Harvesting Olives, Part 1

One of the main things we wanted to experience in Italy was the annual olive harvest, which takes place in November-December.  In anticipation of this we joined WWOOF (World Wide Opportunities on Organic Farms) a few months before we left Seattle.  With our membership we received a list of about 600 farms of all kinds all over Italy.  The deal is that members provide volunteer labor in return for food and lodging.  It’s a wonderful arrangement for people who want to travel inexpensively.

We sorted through the list and ended up making contact with a farm called Il Bellini which is located about 30 minutes from Arezzo by train.  Il Bellini is a family-run farm that produces wine and honey in addition to olive oil.  They were eager to have our help.  Gabriella has been emailing with Rosanna, the daughter of the proprietors, to arrange for our visit. (More about our visit to Il Bellini in a later post).

In the meantime, through our landlord, we met a couple who live a few miles outside Arezzo and have about 40 olive trees on their property.  When we mentioned to Lauro and Angioletta that we were interested in learning about harvesting olives they suggested that we come and help them.  We arranged for them to pick us up on Monday morning.  As we drove out to their place they said that we wouldn’t be harvesting that day because it was rainy and the olives need to be dry when they’re picked.  Instead they offered to spend the day chatting with us (hooray – here comes our crash course in Italian language!). 

When we arrived they gave us a tour of their property, and afterwards offered us coffee and cake.  Well, we THOUGHT Angioletta was offering us a piece of cake she had already made, so naturally we said yes, we’d love some.  It turns out she was apparently asking us if we wanted her to make a cake right then and there, which is precisely what she did.  It was a “simple” crostata made with Angioletta’s homemade quince jam, and a lattice top.   By the time the crostata was in the oven it was time to start getting ready for lunch.  Angioletta made a delicious meal of pasta with her homemade tomato sauce, fried eggplant, salad, wine, bread and olive oil.  We finished off the meal with the crostata and home-made vin santo.  Exquisite!  We had a wonderful time and arranged to come back Wednesday when the weather was supposed to be dry. 

Wednesday morning was indeed sunny and dry (in fact we haven’t seen a cloud in the sky since that Monday) and we went right to work.  To harvest olives one literally combs them from the tree using a hand rake called un rastrello.  Nets are spread on the ground below the tree to catch the olives as they fall.  Once all the olives are off the tree, the nets are gathered up and the olives are loaded into cassettas (crates) that are then taken to il frantoio (the olive press)to be processed into oil.

Some of Lauro & Angioletta's trees

The Cottage Gardener hard at work!

Il rastrello

Reaping the harvest

Two trees' worth of olives

Henry & Lauro at the end of the day

Lauro also has a mechanical rake on a long pole that runs on a battery.  It basically gives the trees a gentle beating to knock the olives off the branches.  This is particularly helpful for branches that are too high to reach from the ground, or are too precarious to reach from a ladder.  Harvesting olives is not hard work, but it is steady, and fairly tedious.  For the unaccustomed it’s a bit of a strain on the neck, arms, shoulders and back.  By one o’clock we were eager for our mid-day lunch break!  Because Angioletta is not particularly fond of outdoor work, she stayed in the house and prepared another wonderful meal for us while Lauro and the two of us worked in the groves.  When we came inside we found the table set and we enjoyed another delicious spread of pasta, salad and wine.  And another cake accompanied by vin santo!  This cake was made with ricotta and nutella – YUM!  After lunch we went back to the trees where we worked until dusk.  

Lauro was very happy that we had collected about 100kg of olives (in general the volume of olive oil produced is about 10-15% of the quantity of olives used) and was disappointed that we couldn’t come back the next day  - so were we!  As much as we wanted to help Lauro finish with his harvest, it was time for us to go on to Il Bellini.  Stay tuned!

