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Published: March 14th 2011
Time is certainly flying by! Mary and I are now down at our second farm in Sicily, but before we discuss that I wanted to describe our last few weeks at our first farm in Calabria. As you may have seen our last blog update was more pictures from Pirapora (the name of their farm), the view never got old! Now to continue from Marys last blog entry:
Our fellow WWOOFers Sean and Frances left 2 days after our beach weekend to head down to Sicily. Mary and I were now the only two WWOOFers for the next 3 weeks. We definitely lucked out with the weather that first week, because over the next few weeks we dealt with the Calabrian winter- lots of wind and rain. However they did have plenty of activities for us to do inside when the weather wasn't cooperating. In the basement of the main house was 'the laboratory'- multiple rooms they use to make and store all the yummy things they provide at their restaurant (also where they stored the millions of bottles of their own house wine that I definitely helped myself to!). All the products they bottle and serve at the restaurant must be properly labeled, and one morning Mary and I spent hours labeling the jars and jars of their house tomato sauce. In fact our 'go to' dinner dish when we weren't sure what to make was a delicious tomato sauce with freshly picked onions, hot chillies, sausage, and herbs over pasta. Always accompanied of course by freshly picked steamed vegetables (either their winter crop of broccoli or cauliflower) and freshly picked lettuce for a salad. Delicious!
Other activities we did indoors included helping clean their restaurant for opening, cleaning up the main kitchen from a jam accident that occurred a few weeks before we got there (further explanation needed), and one of our favorites- making orange marmalade! The jam incident involved Lauren, and she described it as a near death experience. She had put some recently made jam into jars and as custom, was boiling the jars to sanitize them. Momentarily forgetting about the jars, which she had left in a large pan on the stove, she returned to find the water evaporated off and the jars by themselves in the pan. To cool everything off she put cold water into the pan and the result wasn't pretty. All the jars exploded sending shards of glass and boiling hot jam everywhere! Somehow not one bit of glass hit Lauren and only a little jam hit her forehead. Lucky to say the least!
The last week we were there Mary and I helped Rosie make orange marmalade. We cut and juiced about 15 kilos of yummy blood oranges that we had picked earlier in the week. Using precise measurements of juice, bits of sliced orange, sugar, and pectin (gives the jam it's firmness) we boiled the mixture, let it cool, and put it all into jars. Our little operation made about 50 jars of marmalade, and we got a liter of freshly squeezed OJ for our efforts to be enjoyed over our next couple of breakfasts.
When it wasn't raining we spent a lot of time at Gianni (Mary had anglicized the spelling of his name, Johnny, in her last blog entry) and Franco's parents farm. As Gianni explained, the view from the Pirapora farm is great, but the land at his parents place was much better. It was located only about a 10 min drive from Pirapora, and the extra land helped support the running of the B and B. In fact the blood oranges we used to make the marmalade came from the trees on their farm. We also spent time at their parents house planting red onions for the busy summer months. I also practiced my Italian with Gianni's mother who unlike everyone else did not speak a word of English.
Another major activity we engaged in was the pruning and chopping of trees on both farms. Apparently there are two times of year that one is meant to cut down trees. As Gianni and Lauren described, it has to do with the moon cycles, which not only dictate the tides but the sap accumulation in trees. It is always better to cut wood during waning moon cycles, because the sap is decreased in the trees and the wood dries out faster and ends up stronger! It definitely makes sense, I never thought about that.
One major activity that became my duty from our arrival on the farm was the lighting of our wood stove. Although it was warm during the day with the sun out, the temperature dropped as soon as the sun started to set. And of course all the houses in the south of Italy are made with no insulation and are meant to be cooler since it's so hot during the summer months for so long. Anyway the nights were certainly cold, meaning by sunset I had to get a fire going. The novelty of starting and keeping a fire going was a lot of fun for this once upon pyromaniac, but I must say I really began to miss central heating! About two weeks into our stay my ears started to blister badly, and only worsened. At first we thought something either bit me/I was allergic to some native plant I had encountered while working. A doctor even came to the farm and prescribed some antibiotics for them, until Rosie realized what was actually happening. Apparently while carrying out my duty as the 'firestarter' I was exposing my ears to extreme hot, and then extreme cold too quickly, which was literally burning my ears and causing them to blister! Anyway I started wearing a hat for protection, and my ears got better! Also I became quite the expert at starting up the wood stove by the end of our stay.
Anyway that's all for the first farm. Mary and I packed our things and headed for the shores of Sicily! We also timed our arrival perfectly for a major festival here called Carnevale. I will describe more of that weekend and our next farm in a future blog. Ciao a tutti!
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Me Again!?
My mouth just waters every time you guys write! That Lauren sure was lucky that she wasn't badly hurt, incredible. That story about the moon cycles and cutting down trees was interesting, you learn something new every day. Jon, I'm glad you figured out what was going on with your ears and got it sorted out. Enjoy Carnevale and Sicily, can't wait to hear all about it! Love to you 2, M/P