Olive Oil 1

Liquid Gold

for more on olive oil see the 2013 post
from December

How could I forget a post about olive oil? It arrived in late November and early December and here we are in late January.

I don't like to think we're starting to take it for granted, but after five years of living in Chianti we certainly assume it's a natural part of life.

newly-arrived oil at its cloudy best - and full of bite

 When fresh, the oil is cloudy, a most wonderful golden green and with a particular, peppery bite. For oil conoscitori the bite is the thing.

oil today, starting to settle and mellow

The best way to store it is in a dark container or failing that, a dark pantry. The green bottles are best for daily use. The friends we acquire our oil from use either bottles or tins. Note the special spout on the green bottle; it helps regulate the flow and save precious drops.

the proof of the pudding...

 The true colour has not been well-reproduced in this shot: it's much greener in reality. This is 'la morte sua'* as they say here: poured on Tuscan (unsalted) bread and eaten fresh, maybe with a sprinkle of salt. Needless to say we do not use this oil for cooking, just raw.

*'Its proper death.'

Interesting article on the quality of olive oil from the New York Times of April 18th 2013: World's Olive Oils 

Which has prompted some sound advice from a friend who grows her own olives and makes her own oil in the heart of Chianti not far from Panzano:

Olives should be half green, half dark but better to harvest them a little early for flavour and sacrifice a little on percentage yield.  The gist of the NYT article on filtering is largely correct.  Many oils are processed in dirty conditions and stored incorrectly. For the small producer, it's important to eliminate the sludge by transferring the oil to clean containers a few months after pressing. Those not in the know and many large scale producers who sell their oil immediately do not transfer the oil to clean containers and/or filter.  If the oil sits on the shelf for too long or is inappropriately stored (too much heat and dirt, for instance), the quality will deteriorate quickly..  If I were buying oil retail, yes, I would look for the words " filtered" as well as "extra virgin" and where and date bottled. 

The best oil comes from the small producer who cares about the trees, harvests with minimal damage to the olives, presses the olives quickly at a spotless, cold press frantoio, cleans his containers thoroughly, and transfers his oil into newly clean containers after six months. Filtering eliminates dirt and, therefore, helps.  Even some of the vaunted producers that sell oil in the U.S. at DOCG prices cannot even approach the small producers here in quality.  The best oil is local, and it does not leave the area because those who care about it consume it. 
 
Never buy oil from commercial producers if possible. It's not worth saving the money, and the industry is notoriously corrupt (a friend worked for a commercial producer and has witnessed trucks unload other oleaginous substances and colouring agents for blending at the factory).
 

Speaking of precious drops

We once visited a museum of peasant culture in Bassa Campania, southern Italy, in a tiny, forgotten hill village called Ortodonico. The enthusiastic museum curator was full of information and stories about the life and work of his ancestors. 

One story he told has since been corroborated by the sons of other peasants, even in our part of the country. Since time immemorial the fattore, or farm manager and the padrone, or owner (usually a noble of some sort) were the only ones to oversee the pressing of the olive oil.

In recent decades, since the tenant farmer system (mezzadria) was abolished and the nobles gradually sold off their estates, it was discovered that underneath the olive press was a tiny channel, carved beneath the stone or brick paving which fed directly into the owner's own supply of oil. In other words the owner was stealing a proportion of the common oil shared 50/50, in theory, with the peasant in payment for his labours.  

Extraordinary but true. If a peasant had been found doing any such thing he would have been banished from the property (cf. Ermanno Olmi's 'Tree of the Wooden Clogs'), if not worse.

Images from the museum of peasant culture in Ortodonico: Ortodonico museum
And for those who can follow the Italian, here is an excerpt on YouTube from a film dealing with this very issue, filmed in the museum itself: Noi Credevamo film clip

Winter Meal

It's the wild boar and polenta time of year

When we hear the hunters in the woods we know that sooner or later a couple of them will turn up, all smiles, with a bag of wild boar meat for us. 
It is a way of thanking us for letting them wander around our hill, even though historically and legally they have every right to do so.

The meat has to be soaked in wine, vinegar or water or a mixture of the three for several days, changing the liquid daily, to get rid of the gamey taste and smell.Then we put it in a pot with a bottle of Chianti, chopped onion and garlic, peppercorns, bay leaves, rosemary and our own juniper berries. It cooks for hours until tender and is delicious with polenta or mashed potatoes. Hearty and very tasty on a cold winter's day.

wild boar stew with polenta

Objects of Interest

Chincaglierie

or

not just any old iron

An iron cauldron once used for laundry, 

like the old 'copper' in Australia,

for rendering the pork fat in winter,

and no doubt for many other tasks.

