AUTUMN’S ADVENTURES

Oh my dear lord pesto pesto pesto!  Here I will list 2 variations of the wonderful stuff, both family recipes from this farm.

Basic Pesto

Ingredients:

• Pecorino (sheep) cheese, aged medium - 50-80 grams
• Parmesan cheese - 50-80 grams
• Fresh garlic - 3-4 cloves
• Salt - big pinch
• Basil - medium sized mixing bowl of fresh leaves (LOTS OF LEAVES)
• Parsley - a sprig of leaves (about 30-50 stems)
• Extra virgin olive oil - 3-4 tablespoons
• Butter - 125 grams (roughly)
• Walnuts/Pecans - 130 grams
• Black pepper - big pinch

Mint/Arugula Pesto

Instead of basil and parsley, substitute mint or arugula (don’t put both in the same recipe — it is competing flavors!)

Instead of parmesan you can substitute one quart of ricotta cheese.

Instructions:

mix all together in a blender.  Add cream if the taste is too strong.

On our first day off this week, it was going to be 90 degrees.  We decided to find a source of cool water to dip our bodies into, but one with a little more excitement than the pool we lounged at the week before.  We set our mind on a water park outside of Milan and we hoped for the best.

It took us 2.5 hours, 1 train, 1 metro, and one bus before we made it to the water park, but in the end it was totally worth it.  There were so many awesome slides and pools and since it was a Monday, not many people were in the park so it wasn’t crowded.  Amber and I were like kids in a candy store, trying every slide and splashing around in the water!  There was a giant bucket that filled up and poured water all over everyone, and there was even a mushroom fountain.  I just LOVED every second of it.  And of course I rocked my American flag bikini.

It was a relaxing day and exactly what we needed on such a hot day.  On our way back home, the train from Milan to Varese was delayed, so we ended up sitting on the train for 1.5 hours before it left, and then it took another hour to arrive.  Since it was late, we missed the last bus to the house and had to get picked up in center.  We got home around 10pm, exhausted and starving and just wanting our beds.  It was still awesome though!

We finally made it to Lake Como and Bellagio, and although it was stunningly beautiful, it was pretty much the same as Lake Maggiore, in terms of the wow factor.  I was kind of disappointed because I expected it to be like walking on the moon or something, but it was no different than the lake or lake towns we had seen the previous week.  It makes me wonder why Bellagio was chosen over Isola Bella on Lake Maggiore…since I really didn’t see much of a difference.  Luck, maybe?

Regardless, Amber and I still had an awesome time taking the ferry to Bellagio (2 hours long) and then eating gelato and walking the hilly cobblestone streets.  The weather was perfect and it is just so nice to be on a lake in the summer.

The villas on the lake were stunning and the landscaping for some of them were truly impressive.  In Bellagio, Amber and I were window shopping and trying on straw hats that were awesome but way too expensive for being made out of straw.

In the city of Como we took the cable car to Brunate for a hard to find view of the city of Como below.  Once we found it though, it was kind of nice.  After, we had our first Italian pizza from a restaurant and it was delicious.

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.