We are back at the Fattorie Faggioli! Federica wrapped up another successful quarter at Evergreen and I received approval to do some work online over the next 5 weeks, so we jumped on the chance to return. So far we’ve been recovering from jetlag, checking the status of everything, and hosting an huge group of guests. Summer has returned and we with it.
We took advantage of the year’s shortest nights with accordion, racy Romagnolo songs, and a big group of grocery managers from around Italy.
We checked out the Festa Artusiana the other night in neighboring Forlimpopoli. We took tour through their archaeological museum where we learned about how the Papal state salted the fields in this area for their resistance to Church edicts, saw Roman terra cotta plumbing used to carry water from the Bidente river below our farm into houses miles and miles away, and checked out the skeleton of a medieval woman recovered from a mall construction project with no cavities from her simple but healthy diet. The main attraction of the festival, named for Pellegrino Artusi, is food. Artusi is famous for recording hundreds of recipes in his “Science in the Kitchen and the Art of Eating Well” (La scienza in cucina e l’arte di mangiare bene), from classics like tagliatelle con ragu (the original pasta with meat sauce) to more obscure delicacies. The festival features a similar variety, which struck this American as strangely unusual here. Folks like to eat the things they like to eat here, so a significant number of the booths offered Romagnolo classics like tagliatelle or piadina.(flat bread often served with cheese and cured ham). The booths I gravitated toward served the more unusual things for the average Romagnian: macrobiotic dishes, heirloom fruit preserves, slabs of beef. We actually visited the same festival with Walker and Monika last year and ended up wandering aimlessly, hungry and indecisive, for hours. This time we just forgot to bring cash.
Artusi’s recipes are scattered throughout the festival. This recipe is for mushrooms in olive oil, which Fede and our friend Alice skipped for the gelato.
These are formaggi di fossa, cheeses that have been buried and aged under various flavorful conditions.
The Castle at the center of Forlimpopoli, one of the few structures left standing when the church destroyed the town for insubordination. Home of the archaeological museum and an indie movie theater.
Pellegrino Artusi (1820-1911) – The Renowned Patron of Culinary Arts
It’s too hard to like you thru this system, but I love your lives!!!!!
Thank you Tina. I’ve made the decision to recuse myself from some social media because of the fast thrills and cheap likes. Join us out here! The weather’s fine!
Gorgeous gorgeousness. And fabulous writing. Damn. Really got the sense of being there. Italy in June. What an outstanding thing that exists in the world. Loved all the details!! You must be jealous of yourself!
Thank you! We’re in the Dolomites now, taking a small break to check out another corner of Italian June. This version is slightly more German, which tickles my ancestral identity in the most pleasently stern way.
The Farmer’s Markets are revving up here. New garlic is beginning to appear and carrots are about to roll in. How old is the castle? I compare it to our old-growth island that I look at every day, centuries old. Looking forward to electronic ring dating. Typically we have groves containing five century and older trees. Hope you don’t miss all the sunny days in the Northwest. We just enjoyed a windy rainy spell. Safe journey.
Thanks for the update and for passing along our blog to Pan, Boyd! I believe the castle dates from around the 1000’s, though apparently the church which held the records (and is within the castle walls) burned down around the 1200’s so they don’t have a totally accurate account. This also makes it difficult to date our house too.
I love the vicarious delights of following you across the globe. Can you add me? How do I get these updates directly, instead of by way of Boyd?
Hi Pan! Great to hear from you! You can receive an email of each of our latest posts by going to our main landing page, http://agriculturaprofetica.wordpress.com/ and clicking on the orange “follow” button on the right hand side of the page. You may just be the 70th person to do so!