It now sits in a prominent position 

sporting irises or Chianti 'giaggioli' in summer.

 

This barrel was used to crush the first grapes off the vine at harvest time, to reduce their bulk, so that more grapes could be carried in the wagon. The inside of the barrel is deepest red and smells wonderful. 

A local basket made of fine strips of wood

Our Visitors

Le Ripe birds

Here is a gallery of some of the birds that visited our bird tables last season, hopefully soon to return!

blue tit - parus caeruleus - cinciarella

chaffinch - fringilla coelebs - fringuello

blackcap - sylvia atricapilla - capinera

This one looks a bit of a rascal

collared dove - streptopelia decaocto - tortora dal collare orientale

greenfinch - carduelis chloris - verdone

nuthatch - sitta europea - picchio muratore

love that Egyptian eye shadow

redstart - phoenicurus phoenicurus - codirosso

                                           

Thanks to the internet for the photos....

Birdfeed

Where are the birds?

Last autumn/winter we began welcoming birds to Le Ripe in earnest, setting up three bird tables which we kept richly supplied with seeds, scraps, crumbs and water. And so many birds came to eat: robins, magpies, collared doves, redstarts, blackcaps, tits, greenfinches, chaffinches and the delightful nuthatches with their elegant Egyptian eye paint. 

Unfortunately we have very few photos of these birds: we never seem to have the time to watch and wait in order to capture good shots of them.  

blue tits feeding around the trough before it was restored

a redstart on the fence

magpies feeding at one of the bird tables

This winter, however, we have seen very few birds in general. I wonder if it is thanks to the milder weather keeping them in more northern territories, or because I have been rather slow to set out the bird food this year?

Today I decided to set matters right and bought several bags of feed from the shop locals call il Mugnaio, the Miller, in Panzano (once upon a time there was a working mill there). A couple of these products were new to me: panico, which turns out to be foxtail millet, to hang from tree branches, and something called Vigorpast whose ingredients resemble those of the bird puddings my children and I used to create for city birds when we lived in Milan. This sticky feed consists of goodies such as (and I quote): 

"fruits, backery products, vegetable by-products, oils and fats, cereals, vegetable proteins extracts, sugars, yeasts, seeds, mineral substances, natural flavourings.."

But the best part is what this energy bomb is going to do for the darling birds, according to the manufacturer (again I quote verbatim):

"Vigorpast is the best mash for insectivorous and frugivorous birds. The base of its formula is a high content in fruits. It is considered the food more similar to that free birds prefer. It is particularly desirable to BLACKBIRDS,THRUSHES,FIELDFARES, LARKS, NIGHTINGALES, GRAKLES and in general to all birds with thin beaks. 
It favours the general sense of vitality therefore stimulating the tendency to sing."

Now, isn't that charming?

If only we could all boost our vitality in such a way, thereby stimulating 

our tendency to sing.

No doubt the world would be a better place for it.

Snow?

compare and contrast with an earlier post (18/08/12)

Coming soon?

The forecast is for snow over the next few days. Even at our altitude (330m).

This time last year, more or less, there was a heavy snowfall which did not thaw for 15 days. Power was out in the Siena area: some were without for 5 days; luckily for us we were in darkness for 'only' 36 hours. However when that happens at Le Ripe, nothing works except the gas for cooking and the fireplace for warmth. It was a lot of hard work to keep us warm and fed and functioning and made us appreciate (again) how difficult life was in the past for the country people. What I missed most was news bulletins. This year we have a radio that also works on batteries.

the enchanted fig-tree; the ice on the pond was 15cm thick - a miracle that the fish survived..

our poor snow-embattled cypress

Woodcutting

Woodwork II

before (summer)

after (winter)

Local Archaeology

 The Roman Bridge

 About 500 metres, as the crow flies, from the western end of our property, beside the river Pesa, but easily accessed via a track leading off the 222 (Chiantigiana road) on the way to Castellina and Piazza, lies a little-known archaeological treat. In his interesting book , Chianti: the Land, the People and the Wine, Raymond Flower called it a Roman bridge and we are inclined to do likewise, although we have little scientific evidence to back us up. 

