AUTUMN’S ADVENTURES

Yesterday Amber and I woke up and started our normal routine of making eggs for breakfast.  I eat about 3 eggs for breakfast every morning and Amber eats 1-2.  Yesterday was special because after we had breakfast, Rita came in and started to collect all of the fresh eggs we collect from the chickens.  She then frantically asked us where all of the fresh eggs had gone and proceeded to ask us if we eat 9 eggs a day.  Amber told her no…only 6 lol.  Rita then freaked out and was like “I need 50 fresh eggs every week because I sell them to a client!”  Shit. We didn’t know.  And we had eaten roughly 40 fresh eggs over 1.5 weeks.  whoops.

She didn’t yell at us, she was just frustrated because she only had 22 eggs and she thought we were only eating 1 egg each per day.  But it really sucks for me because eating farm fresh eggs is one of the main reasons I was happy and excited to be living on a farm.  I was eager to stand behind a chicken, watching it pop out a super fresh egg, still warm even — and rush it to the kitchen to prepare my breakfast.  I mean, it doesn’t get more direct than that!  I LOVED being able to collect my own eggs and eat them right away.  It was the coolest thing ever.  Now, I’m not allowed to eat them at all and it really bums me out.  I can’t even bear the thought of collecting the eggs, knowing some other lucky chap gets to relish in the delight of a farm fresh egg and not me.  I died inside when I realized this fact.

Rita went to the store that day and bought about 5 dozen cheap eggs for us to eat.  I have no idea where in Italy they come from and I am not able to see them pop out of the chicken’s ass.  But I appreciate the thought of her buying them for us, to make sure we can continue to have eggs even though we can’t have the fresh ones.  But I’m still really bummed about the whole thing, and I’m trying to not think about it.

Later on in the evening we had to work in the restaurant for a group of Enrico’s friends who were coming to eat dinner and do line dancing outside!  They cleaned up the patio and set up hay bales and lights and a long table for people to eat.  Amber and I were super excited to watch Italians do American line dancing and we were eager to see what it would be like.

People started to shuffle in and they were all wearing cowboy boots and some form of plaid clothing and jeans.  They were decked out to the T in perfect cowboy attire.  That was freaking amazing.  Then we learned that the line dancing instructor was there and that she was from America — Missouri to be exact.  She was seriously the tallest person in the group, towering over everyone.  She was blond and thin and cute.  We didn’t talk to her at all but she did say a few things in English to let us know where she came from.  We saw that she had a ring on her finger so we were curious if she married an Italian or what brought her to Italy to teach line dancing.  I took some videos that I will be posting at a later time.  For now, here is a funny photo of the dancing — they really try to make line dancing sexier than it is, by shaking their hips a lot and kicking their legs up high. haha

I also tried my first Italian beer.  It was good but I’ll be sticking to Italian wine as much as I can.  Barb and Joe worked the grill all night, preparing some sausages that they made on the farm as well as hot dogs and pork chops.  The ventilator wasn’t working so well so Barb and Joe were sweating up a storm and their eyes were bloodshot from the smoke.  I felt bad for them!

The night as a whole made up for the shitty morning news of no more fresh eggs, so I guess the day balanced itself out.  The moon was full and creamy yellow, the music was hilarious country pop songs and the atmosphere was just perfect.  I kept going over to Amber, wrapping my arm around her and saying, “Can you believe this is our life? This moment right now?”  It really does amaze me, the things I am able to be a part of…

I thought it would be fun to share the recipes I’m getting from the farm with you guys, so here is the first one I’ve written down.  Italian food is great because it uses simple ingredients to create super flavorful meals, and most dishes are really easy to make!  This recipe is one that Barb made up on the spot, and in the last moment decided to throw shredded coconut in it.  BRILLIANT!

Pasta Freddo/Insalata di Pasta

Ingredients:

• Bowtie Pasta
• Diced Cucumbers
• Diced Tomatoes
• Chopped Fresh Mozarella
• Chopped Fresh Basil Leaves
• Shredded Coconut (to taste)
• Extra Virgin Olive Oil (drizzle over top)
• Sea Salt (to taste)
• Pepper Spices (to taste)
• Coriander Powder (to taste)

Ok, so basically you just gotta eyeball it like the Italians do. There were no measuring cups involved in this preparation, just hands and eyeballs.  So just mix all these things together and add the spices to your liking…

Obviously you need to prepare the pasta ahead of time and let it cool in the fridge.  Add a touch of EVOO to keep the noodles separated.