A Bike and A Blunder

Gabriella bought a bicycle!  It’s a used 10-speed bike and it will be just what she needs for the time we are here.  She has no intention of bringing this bike back to Seattle (she loves her bike in Seattle, even if it weighs about ten times as much as this one).  When it’s time to leave she will sell it.  Not only is she delighted with this new purchase, but also with having navigated the entire transaction in reasonably intelligible Italian.

Biker Babe setting off on her first Italian ride!

She was more than a little anxious about taking the bike out on the road for the first time, and she packed a first aid kit in her backpack just to be safe (as though that would help if she were flattened by a Fiat).   She chose a time of day when there would be fewer cars on the road and off she went.  After the first 20 minutes she found her groove and pedaled through the countryside in ecstasy!  What a feeling of liberation!  An unexpected benefit was having the opportunity to feel fully competent at something again.  We’ve spent the last several weeks feeling acutely aware of our inadequacies.   To be doing something familiar and nourishing in a foreign place, where everything we do poses some degree of challenge was blissful.

Later in the day Gabriella had the opportunity to be humbled again when we went into a local shop to get some tomatoes and basil.  The shopkeeper looked at Gabriella askance as she asked for some “basilica fresca.”  It turns out Gabriella should have said “basilico fresco” and that what she was saying was, “I’d like to have some fresh church, please.”  What a difference a vowel makes!

Truly, there are days when we come home and our heads literally HURT with the strain of concentrating so hard on what we are hearing and saying.

La Cucina Italiana

Last Thursday we went to a cooking class and dinner, again organized by our language school. The class was taught by local chef named Lalla (her nickname and also her professional name).  It was a delightful evening that started with Prosecco and appetizers, included a multi-course meal paired with locally made wine, and concluded with dessert and limoncello.  We began by learning how to make pasta from scratch, and then doing the prep work for the sauces.  

Lalla demonstrates how to make pasta - 2 eggs and 350 grams of flour.

Making the tagliatelle.

Henry might have a new career as a pasta chef!

The menu Lalla had planned involved a lot meat, but she made a separate meatless dish especially for Gabriella and another of the students who is also vegetarian. Of course it was all fabulous. One highlight was the potatoes.  They were slow cooked in a covered frying pan with fresh sage from Lalla’s garden, olive oil, salt and pepper. YUM!  Lalla explained that EVERY Italian dish includes the following essential ingredients: olive oil, salt and pepper.  Garlic is sometimes used in a form known adorably as “dressed garlic” (aglio vestito) or “garlic with its shirt on” (aglio alla camicia), which means you use the cloves without peeling them.  In this way the garlic adds a less forceful flavor to the dish.

Lalla taught us that the secret to the light but extraordinarily flavorful Italian tomato sauce is that the tomatoes are cooked in their own juice – without adding water or oil in the cooking process.  Olive oil is added only at the end.  Here’s how she taught us to prepare a tomato sauce:

Chop about 3 cups of tomatoes, 2 carrots, 2 sticks of celery and an onion.  Place them in a pan and cook for about half an hour until they are soft.  At this point you can strain the sauce through a sieve or leave the vegetables intact.  Add olive oil, salt and pepper to taste.   Enjoy!

Street Art

With the help of Gabriella’s cousin we’ve found some wonderful street art.  

 

We discovered the “angel” right outside our door.  We’d been here two weeks and never noticed it!

Now we’ve started seeing them all over town and we’re keeping our eyes open for more.

La Striscia – vineyard tour and wine tasting

While Gabriella’s family was staying with us our school had planned a field trip to a local vineyard and winery called La Striscia.  All five of us were eager to take part.  The vineyard is located just outside the city center, about 20 minutes away by foot. We had a brief tour of the estate (which has been in the same family for over 500 years!!) and the wine making operation.  We then moved to the reception area for the most important part of the event which was the food and wine tasting.  Marco, the general manager, had prepared an inviting and generous spread of salami, cheese and bread for us.  The vineyard produces three organic wines, a chianti, sangiovese and a merlot, and we received very generous samples of each.  