The Romans inhabited the area, established settlements at Panzano and Castellina and in between, so it is legitimate to imagine that they might have fashioned a  sturdy bridge over the unpredictable, ephemeral Pesa to carry goods, soldiers and arms. 

It is difficult to appreciate the size of the bridge from these photos, but it must have been at least three metres across. Only three sizeable  columns and one arch remain. The central part of the bridge may well have been built of wood. 

In any case, the course of the Pesa has no doubt changed over the centuries, as well as the height of the riverbed, so it is difficult to visualise the whole structure as it might once have been...
If any readers of this blog are familiar with Roman bridge-building techniques, maybe they could leave a comment?

Live Nativity Scene, Casole d'Elsa

Epiphany in Casole d'Elsa

This biennial Presepe Vivente or Live Nativity Scene has won
national prizes. It was touching to see that the 
whole town of Casole was involved in some way.
With 250 characters in costume, emergency personnel, people-movers, food and drink stalls etc it is quite an enterprise. 

The first section portrayed the Roman presence in Palestine within a kind of amphitheatre where richly dressed patricians lolled about, bought slaves and generally looked imperial and indolent...for added realism there were even a few 'lepers' begging in a corner...

After this was a delightful series of tableaux portraying 
the populace of Bethlehem with their animals, produce and crafts. This series epitomised the most characteristic aspects of the traditional Italian Presepe, live or not.  
The participants covered a range of age-groups from very young to very old with goats, donkeys, sheep and geese joining in.

The cheese stall; note the kid being held on the right.

Bees!

bees in January

This was the day, January 3rd 2013. 

Soaring blue sky, back-warming sunshine, 

high of 11,3 in the shade, so perhaps 14-15 in the sun?

The winter-flowering honeysuckle 

(lonicera fragrantissima) 

has been blooming the last few days.

Fragrantissima: the bees must have sensed it.

Today they were out in strength, plundering its blossoms.

A sweet treasure in the heart of winter.

The Return of the Wolf I

Wolves

The photo is not mine, but similar tracks were found in the village of Lucarelli below Le Ripe in the coldest part of last winter after it snowed heavily and stayed so cold that the snow lay on the ground for over a fortnight (a rarity here). The huge, unmistakeable paw prints were seen near our neighbours' smallholding, where sheep, cattle, pigs and geese are raised. 

We had heard that wolves (Canis lupus lupus) had returned to Tuscany, that pairs were sighted near Ferrone (about 10k north of here, towards Florence), that the packs are monitored with electronic tags; but we had not believed they would roam around our part of Chianti. When we did speculate about creatures like bears and wolves, the reaction was mixed: there were those of us who relished the thought of such wild and fierce animals in our woods; others were less sanguine.

In a fascinating article from the Economist (link below) about the return of the wolf in Western Europe - and beyond, we learn that young wolves will wander as far as 1000k in search of a mate; so what was Lucarelli to a lone wolf from the Ferrone pack? A doddle!

So we may have more sightings this winter, may hear them howl in our woods. The deer will have to reckon with them, but as the article points out, the deer have overrun this area; a natural predator is perhaps needed.

From the Economist: The wolf returns - Call of the wild After millennia spent exterminating them, humanity is protecting wolves. Numbers have risen again—and so have ancient resentments Dec 22nd 2012  
http://www.economist.com/news/christmas/21568656-after-millennia-spent-exterminating-them-humanity-protecting-wolves-numbers-have-risen

See also this fascinating, thought-provoking article - and breathtaking photography: http://lens.blogs.nytimes.com/2013/01/16/in-the-shadows-of-wolves-and-man/?ref=global-home

Another interesting article on wolves from the NYRB blog; it seems like the winter has brought on talk of wolves...http://www.nybooks.com/blogs/nyrblog/2013/jan/22/lost-wolves-new-england/

Here is a recent video from the Italian newspaper, La Repubblica, a 4 minute glimpse of the family lives of wolves in the Tosco-Emilian Alps: Wild Families

Now we're waiting to hear that the brown bear (Ursus arctos marsicanus) has returned to Chianti.

Bear paw print found on Belluno (Dolomites) ski slope on New Year's day

quite a cutie really

Naples in Chianti

A Neapolitan Winter's Lunch in Chianti

 

Rich octopus ragoût or ragù, simmered for almost 6 hours, served with linguine

Rum baba or babà al rhum, served with custard or crema al limone