what they are doing due to my own organic gardening experience. They live very simply and have outdoor showers (kind of like a tiki hut set up, without the warm Tahitian breezes!), and outdoor bathroom facilities. They are living pretty rough.

Lunch was set up on to of one of the buildings, and it was beautiful. They even had a tableccloth and some wine. The pizza was delicious.... even better than the BBQ pizza we make at home. They really went out of their way to make us feel welcome.

Tom and I hiked back to the farm (hey, how could it be mostly uphill BOTH directions???) and had some free time before it was tinme to go see the shepard.

Soem other couples arrivved in the meantime so we had company at the shepard's house which was fun. There were eight of us, plus Linda (volunteer from Netherlands), the shepard and his wife.

We watched as he first prepared hot food for his dogs (prized posession and priority to the shepard). After dog meal preparation, he stoked up his fire and heated the sheeps milk. First he made Pecorino by stirring rennet into the milk. He scooped the cheese out of the remaiing whey and added back a bit more milk. After that heated again, it became Ricotta ( which means reheated). We got to try the pecorino hot out of the whey, and after the ricotta was made we each got to drink a glass of hot whey. Everyone seemed to like it OK, some actually thought it was good. It was a very interesting and enjoyable experience.


We had dinner back at the farm and it was a full table. Guisseppi brought out his "strawberry grape" wine and it was delicious, We have been drinking the white wine that he makes which is also delicious, but this was a nice change. It smelled and tasted of strawberries. His wife Maria has been making us dinner each night and that has really been a treat to have a real Italian lady making us traditional meals.

We will be sorry to leave here.