Serve cold and with a cute basil leaf on top!  Soooo yummy and so easy to make!

So I got a request from a reader and friend to put where on the map I am in Italy.  For the record, I am in Varese, Italy, which I’ve stated before but just casually.  It is a very small city 1 hour north of Milan in the middle of the lake district of the province of Lombardy.  It’s 1 hour by train to the famous Lago di Como (Lake Como) and the town of Bellagio is 2 hours.  The climate so far has been dry and hot but with frequent rain which makes it cold enough to wear a sweater.  I’ve been sleeping with thick blankets at night so all of my thin clothes that I packed, anticipating hot and humid weather, are rendering useless.

MAPS!

I am waaaaaaaay up north about 30 minutes to the border of Switzerland and the city of Lugano, Switzerland.

Here you can see how close I am to Milan!

So yeah…that is where I am.  When I get my shit organized, I’ll do another post with photos of the actual farm and people, describing who I am working with and what my space looks like here!

Enjoy!

So our plans to go to Lago di Como and Bellagio were foiled when my alarm clock didn’t go off and we ended up waking up 2 hours later than planned.  We were woken up by Rita, who said she would give us a ride to town at 9am but we didn’t end up leaving until close to 10:30.  She suggested we go to Lago Maggiore instead, since it was closer and doable in the time we still had left in the day.  So off we went.

We bought a day pass for the ferries that take you around the lake from town to town and to the Borromean islands.  The weather was just perfect and the ferry rides were really wonderful and the best part of the day (aside from the view of the beautiful lake).  Our first stop was to Isola Superiore di Pescatori to grab some fresh fish for lunch.  When we arrived (after an hour on the ferry) we asked for the most affordable restaurant which was right on the water.  We scored an awesome table with a fabulous view of the lake — it was totally romantic!  We shared a grilled lake fish platter that was 13 euros and plenty big for the two of us to share.  It was delicious too.

After our relaxing, super satisfying and wonderful lunch, we wandered around the island and took photos.  There was a small beach at one end of the island  and really narrow cobblestone walkways.  It was totally cool.

We caught a ferry to the next island, Isola Bella, 5 minutes away.  Our mission on this island was to find gelato, and luckily there were plenty of gelato stands to choose from.  This time I tried chocolate and hazelnut and I have to say it is my favorite so far!  We explored this island too, but didn’t stay too long because it wasn’t very big.  We hopped on the ferry and tried to go to Santa Caterina de Sasso, which looked cool from photos we had seen, but we took the wrong ferry and the day was getting late so we just decided to head home.  We had a full and awesome day off!

For some reason, Rita decided that we should wake up at the butt crack of dawn (for us this is 7:30 am) to be ready to work by 8:30 am.  It came as no surprise to us when no one was around at 8:30 to tell us what to do so we drank a coffee and waited for people to appear.  Rita finally showed up and told us to go down to the cow stables and scrape the poop, feed them hay and give them cornmeal.  I collected one egg from my chicken pen and we finished the cows in about 15 minutes.  Ale (Barb’s shy youngest brother) came down shortly after and told us to feed the other animals so we did and then just stood around for a while.  While cleaning the cow shit, I noticed this, which I found to be disgusting yet hilarious.

Barb then came around and asked us if we wanted to help cut the grass and do some gardening since Ale wasn’t giving us anything else to do.  Amber hates gardening so I took to the weeding while she mowed the lawn.  Part of the garden was really overgrown so I had to pull some huge ass weeds.  Most of the weeds are these nasty plants called nettles and when they touch your skin it feels like a million tiny needles poking you and burning your skin and it lasts for a while.  I was covered from head to toe but those awful plants still managed to touch my wrist where my glove and sweater didn’t connect.  Mind you, the weather today is 75°F and I’m working in jeans and a sweatshirt and thick plastic gardening gloves.  I was sweating some serious balls trying to avoid those nettles!

Amber ran into a snake while mowing and she screamed and froze and then turned off the mower.  It was funny.  She thought she’d be able to avoid the snakes by not gardening but I didn’t see a single snake! poor girl.

