The Oracle at La Gavina

Today was a rich day - rich like creamy gelato, full of substance and good stuff. It was my first day on my own with Sergio and Lorena. In the morning I continued to fill the wall that Sergio and I have been rebuilding together. Although it was nice to have Emily's company until now, it's nicer to work alone here (or with a quiet Italian man who only speaks in profundities). While I work I'm surrounded by all kinds of sounds which include a chorus of birds, crickets, and the swift movement of scampering lizards. It's also very hot now, and the sun is strong. It makes the work harder, but it also makes me feel like I'm rolling around in Tuscany's lap which is a good place to be. The grass smells sweet here, too.

After working on the wall, I repainted the wooden welcome gate at La Gavina. Sergio and Lorena use Sunflower oil to coat, freshen and darken the wood. It smells good and Lana was licking it off of the gate as I painted it on. This kind of work I can manage - actually it's right up my alley - not too heavy, but manual nonetheless. While I worked the couple who stayed at the B&B last night emerged with their son who must be 4. He was afraid of Lana! Incidentally, he had a run-in with two (large - 4 ft., 3 in. diameter) snakes this morning and those didn't bother him in the least. How interesting. I explained that Lana's not scary even if he's afraid of dogs because she's not really a dog, just a lady trapped in a dog's body. I think that really confused him and around now he's probably asking his parents about the she-dog. Oops. Once finished with the painting, I hung the laundry to dry. Then I sat down to draw a bit.

At breakfast Sergio and I talked about agriculture, and how quickly the climate and the terrain are changing. He said that from one year to the next they can no longer predict what they will be able to grow and how different types of foods will react to the evolution that seems to be happening faster than ever. He said that they experiment a lot, but what works one year may very well not work another year. They also have a problem with certain birds eating fruit off their trees - this is a new problem now because these birds used to have to migrate for part of the year and now they live locally all year round.

After lunch I sat down with Lorena while she cleaned some lettuce for tonight's B&B guests. She asked me if I feel ready to leave. I said I am because I know that the time is right but I will be sorry to leave her and Sergio, which is how I feel. We had a long talk, and she explained to me how it came to be that she left her city life to live at La Gavina.

Lorena grew up in Crete Senesi,  and her father was a farmer. Her father hoped that she would leave the farm and work in the city. After school she took a job at the bank here, Monte de Paschi, which is the top one around. She knew when she took the job that it wasn't the life she wanted but she thought it was the right thing anyway so she did it. 22 years later, she was still at the same job. Around then, she found a lump in her leg. Doctors wanted to operate to amputate her leg, but she felt convinced that it was a benign lump. After endless tests (which she insisted on having), this was confirmed. The only problem was that she still could not walk. A friend told her to go to a massage therapist, and after some time there, and with alternative medications, the lump got smaller. At that point, though, she decided to change her life. She felt that she hadn't been listening to her instincts, or doing what she needed to do, and what she wanted was to be working with her hands in some way, to be doing manual labor. Three months after her first visit to the massage therapist, Lorena quit her job at the bank. Within a year later, she and Sergio bought La Gavina. To me, Lorena seems like the wise woman of Siena, or the oracle at La Gavina.

Before dinner, Doro and Cece came to visit with Emeliano, their father. Doro and I prepared the pasta for tonight's dinner at the B&B. After that, Lorena and I finished making dinner together. We made two types of bruschette (traditional and one with ricotta and olive tapenade), two types of pasta (tomato sauce/butter & sage), turkey, and English soup for dessert. Tonight's guest are from Holland, and they speak English but not Italian, so I served and acted as the resident translator for Lorena. Sergio was out today and tonight buying bees so that La Gavina can begin making honey again! (They stopped doing so for a while because the bees were in trouble - I think that there was a disease that killed many of them). Sergio usually serves dinner and speak with the guests but tonight it was me. That was fun. I'm also so happy that Lorena let me make the pasta for dinner!

So, tomorrow is my last day at La Gavina and I will be sure to post with a final note.

How many Italian drivers does it take to fill a road?