Part of the vineyard

The road leading up to La Striscia

Notice the bed at the end of the pool.  There are several on the grounds for guests to use.  It's nap time!

During the tasting Marco talked about the wines and the estate.  As always, in such a relaxed and luxurious atmosphere and with the stories Marco was telling us (all in Italian of course) the wines were amazing.  Needless to say we bought some.  We would have bought more but we were on foot. Being eager to enjoy the wine at home, Henry had no complaints about carrying the bottles all the way back to our apartment.  Fortunately the winery is close by and we can easily return for more.

One other highlight of this visit was that we witnessed their bottling operation.  It took place in a truck, the size of a large delivery van, which was set up in their parking lot.  When the sides are raised, you can see the complete bottling operation inside. Once the truck is closed up it looks like any ordinary delivery truck - you’d never know what was in it. The bottles are fed in one end and about 3-4 minutes later they come out filled, corked and labeled and are packed into boxes ready for shipping.  Henry found this fascinating, so much so that he didn’t think to take a picture.   

Besides wine, La Striscia also produces olive oil.  Eager for an opportunity to participate in the olive harvest, which begins in November, Gabriella offered to help.  Her willingness to volunteer was met with a lukewarm response.  She realizes now she should have explained that beneath her demure, delicate appearance there is a fully fortified gardener clamoring to get out!

If you have some extra cash you can pamper yourself by staying in the lavish setting of La Striscia as a guest.  http://www.lastriscia.com/eng/Home_eng.html

Our First Visitors!

Gabriella’s uncle, aunt and cousin, from Wales, came for a four-day visit last week and it was wonderful to see them.  Together we explored new and familiar parts of Arezzo, including doing some of the “touristy” things we hadn’t yet had time to do ourselves – such as visiting museums and trying out restaurants.  There is a lot to see here, including frescoes dating back to the 15^th century (and earlier) that are simply stunning.

An added advantage of the visit was that Gabriella’s family doesn’t speak any Italian so we had to be the interpreters.  As a result we challenged ourselves to do things we otherwise would have been too timid to do ourselves – such as talking to people!  Our best experience was at a store where the proprietor was kind enough to correct our Italian and with whom we established a friendly rapport.  Being corrected is a good thing – it demonstrates a degree of caring and kindness.  Each and every time this happens we are immensely grateful. 

Because our apartment is too small to accommodate five people comfortably, Gabriella's uncle and aunt had arranged to stay in a B&B nearby and their daughter stayed with us.  After they arrived, the five of us walked from the train station to the B&B, a relatively long walk, made to feel much longer by the weight of their luggage.  When we arrived, no one answered the doorbell.  Just as we were beginning to wonder what to do an adolescent boy stuck his head out of an upstairs window.  Gabriella explained that we were there for the B&B.  Quickly the boy disappeared and we could hear some scrambling from inside.  Eventually a man (it was the father, Omero) emerged genially, but with some trepidation, from the front door.   

A protracted conversation ensued as we stood in front of Omero’s home for at least 20 minutes while he extended countless gestures of welcome.  Gabriella got some intensive language immersion, as she translated back and forth between the English and Italian speakers.  Omero, in a stunning display of Italian stereotype, also made frequent references to “la bella ragazza” (referring to Gabriella's embarrassed cousin, who is a lovely almost 18 year old).  After charming us to the point of near exhaustion, he explained that the B&B was actually about a mile away.  We despaired at the thought of walking another mile until Omero explained that he would drive us there.  This involved taking 2 cars - they don’t drive big cars here.  Not at all sure where we were going, but extremely happy for the ride, we gratefully accepted the invitation. 

Once at the B&B we spent another 20 minutes being oriented and making conversation.  As kind as Omero was, we were relieved when he finally stopped talking (especially Gabriella!) and left us to ourselves.  His welcome was so extensive and charming, he even told Gabriella to call him if there was anything WE needed during the time we are living in Arezzo!