Around 12 we decided to stop for a few hours, to stay out of the hot sun at its prime and to relax.  Amber has been the little sewing machine these last days, fixing her pants, sewing the holes in my sweatshirts and then adding elastic to one of my pants.  She spent a good hour in the sun sewing and then started to feel light headed and nauseous so she took a nap.

At 4pm we were supposed to be ready to garden again but Barb had an appointment with some advertising guy that lasted until almost 6 so Amber and I hung around and waited…not knowing what to do.  When she was finally finished with her meeting she told us to go ask her brother what is left to do for the day so we did and he is so shy that he said “we will feed the horses” and he ran away for about 30 minutes.  We didn’t know which horses to feed or what to feed them and we thought he was going to get the food but every time he reappeared he had no food and said nothing to us so we stood around for a good hour and then as we were heading back to the house Rita said, “wait girls, Ale is going to feed the horses with you.” So we waited and he came back and he got the food for the horses and in the end we fed 4 horses (actually he fed 3 and I fed 1) and that was it!  It was kind of frustrating because we just didn’t see the point in us waiting if he was going to do it himself.

Today was a bid unorganized and unproductive so we are hoping tomorrow is better.  I did make a delicious mozzarella/tomato and mint pesto salad tonight though. Yum YUM!

For our first day off this week we decided to go to Varese city center and do some exploring.  Rita (the mother of Barb) was going to town so she gave us a ride in the car.  First she made some pit stops at the bank and ceramics place and some other random place so we didn’t actually get to town any faster, had we decided to take the bus.  But it was ok because we were in no hurry.

Once we arrived, Robin showed us where the tourist info center was so we could get a map of the city.  Today was her last day on the farm/in Varese so she was doing her own thing and then hopping on a bus to Luxembourg.  Amber and I collected a bunch of pamphlets about the city and the events for this summer.  There are outdoor film festivals, jazz festivals and a ton of other stuff so we are going to make a wall calendar and mark off the things we hope to see while living here.  The maps we got were really shitty and had no street signs on the smaller streets so we kept getting lost on the cobblestone walkways.

There is gelato everywhere so when the time was right Amber and I decided to take a break and eat our first gelato in Italy.  I got the flavors Bacio (some type of chocolate with hazelnut) and berries and Amber got mint and chocolate.  We both decided that the berries flavor was too artificial and the mint just tasted gross.  But bacio and chocolate got two thumbs way up.  Next time I am going to get dark chocolate and maybe just plain old vanilla.

After the ice cream we walked around some more, taking photos of the buildings and the cool graffiti and decided to get some lunch.  We found this cute little trattoria or cafe that served paninis and salads.  Amber and I each got a tomato and mozzarella salad and americano coffees.  I got tuna on the side for some protein and Amber got some milanese (breaded chicken).  Overall it was delicious and only cost us 11 euros total. YUM.

To make our day complete, we took the bus to Sacro Monte, or sacred mountain, to get a great view of Varese and the neighboring towns below.  We got off at the wrong stop at first and had to wait 40 minutes for the bus to come again and bring us to the tippy top.  Once we got there we ran over to take photos and then ran back on the bus so we didn’t have to wait for 40 minutes again.  The view was nice but you couldn’t see the lakes, only the mountains, so I wasn’t that impressed.

On our way back home we ran a few errands in town and then chilled out for the rest of the night.

So my day started with some heavy loads of shit…and lots of them.  Normally I scoop cow shit which is soooo smelly but not really that heavy.  Horse shit on the other hand, is not so smelly but oh so heavy!  And with about 25 horses, I was neck deep in the doo-doo today, breakin’ my back shoveling their shit from the past week.  I’m not gonna lie, I loved it.  All the sweating and heaving and stinking really makes the workout worth it all.  And I feel a sense of accomplishment — something I don’t feel when I work out at the gym.