Today I went into Siena to say hello and goodbye before I make my trip back to the US. The bus that I take into Siena is a small bus, half the length of but equal in width to a New York city bus. This morning it was just me and the bus driver. The ride is always an adventure because the terrain is extremely hilly and the bus is a manual - it's hard (even for me) not to notice when the driver is shifting gears. The roads are also very narrow, and this morning as we were driving we got caught in a jam with a very large truck. The truck was traveling toward La Gavina and we were headed away. So, what did my bus driver do? He rolled down the window and started yelling to the truck driver "now what do we do?!" and they both sat for a few minutes laughing. I thought - has this never happened before? That seems unlikely. But, the two of them spent a good amount of time figuring out how to maneuver their vehicles around each other.  Once they had their window aligned, they stopped their vehicles and had a nice long chat. It turns out that they know each other. They caught up on everything - families, work, etc. The bus driver has a three year old and she's doing well, thank you for asking.

Oh! I wanted to take a brief break to talk about the cherries! A while ago - maybe a week and one half - Sergio and I covered one of the cherry trees to protect the fruit from being eaten by birds. Yesterday, Sergio and I saw that the cherries are growing safely and beautifully! He picked about ten and handed them to me to eat. They were so delicious - juicy and warm from the sunshine. Even though the work here is so hard that it's almost impossible for me to imagine doing it for a lifetime, there are these little moments that would make anyone understand why it's worthwhile to Sergio and Lorena, and why they chose this life. I still don't know how they maintain the energy or the patience but oh boy do I respect it. They really did make a strong choice in choosing this lifestyle but from talking to both of them I understand that it is truly theirs - their choice, their work, their life. And that makes all of the hard work worthwhile to them. Plus, the cherries just taste SO GOOD.

Throw rocks at snakes.

Sorry to dwell on this topic, but that's exactly what I was doing all morning.

La Gavina is surrounded by a Sergio-built wall of large stones, and a few days ago part of the wall collapsed. Sergio and I spent the morning reconstructing it. Omitting the day I spent with a baby deer named Leo, this was the nicest morning I've had since I arrived. Sergio is pensive and usually relatively quiet (Lorena does most of the talking around here). Today was my first opportunity to work with him and it gave us a chance to talk a little bit - something which turned out to be very enjoyable.

Now, let's backtrack. Remember my three encounters with snakes last week? In one (very emotionally exhausting) day? In the vines? Well, today we were rebuilding the wall that those vines grow on. And encapsulate. So, when the snakes dodge in and out of the vines, they are actually just chilling on their front porch. Their real homes are inside the rocks of this wall that we were rebuilding. For three reasons, I was relatively calm about this whole thing: 1. Working with Sergio, I felt like I was working alongside a snake-whisperer. He loves the little guys because he thinks they're interesting and also because he knows exactly which ones to stay away from. (Incidentally, there IS one very poisonous snake that lives here, a small, brown viper with stripes.) 2. I decided to approach the project as a peace offering to the snakes. They can't mistreat someone who is building a house for them, right? That seems off. 3. I was sort of throwing rocks at them in the process of building their house - not like I was aiming or anything, or throwing them harder than necessary (I was) but at least I felt like it would keep them away.

The project was difficult because as we built new parts of the wall, older parts lost stability and collapsed. But with a lot of patience - which was mostly Sergio's, as I had to talk myself out of serious frustration every time we were slowed down by a new collapse - we made a lot of progress and we're almost finished. I wonder whether Sergio has always been this patient and level-headed, or if he learned to be this way over time. It's nice to be near someone who is that way. Most importantly, I saw one snake, a little green one with a yellow stripe, and it was right nearby but I did not panic! The only thing that can help you get over this kind of fear is finding out that something even worse than what you're afraid of exists. In this case, the "worse" thing would be the viper. Now that I know who he is, and what he looks like, the rest of them don't bother me as much. Don't get me wrong, I still very much hope to never see another one, but if he's green and he slithers we don't have as much beef as if he's brown and he slithers. Triumph!

