5
fun on the farm
After more than a month and a half living and traveling in cities, Brian and I really started to miss the countryside; all the green and quiet and working outside that we've been enjoying here and we were glad to get back to a wwoof farm. This farm, Spannocchia, is settled just outside of Rosia, a town near Siena in Tuscany. Spannocchia has a pretty incredible intern program where kids between the ages of 19 and 24 come and live for three months on the farm working from 7:00-12:00 and 3:00-6:00 every day assigned to a specific type of work such as wine intern, animale, or intern of food and hospitality. They get to take Italian lessons, cooking classes, and "field trips". There were eight interns there for the summer group, most were Americans and two from Canada, all with little farm experience. On our first day, we were met at a little bar in Rosia called Circolo Arci by Broni, the director of the intern program, who drove us into the farm, gave us a quick tour and then straight over to dinner on the terrace where we met Francesca and Randall, the owners, some guests and all the other interns. Spannocchia itself is around 3000 acres, mostly woodland, but also includes several gorgeous gardens, vineyards, olive groves, an assortment of fruit trees, lots of animals (pigs, cows, horses, donkeys, sheep, chickens, cats). All this land is taken care of by the Italians Riccio, Carmen, Julio, Angelo, and some others that we didn't really work with. Brian and I were required to work 30 hours a week and not much else. The interns took care of most everything so wwoofers don't have as much responsibility. Lunch was prepared by them and dinner by the Spannocchia cooks, Graziella and Gaetana. The interns also cleaned and took care of dinner duty and the dishes which are things wwoofers might normally do, but their system made it easy on us. Pretty sweet deal. We loved getting back to working outside and also enjoyed the experience of animal care for the first time. We harvested potatoes, stacked wood, built fences for the pigs, moved the pigs, cleared out brush around the electric fences, and helped transport grains in the mill. Brian also helped Julio, and interns Nick and Jon with the haying and feeding the animals and I got to spend a lot of time in the gardens with Carmen and interns Karla and Annie harvesting the vegetables and planting new ones. The maiale (the pigs) at Spannocchia were pretty cool to work with because they are an heirloom breed specific to the Tuscan region that were once nearing extinction. They're called Cinta Senese and can be recognized by their colors: black with a white band around the middle. I've never worked with pigs before and found them to be pretty funny, sweet, crazy and I guess a little gross all at the same time. There was one little sick pig that was really personable that they had named "Babar" and Annie, the vegetarian intern, was constantly lobbying to save.
In our time off, we often took advantage of their gorgeous pool or took walks around the property. Weekday dinners at Spannocchia are pretty incredible. Everyone on the farm eats together, including any guests there just for vacation. They have wine on the terrace at 7:00 and dinner at 7:30. Every meal was four courses prepared with the fresh ingredients from the farm, including the wine. The first course was normally a pasta or soup or risotto, our favorites being a wild boar ragú made from the wild boar found on the property served with homemade tagliatelle pasta and the mushroom risotto. All the meat came from the animals on the farm and were served with a fresh vegetable side dish like eggplant or zucchini. These courses were always followed by a salad made with the garden greens and homemade olive oil and vinegar. The desserts were always good. We had salame dolce, moka, wine donuts and a spice cake made with a persimmon marmalade taken from the persimmon trees on the property. Every other Wednesday night is a little more special, nostra cena, that includes an extra course and candlelight. Everyone dresses up and stays late talking and enjoying themselves. On the other Wednesdays, they have pizza night. Seriously, this place is everything you'd hope it to be. For our pizza night, Brian went over to watch the process and ended up getting to make the dough coached by Gaetana. It was delicious. Some of our favorite pizza toppings were veggies from the Spannocchia gardens, plain old margherita made incredible with the homemade sauce, and gorganzola and pear. There were no organized dinners on the weekends, so the interns and Brian prepared the meals together. One night we made our own pici pasta and had a cobbler made with blackberries picked on the farm, plus fresh whipped cream. Broni and the interns would also use the free time to take day trips to nearby towns. Our first weekend, Brian went with Broni, Jess, Jon, and Cat to Montepulciano which is an old beautiful city mostly known for its wine...which, come to think of it, describes most of the towns in Tuscany. Some of the interns also went to Florence and stopped at this restaurant owned by Dario, a butcher who became famous after working with Mario Batali, which they all raved about and the rest of us regretted missing. The next Sunday, even though she'd already done a ton of driving that weekend, Broni said "Life's too short, let's go to Darios again" and left at 11:00 with Nick, Brian and I. The restaurant is over an hour away in Panzano but is a beautiful Tuscan drive. When we got there, we unfortunately found out that on Sunday's Dario has a pre-set meal that costs 50 euros and even though it looked incredible it was still more than we wanted to pay, especially since lunch is normally just 10. Luckily there was a great market going on that day so we had fun exploring it and finding our lunch of bread, cheeses, meats, veggies and fruits from different vendors which we ate picnic-style near an old church. Plus we got to see Dario at his butcher shop and sample some of his food there. Turned out to be a great substitute.