When lunch rolled around, Barb informed me and Amber that the sheep shaving guy would be coming any minute and we should go down and watch them buzz the hair off.  “It only happens once a year!” she said.  Of course I couldn’t miss this!  So we ran down there just in time to see him starting the first sheep.  Barb’s 2 younger brothers ran around the sheep pen trying to catch the sheep.  Once they did, the shaver grabbed the sheep by the two front legs, drags it in between his legs and starts shaving it’s belly.  This guy totally has a system.  First he starts belly then works down to the balls, carefully holding the little sheep penis (or utters, if it’s a female), then he does the tooshie and the tail, and he pops back up and does the neck and face, then he flips it around and does the back in one giant fur pile.  It’s crazy, sexy, cool.  Here is a video I took of the shearing.  Barb’s nephews were visiting that day so I took a lot of cute photos with the youngest boy, Eduardo, who really took to me.  I could totally rock the farm with a baby on my hip, no?

After this awesomeness, Barb then tells me that the vet will be coming to check on the cows to see if they can be inseminated.  Of course I wanted to be there to watch this!!! So I brought my camera along and watched the vet do this for 5 minutes straight.  Ooh la la was it a sight to be seen! For the record, they won’t be ready “to be fake f*cked” as Barb calls it, for at least 12 days.

All of this excitement for the day exhausted me so Amber and I did some low-key donkey and sheep feeding before we called it quits for the night.  But before I called it quits I ran to the chicken pen and collected my first batch of eggs.  It really made my day!

I finally edited this video I took of random farm animal footage so check it out if you want.

The sunshine is finally here for the first time since we arrived.  It was so nice — 73°F!!!  We started the day with the normal farm tasks — feeding the animals, letting the horses run free, scooping the cow poop, laying the hay…its just awesome.

For lunch, Barb’s aunt Marinela made Risotto and fried eggplant and we all ate together outside on the porch.  Barb brought out a lot of maps and tourist booklets and she pointed out a few cool places to go in Varese and surrounding areas for our next days off on Monday and Tuesday.  Amber and I are already getting used to hearing Italian and we are understanding quite a lot.  So we sat there for a good 2 hours listening and chatting with the family, getting to know them more.  We also gave them some good ol’ western NY maple syrup as a thank you for inviting us into their home and Barb was so excited.  So tomorrow we will make some food to accompany the syrup.

We had the whole afternoon off so we sat on the porch and chilled with our computers and then Amber went into the sunshine and did some sewing/repairing of her pants and my only sweatshirt.

At around 7pm we started to help Barb in the kitchen, preparing for the 2 dinner parties that were coming into the restaurant that night.  This was my first time serving to anyone so I was a bit nervous, especially since they spoke Italian — not English!  I also looked like a doofus wearing black capri pants with white socks showing from my black shoes (and to add even more humor to the ensemble, my white socks had Italian flags on them!).  The first dinner party was a couple.  They were so cute and in love and very nice so it was easy.  They also spoke English so that was good.  I wasn’t very perceptive and I kept forgetting to grab certain things off the table when they were finished or leaving forks or checking the water.  But it is a learning process.

The second party was a group of 6 people in their late 20’s early 30’s.  They were really loud and asked a lot of questions.  It was very nerving because I had to reach over people and carry lots of plates and get more water and wine and bread and blah blah blah.  And the worst part about them is they kept ordering and ordering and they wouldn’t leave!  It was 11:30 by the time they left and I was just exhausted waiting for them. But I had a really great time in the kitchen with Barbara and the family, trying all of the foods they sent out and just joking about everything.  I’m really learning a lot from them and having such a wonderful time.

Today was our first day off so we decided to head into town.  We desperately needed clothes for the farm so we were on a mission to find the ugliest and cheapest clothes possible at the open air market.  We also had a long list of random items that we needed to buy for our every day use.

The market was huge and it was full of amazingly beautiful clothes that I really wanted to buy.  I had expected them to be selling some gaudy going-out wear but they had nice lightweight cotton and linen pieces that were very basic and totally my style.  I had to refrain from looking too much because I was really going to have a weak moment and spend the rest of my savings on these wonderful clothes.

To our surprise, the market didn’t have much in terms of ugly and cheap farm clothes so we only got one or two shirts and a few knitted sweaters to keep us warm.  I bought a pair of black gym shoes for 8 euros to work in that looked like soccer shoes.