Also a little overview of the past couple of days:

On Friday I went to Florence where I met up with two other Tamars (friends who are traveling in Italy now) hard to believe! It was so nice to be around familiar people, although it's clear that I've definitely become less capable at carrying an intelligent conversation in English which is, frankly, embarrassing. We had such a nice day though, and it was nice to be back in Florence and even nicer to find it feeling so familiar.

Over the weekend we've had two visitors at La Gavina, one previous WWOOFer who has just returned for a quick visit, and her friend (WWOOF is the name of the program I'm on). Sophie, the WWOOFer, was only 15 when she came here for three months, but she and Lorena grew very close over that time and it's nice to see them back together. She has been traveling with her friend Sinead for three months, and here they are on they're third to last stop before heading back to Australia. It has been fun to have other girls here, and especially english speakers. They leave tomorrow morning.

In addition, Emily left last night suddenly. She decided yesterday to leave, and so she did. I'm happy for her because I know that she missed her family very much. So now it's just me, Sergio and Lorena, which is perfectly fine!

Tomorrow I'll take a day-trip to Montepulciano (where I will eat gelato twice and also be sure to fill up on other goodies), and after that I have two more days at La Gavina before I head to Rome to catch my flight back to the US! More postings to come before that happens, of course.

Great Success!

See pictures below. The pasta was very tasty.

Incidentally, what Lorena did not tell me about today's guests was that they own a restaurant. Luckily, they liked the pasta.

Dearly Beloved...

I designed the title to give you all a little warning about the contents of this posting. Sadly, little Leo left this world after only one short day at La Gavina. Sergio found him yesterday afternoon. Poor Lana is devastated, as we all are, but Lorena and Sergio agree that it's for the best since the little guy was afraid and without his family. Nonetheless, we'll cherish the moments we had with him. Seriously. He was very adorable.

On a better note, Lorena's friends are here for dinner tonight - which will hopefully commence soon as I am very hungry (spent the morning cutting trees again and piling up firewood). But tonight's dinner is particularly exciting because Lorena asked me to make the pasta! I feel as though I've been officially approved by the Pasta Board of Italy (= Lorena). I made spinach tagliatellini, which are miniature flat noodles. It was good to do the whole process myself from start to finish because now I see what it entails - altogether it took about 1 1/2 hours. Here are the steps:

1. Begin with a bowl of farina dura - which is flour but from a different part of the wheat stalk than regular flour that we eat in bread and other wheat products. In terms of measurements - there are none, really. Just have to feel it out, which I need more time to get used to. But if you make too much it can always be stored. Push the flour up against the sides of the bowl so that there is a little bit of a ditch right in the center.

2. In the center add eggs - again, the number depends on how much flour you use, but we used 3 eggs for 5 people. Add pureed vegetables or beets, even - whatever kind you prefer (make sure they are slightly moist). Add about 1 tspn of oil per cup of flour.

3. Begin mixing the mixture in the center of the bowl with a fork. Allow the liquid mixture to pull in some of the flour as you turn the bowl in one direction and mix in the opposite direction. Add water as a you go, just a bit to make the dough workable. If you don't incorporate all of the flour at the onset, no problem - you can save it for later on in the pasta-making process. Be sure not to force the dough, let it do it's thing gradually.

4. When the dough is substantial enough to work on with your hands, drop the fork and go for it! When it feels mostly dry but still moist underneath the surface, lift the ball of dough out of the bowl and begin to knead. Palms always, no fingers! Fold the dough inward from the top forward, always pulling it toward you. As you knead, add flower until the dough feels only very slightly moist but mostly dry.

5. Let the dough sit for about 1/2 hour. If you have less time, it's ok. But it's ideal to let it rise a bit.

6. It's time to roll the dough! Use a rolling pin to create a large pancake, about 6 - 8 inches in diameter. Make sure you leave plenty of flour on the table underneath the dough, and don't be afraid to add more flour to the top of the pasta either. More flour is ok - the idea is never to let the dough get moist enough to stick again.

