Life here is pretty incredible. The landscape is gorgeous, I get to work outside everyday, the food is gourmet, the people are fun. Here are some random pictures from all around: Florence, San Gimignano, train rides, the farm itself, another agroturismo we visited. A typical day for me goes something like this. Wake up at 7, have some breakfast, eggs or cereal, usually both. At 8 we meet outside by the wall to get our tasks for the morning. Until now, that has mostly been tending to the sheep and bringing them around to whichever pasture is the most lush. Sometimes I leave them in one place and go up to Pig hill to build fences or bring hay and straw around to all the animals. At 1 we have lunch prepared by the interns, some combination of leftovers from dinner the night before and newly crafted dishes. Lunch has been pretty spectacular, especially because I'm so hungry by 1. I like to have a cup of coffee before afternoon work starts. We work again from 2-5, bringing food around, milling grain, building, and feeding. Afternoons are more fun because the sun is out and I am less isolated by the sheep. At 5 sometimes I go for a run, play ukulele, go into town, or do whatever random stuff I need to before dinner. At 7 we have wine and chat with guests, then dinner at 7:30. Our chef, Graziella, makes amazing food for us every night. Some dishes we've had are polenta with wild boar (from our property), risotto with asparagus or saffron or nettles, pasta al pomodoro or al pesto, bean/vegetable soups, lamb, pork, lots of venison, leeks, fennel, roasted potatoes and chicken. Sometimes we have tiaramisu for dessert. It's basically like eating at a fancy restaurant every night, which is a little overwhelming. There is a lot of oil and butter in the food and much more starch than vegetable, so it's very thick. I try to pace myself and not eat too much, but it's tough after working all day. It makes salad feel like a huge relief when I get a chance to have some. We'll have more as the veggies come up. After dinner we sometimes go for a walk, or hang out in our house and socialize or read or something. I usually get to sleep around 11:30 or 12.
My italian is coming along slowly, it's hard to get into a groove because everyone speaks english on the farm. I think I'll get a better chance to practice after the program is over, but this is definitely a good start, and the italian lessons are teaching me proper grammar. Speaking of after the farm, I'm trying to figure out what I'm going to do. I haven't made any decisions yet, but it will probably involve biking around a bit and working on other farms for shorter periods of time. There is also a chance a few of the interns and I will get an apartment for a month someplace around here and just explore a city for a while and cook a lot.
I've definitely had a lot of time to think since I've been here, which has been nice. A lot has been about farming, food and sustainability, which is pretty depressing. Our food system is out of control right now, and there is no easy or obvious way to fix it. It's totally overwhelming to try to imagine how an individual can have the greatest impact improving it. I consider having my own farm, doing things right and teaching other people through that, but the effects would be slow and isolated. Maybe public policy is the most effective route, but it is a tough fight against huge amounts of capital and establishment. And whatever the method, it has to be preachy (which makes me uneasy), telling people that the way they are living is destroying our health, environment and livelihood. Basically, we've created an enormous system that we don't understand and can't control, and it's going to take some major shock for us to realize how much we have to change in order to save ourselves.
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