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| A view of our Italian farm's vineyards. |
After our days in Cinque Terre we traveled to our Italian farm located an hour outside Turin in Northwestern Italy. The farm mainly produces grapes and honey, but also has a small garden and fruit trees. They sell their grapes to their local cooperative, a group of 350 farmers, which then produces, bottles, and distributes wine. This farm is only one of two organic growers so the cooperative produces a small amount of organic wine and a large amount of conventionally produced wine. The region is well known for Barolo and Muscato, both of which the cooperative makes. One afternoon our host took us on a tour of the cooperative and we got to sample some of their wines as well as learn about the wine making process.
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| Dolcetto grapes from the vineyard. |
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Members of cooperative can purchase bulk wine cheaper than gasoline.
These pumps are used to transfer wine from storage into large jugs that members bring. |
At the farm we had the chance to learn about the honey making process, something we had never experienced before. The farm produces four types of honey, each of which are taken from the hives at different points of the year. The flavor of each honey changes depending on which current flower is in bloom. They make many fruit and honey preserves to sell at the market as well as sauces and canned vegetables for themselves to eat during the winter months.
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| Checking the progress of the bees to determine if the harvest was ready to collect. |
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| Irma, one of the dogs on the farm. |
Thanks to the delicious cooking of our hosts, we were able to sample a variety of dishes native to the region. One night we had pizza with fresh mozzarella, tomatoes and olives and another night pasta cooked perfectly al dente with zucchini and parmesan cheese. Our last nigh there we had an amazing meal of fried squash blossoms (which we had picked early that day), a simple yet incredibly tasteful lasagna and a delicious tiramisu for dessert. It was great to see how simple these dishes were to make, but by combining fresh ingredients in just the right was they were so flavorful and well-balanced. This is definitely a method of cooking that we try to follow by always letting the ingredients speak for themselves.
After our week at the farm we spent two days in Interlaken, Switzerland before returning home. Overall we had a wonderful trip and so many fun food adventures. Our experiences will no doubt influence our cooking in the future as well as our respect for organic food and our desire to have a garden later in life. We hope you have enjoyed reading about our travels and we will soon return to posting new recipes.
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| A view of dusk from our Italian farm. |
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| Us in the vineyard. |