7. Place the rolling pin at the top of the circle (i.e. the opposite end from where you are). Pull the top of the dough over the rolling pin and begin rolling it up toward you on the rolling pin, using your palms to thin the dough. Push the dough out to the sides of the rolling pin with your palms as you go. This will expand/thin the pasta evenly. One you have all of the dough rolled around the pin, flip it onto the table so that you can work on the other side. This just keeps it all smooth. Again, add flour as you go! It seems like a bad idea (to me, at least) but it's perfectly acceptable. Just don't let the dough stick because it will break. When the dough is about 8-10 inches wide, stop pulling it out to the sides and just work on making it longer. You want the dough to be only about 1 centimeter high when you cut it into pasta. The more even it is, the better - so that it will cook evenly.

This last step is specifically for tagliatelle - but now that you have the dough flat and ready you can do anything with it! Ravioli, spaghetti, tortellini, manicotti, etc. etc. etc...

8. When you're ready to cut - first, get excited! This part is magical. Really, very fantastic. Cut the dough into pieces that are about 10 by 10 inches or 8 by 10, depending on how long you want the pasta to be. Take one square/rectangle and place it on the table in front of you. Flour it again. Fold the bottom up about three times, and the top down about three times. Begin to make vertical cuts (moving along the pasta horizontally with a good knife) into pieces that are the width of pasta you desire. Don't chop, work the knife through the dough swiftly so it bounces back nicely. Slide your knife underneath the bottom folds, and lift it to unravel the pasta! Place it on a floured baking sheet until you are ready to cook it.

It's always ok to add a tiny bit of water if you need to remoisten the pasta for any reason. In making ravioli, for example, you would use a little brush to add water in a patchwork grid so that when you place the second layer of pasta on top of the first, over the filling, it will create a seal.

Enjoy! I'll let you know how this particular pasta ends up tasting. Let's hope good, because there are guests!!

Bambi's in town!

While I was away yesterday, Lorena and Emily found a baby deer who was abandoned by his mother in the field at La Gavina. It's a sad thing to have happened, but the little guy is extremely cute!

This morning Lorena handed him to me and asked me to keep him nearby while I worked. He's tiny enough to fit in the cradle of my arms. We played for a while - by we I mean me, the little guy - let's call him Leo (short for Leonardo) the Italian deer, because when his legs flop around underneath him he looks like the Vitruvian man - and Lana. Lana has decided that she'll be Leo's absentee mother. Just as a reminder - Lana is Sergio and Lorena's dog and the mistress of La Gavina. She's a very small but very mighty animal. She also thinks she's a person. Lana follows Leo around everywhere to make sure he's safe, she nuzzles him, and she has dug up a little bed of dirt for him to sleep in. It's sweet to watch - they bonded instantly. We three played for a little while and then Lorena and I tried to feed Leo. Unfortunately he won't eat. We're hoping that he starts eating soon because he's extremely skinny and otherwise he won't make it. Late in the morning Lorena and I thought of returning to the spot where he was abandoned to see whether the mother would return. Sergio said, though, that he is already covered in human scents and the mother is likely to stay away. Sergio also said that if we're not carefully and he gets away the wolves will get him, or the pigs (who do in fact eat baby deer). So for now, we're keeping Leo safe here at La Gavina. We'll keep track of him and try to feed him again later.

Incidentally, I spent the rest of the morning chopping down trees. Leo has definitely the highlight of the day so far, though.

I'll put up a slideshow - he's so little! I've never seen anything like it.

Even if I did know how to yodel, I wouldn't do it here.

Today I took a day trip to San Gimignano. I decided to say c'est la vie to the snakes and take a day apart to see if we can think about our differences separately and then to regroup for negotiations tomorrow. Which we will be doing - regrouping, that is. I potted 17 bunches of vines yesterday so I have 23 to go, and that means more entry into the lairs of those whom I detest. Anywho, today was a day away from all that.