After the market we headed to the grocery store to buy some toiletries and some lunch.  Everything was so expensive I wanted to just die.  We bought the cheapest liquid hand soap in the largest container to use as our body wash.  Their body lotion section was lacking and all smelled like baby poo so we bought Johnson and Johnson baby lotion.  We also scoured the place for a matchbox but found no matches anywhere in Varese.  We are getting sick of trying to light the gas stove with lighters that do not work!  Bahhh…

We had so many bags from the market and the grocery store that we decided to just go home since we didn’t want to explore like bag ladies.  On the bus home there was an old dude who had just lost or someone stole his wallet.  He freaked out on everyone in his general vicinity and even patted down a girl and searched through a woman’s bag and purse.  Then he got off in a huff, still without his wallet.  It was quite the uproar!

When we got home we took a nap and read our books about Italy.  When dinner rolled around Amber cooked up some of her special chicken and I was poppin’ cherry tomatoes like it was going outta style.  We chilled in the kitchen for a while and the whole family started to congregate there and drink tea.  We listened to them speak in Italian and we hung out for a while.  After a while everyone left but Barbara so we ended up having a nice chat with her and really started getting to know her.

She told us that she loves the UK and wanted to move back there last June but when her father became ill in May with cancer, she stayed to take care of him until he died a few months later.  After that unfortunate and sudden tragedy, she decided that she couldn’t leave her father’s dream of the farm to rot because she cared too much so she left behind her own dream of living in the UK to stay on the farm.  Damn.  She also said that is the reason why she joined Helpx — not just for the help but to meet people from around the world and to bring the UK and English speakers to her.  She wanted to make friends even if she couldn’t travel.  I really liked that about her.

She also told us about the crazy laws in Italy that prohibit self defense of any sort.  Basically, if someone comes on your property, you aren’t allowed to hit them or they could call the cops on you and get you sent to jail.  If you kill them in self defense, then you also go to jail.  The only way to get a trespasser off of your property is to call the police and wait for them to come.  This also applies to shoplifters in stores.  You are not allowed to stop a shoplifter, you can only ask them to return the goods if you think they stole them from you.  You can’t hold them there, you can only call the police but if they know the law, they can just walk out of the store without paying because you cannot touch them or keep them there.  Crazy…

It has been raining every day since we arrived and I’m beginning to think I packed all the wrong clothes.  I was expecting hot and humid weather so I packed very light weight clothes, one light sweatshirt and pretty much all tank tops.  I’m freezing my buns off and smelling quite horrid because I have to wear the same sweatshirt every day on my stinky farm body. I’m going to the open air market tomorrow to buy some warmer clothes and thank goodness it’s open air! hehe

I found out today that the meat I had been eating for lunch and dinner the past few days was ostrich meat!  Amber tried the meat today before knowing it was ostrich and she said “I really like this!” and when she found out it was ostrich she made a face and painfully finished the rest. I was so excited to be eating ostrich, of course, and I am waiting for them to say to me “Autumn, you have been an awesome volunteer so here — make an ostrich omelet!”  Can you imagine??? An ostrich egg omelet?  I know the eggs are available at whole foods but there is nothing better than watching it pop out of the ostrich’s butt and plopping it directly into the frying pan.  Ooh la la!

We started today with feeding the horses hay.  You have to make sure they move their heads away when you put the hay in their stable because if they don’t you could accidentally poke them in the eye with the pitchfork and that is the end of that horse.  I enjoyed screaming at them “eh eh eh back back back” lol.  Then I brushed and pet the baby horse for a while.

Our next task was to clean out a small storage room that was full of dirt and old random building supplies and to put a bunch of toys in there that were being stored in the outdoor wood oven where they make pizzas.  There were so many spiderwebs and the floor had about 2 inches of dirt on it but it took only about an hour to clean and organize it.  I hope we get to make wood oven pizzas now that the oven has been cleared away!

For lunch I made tomato and mozzarella salad and also had more antipasto.  It was super delish.

At around 4pm we went to the stables and laid sawdust in one of the rooms to prepare to transfer one of the horses into it.  Then we fed the horses again and even fed the ponies!  It was raining pretty hard all afternoon so I was soaking wet by the time we were finished.  Also, my rubber boots are about 5 sizes too big and have holes in them everywhere, rendering them pretty much useless…so my feet were wet and stinky as well.

Tomorrow is our first day off so Amber and I will go into town and explore.  More adventure to come soon!