Being at Spannocchia felt like all that we had hoped to experience with wwoofing. We felt like we learned a lot about food, got a taste of planting and harvesting, caring for animals and how to incorporate all these things into your meals. We loved walking out to the garden and picking the thick, dark basil and veggies or gathering fresh eggs as well as getting to see or be involved with making most of our food from scratch. Maybe one day, we'll have property of our own where we too can pluck early figs from their branches, or slurp down a juicy plum after a day of hard work, or make a zucchini frittata with eggs stolen from the chicken coop... (that part was added by Brian) It was exactly like what we had imagined Italian farm-life to be. It's kind of interesting though because the farm is largely run by Americans. There were Italians who took care of the farm but it is owned by Americans and supported by an American board of directors on the Spannocchia Foundation. And maybe all of our American expectations and ideas of Italian farming were met because of this reason. It would be interesting to see if a farm like this could sustain itself run strictly by Italians or how different it might look. Maybe more of a focus on lunchtime and café and less focus on organization, atmosphere and experience. Probably no pool. Maybe exactly the same. Maybe who cares. Either way, we had an incredible two weeks there. We had a lot of fun with the interns, felt like we learned so much and were inspired more there than in any other experience we've had on this trip. We'd love go back one day.
If you want to check out more on Spannocchia, go to this website http://www.spannocchia.org/
Also, check out our pictures on Picasa!
Jessica and Brian
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In our time off, we often took advantage of their gorgeous pool or took walks around the property. Weekday dinners at Spannocchia are pretty incredible. Everyone on the farm eats together, including any guests there just for vacation. They have wine on the terrace at 7:00 and dinner at 7:30. Every meal was four courses prepared with the fresh ingredients from the farm, including the wine. The first course was normally a pasta or soup or risotto, our favorites being a wild boar ragú made from the wild boar found on the property served with homemade tagliatelle pasta and the mushroom risotto. All the meat came from the animals on the farm and were served with a fresh vegetable side dish like eggplant or zucchini. These courses were always followed by a salad made with the garden greens and homemade olive oil and vinegar. The desserts were always good. We had salame dolce, moka, wine donuts and a spice cake made with a persimmon marmalade taken from the persimmon trees on the property. Every other Wednesday night is a little more special, nostra cena, that includes an extra course and candlelight. Everyone dresses up and stays late talking and enjoying themselves. On the other Wednesdays, they have pizza night. Seriously, this place is everything you'd hope it to be. For our pizza night, Brian went over to watch the process and ended up getting to make the dough coached by Gaetana. It was delicious. Some of our favorite pizza toppings were veggies from the Spannocchia gardens, plain old margherita made incredible with the homemade sauce, and gorganzola and pear. There were no organized dinners on the weekends, so the interns and Brian prepared the meals together. One night we made our own pici pasta and had a cobbler made with blackberries picked on the farm, plus fresh whipped cream. Broni and the interns would also use the free time to take day trips to nearby towns. Our first weekend, Brian went with Broni, Jess, Jon, and Cat to Montepulciano which is an old beautiful city mostly known for its wine...which, come to think of it, describes most of the towns in Tuscany. Some of the interns also went to Florence and stopped at this restaurant owned by Dario, a butcher who became famous after working with Mario Batali, which they all raved about and the rest of us regretted missing. The next Sunday, even though she'd already done a ton of driving that weekend, Broni said "Life's too short, let's go to Darios again" and left at 11:00 with Nick, Brian and I. The restaurant is over an hour away in Panzano but is a beautiful Tuscan drive. When we got there, we unfortunately found out that on Sunday's Dario has a pre-set meal that costs 50 euros and even though it looked incredible it was still more than we wanted to pay, especially since lunch is normally just 10. Luckily there was a great market going on that day so we had fun exploring it and finding our lunch of bread, cheeses, meats, veggies and fruits from different vendors which we ate picnic-style near an old church. Plus we got to see Dario at his butcher shop and sample some of his food there. Turned out to be a great substitute.
Being at Spannocchia felt like all that we had hoped to experience with wwoofing. We felt like we learned a lot about food, got a taste of planting and harvesting, caring for animals and how to incorporate all these things into your meals. We loved walking out to the garden and picking the thick, dark basil and veggies or gathering fresh eggs as well as getting to see or be involved with making most of our food from scratch. Maybe one day, we'll have property of our own where we too can pluck early figs from their branches, or slurp down a juicy plum after a day of hard work, or make a zucchini frittata with eggs stolen from the chicken coop... (that part was added by Brian) It was exactly like what we had imagined Italian farm-life to be. It's kind of interesting though because the farm is largely run by Americans. There were Italians who took care of the farm but it is owned by Americans and supported by an American board of directors on the Spannocchia Foundation. And maybe all of our American expectations and ideas of Italian farming were met because of this reason. It would be interesting to see if a farm like this could sustain itself run strictly by Italians or how different it might look. Maybe more of a focus on lunchtime and café and less focus on organization, atmosphere and experience. Probably no pool. Maybe exactly the same. Maybe who cares. Either way, we had an incredible two weeks there. We had a lot of fun with the interns, felt like we learned so much and were inspired more there than in any other experience we've had on this trip. We'd love go back one day.
If you want to check out more on Spannocchia, go to this website http://www.spannocchia.org/
Also, check out our pictures on Picasa!
Jessica and Brian
|