I took the bus into Siena, and grabbed another bus from Siena to San Gimignano. (It's about a one-hour bus ride). San Gimignano is a small hill town and it is particularly famous for it's plethora of towers. Like Siena, San Gimignano is very well kept and it's a beautiful, albeit touristy place to walk around for a day. It also happens to be home to Piazza Della Cisterna where there is a very cool fountain for people to look at, sit on, and oh! meet at to reunite with long-lost maybe loves... Seriously, it's a place where real life magic has happened. To the two M's - I was thinking about you both today. It was a lovely day, and as you must suspect it was one full of food, strolls, and relaxation.

While I waited for the bus to travel back to Siena, I heard/saw some very loud Americans yelling to each other. It occurs to me only now, actually, that they might have been drunk. Before any of us could stop him, one of them (these people were in their 60s) stood up on a bench and began to yodel. It was... interesting. I wondered what motivated this kind of activity. I can only imagine that it was the rolling hills to his right, but even with the expansive scenery, why yodel? This one time I can truly say that an Italian bus driver saved me from an insane American. He swooped in and picked me up, and delivered me back to Siena, far away from the yodeling Wisconsinite. (What, did you think that a guy loud enough to yodel didn't also yell to the whole of San Gimignano that he was from Wisconsin? Guess again.)

It was interesting that on the drive home there were actually two men on the bus who checked everyone's tickets. Here people are expected to buy and validate their own tickets (for trains the tickets get validated on the platforms, for buses they get validated on the buses). Usually the tickets never get checked... at least I've never seen it before. Today, I did! And there were literally two men on the bus to check them. So, including the bus driver, 3 of the maybe 35 people on the bus were men employed by the bus company. That math seems odd to me, but so it goes. Brava Italia! This is a country of madness. And that is part of why I love it so.

As an aside, Lorena has been talking to me about changing things up here at La Gavina. She is feeling like it's time to do things differently. She's tired of running a B&B, which I can understand because when there are guests she works very hard, as if she's never really graduated from being a full-time mother. But she is constantly flooded with an unpredictable number of children (i.e. tourists)! That would be exhausting for anyone, but for someone who spends the majority of her day chasing four geese away from her vegetable orchard, I imagine it's especially tiring. Lorena's heard about something called "co-housing" in Germany. She asked me whether I might be able to research it a bit on my computer. I don't think that Lorena's up on the internet. (When she took it upon herself to find bus times for my trip today even though I told her that I would be able to do it easily on my own, she called an Italian hotline to get the information. Needless to say, she was on hold listening to a loop auto-message for about 1 hour before finally giving in to me.) What I've discovered so far is that there are two similar concepts that are already being experimented with in places including Germany, New Zealand, Australia, Ireland, and the US called "co-housing" and "eco-villages." These are small communities built to support sustainable environmental and community development. It seems interesting - mostly about creating new types of close knit communities for young families, especially those with children. Lorena is trying to steer clear of anything having to do with children. She did tell me, though, that they are waiting for permission from the zoning board to build two new houses on their property, and she hopes to rent them out for seasons at a time to people who will want to live somewhat communally. She's not sure about the details beyond that, and she's hoping to get some ideas from more developed concepts in other places. So we're going to take a look at some materials together, but it seems like La Gavina will soon be evolving, which could be exciting and innovative.

Tomorrow we're having a visit from a previous WWOOFer. She's Australian and she's coming with her boyfriend - she was here when she was only 15! Lorena said that Australians tend to know what they're doing when they come here. I'll fill in the blank and point out that American's don't. At least not this American. But alas. They're stuck with me!

Lastly - I do want to state that I saw a third snake after I wrote yesterday, and Lorena told me that I was uniquely blessed because snakes are a good sign and three is the blessed number - the father, the son and the holy ghost. She asked "what else could you ask for?" I'll tell you what else I could ask for. Guess. I could ask not to see any more snakes. Also, unfortunately I think I'd have to believe in that particular rule of three for that "blessing" to apply to me, but maybe I'll try to accept that great compliment retroactively.

So, tomorrow is another day. Tonight, I go to sleep with a belly full of Tuscan food, and a mind full of yodeling.