Our month long venture at Podere Marco Polo has come to a close. We had an amazing time and learned a lot about olive oil and cooking. We met a great new friend that we hope to travel with again. On our last day we packed up all of the olive nets and ate a final meal together.
After lunch on our last day we all walked down the street to a good friend of our hosts and their guests. His name is also Roberto and he specializes in essential oils and herbs. He also dug a cave under his house to make wine in. Nika and Sandro showed us the wine cellar and walked us through the steps they follow to create their wine here at Roberto’s. Roberto was kind enough to also make us chai tea, and we got to meet the mother and sister of one of the dogs that lived with us at Marco Polo.
Emanuela taught us how to make a fish ravioli from scratch. Making the actual pasta was much easier than I thought it would be, and filling it wasn’t hard either. We cooked it immediately and served it with a tomatoe sauce.
We have been having some lovely lunches in the home of our hosts, and so I have taken a few pictures of their home and our meals to share with everyone. The bird’s nests are ones we have found while picking and brought to Emanuela.
Today we had a large gathering with an Italian actor as our guest of honor. He fell madly in love with our new wwoofer Diana, and wants to take her on a date tomorrow. We will see! We spent the morning picking but then it began to rain so we came inside and prepared olives, met Vittorio, and watched him prepare mushrooms he had foraged in the morning.
Diana has arrived. She is beautiful and so much fun and reminds me of all of my friends at home rolled into one. We are all having an amazing time together, Isaac is enjoying girl talking, but mostly listens to audiobooks when we are picking because he doesn’t want to listen to us gab. We made brunch together the other day for everyone, and olives today. We all went to Pitigliano together too, and saw the cinghiales that have been preserved, the duomo, and the view again.
Roberto has a special tomatoe preserves recipe that Isaac is obsessed with, so now he has learned how to make them! Hopefully we will be able to recreate them when we get home.
We began picking olives that are part of another grove today. The trees are much bigger, and older, but harder to pick without ladders and machines. To get to the orchard we have to walk a little ways away from the house, but not too far.
We went to a small lake town yesterday afternoon because it was still to wet to pick olives. Lake Balsena is fairly large, and the town accompanying it is very lively in the summer. It was once a castle I think. We had a quiet walk through town and down to the shore. Emanuela and Roberto showed us a spikey fruit that we ate.
There was a two day thunderstorm that occurred on Sunday and Monday. It left behind a lot of water, some flooding, and a lot of overflowing rivers. In order to drain the field we had to build little streams by digging trenches. When we went for a drive yesterday there was still water pouring onto the road.
Yesterday we had the farm to ourselves so we took a walk to Pitigliano. Along the way we saw a lot of sheep, even some trotting down the road. Once we got there we did some shopping, and had lunch. Then we walked home, and took care of the dogs and cats.
One day last week when we were picking olives we found many curious things. There was a pastel colored caterpillar, a mushroom the size of my hand, some eggs, and a lizard.
After the market this week Emanuela enlisted Isaac to help her in the kitchen. We had bought fresh sardines, so Emanuela cleaned them, and Isaac dusted them with flour and fried them. We also ate a linguini and clams pasta that was my favorite dish at this farm, and had roasted chestnuts made by Roberto.
Roberto and Emanuela’s land includes a vineyard and lots if olive trees, but what is most interesting are the pieces of Etruscan history. Emanuela took us on a hike one day where we found apples, walnuts, and mushrooms. We also found two tombs, which most likely hold several Etruscan bodies
The town nearest to us, within walking distance is Pitigliano. It is rich in Etruscan history, and is also extremely beautiful both during the day and at night. The houses and buildings are literally carved out of the tufo, as you will see in the pictures. There are caves that you can take walking tours through that the Etruscans dug, but we have not done so yet. The town has a lot of restaurants, museums, and markets for a small area.
EO: Emily's Occurrences 