Peggy in Italy

As an American who grew up in the city of Chicago, I can say that most city dwellers would probably cringe at the idea of living in a small town. But I can guarantee you that life in a small Italian town is quite different from an American one…at least I’d like to think so. We live in Agugliano, a town of about 5000 people, and we’ve been here now for almost three years. It’s everything that I could have wanted, well almost everything. Don’t get me wrong, it’s far from perfect.

But back to the positive side, I walk out our door and Melania can play in the piazza full of rose bushes. We have the pharmacy, bakery, cafe, little grocery store, and the paper shop all within 50 feet. And of course we have the BEST gelateria right near us. Not only do they have the best flavours, but they use natural ingredients and make the ice cream themselves. The gelato deserves a whole post for itself.

Even though I have been there for only a few years, everyone basically knows me. There is a real sense of community in the town and you have the sensation that everyone really does care about what’s going on with you. In the summertime, we hang out in the piazza and stroll around the city walls… about three blocks long. The good life…

It’s all sounds really good, but catch me on a bad day and I’ll tell you another story.

I attended the first Foodcamp this past week in Italy. So what is a Foodcamp and are tents involved? No, no tents involved. A foodcamp is similar to a Barcamp, which is “an international network of user generated conferences — open, participatory workshop-events, whose content is provided by participants — often focusing on early-stage web applications, and related open source technologies, social protocols, and open data formats,” according to Wikipedia. Foodcamp goes one step further and focuses on food.

The event was held in a small town called San Martino in Pensilis, found in the southern region Molise, which is relatively unknown to many non-Italians. The drive there wasn’t fun but the views made up for it. A long winding road lined with olive trees took us up to the town found on top of a big hill overlooking a spectacular Italian countryside. The historical city center reminded me of a post-war town with dilapidated buildings, vacant homes, old doors, but all these things gave the town even more character. Foodcamp was happening alongside of the town’s annual festival “La Carrese,” which is basically a horse cart race that started centuries ago.

Some topics discussed were Italian food and wine, media and communication, farmer’s markets, but the best part of the event was the food and wine taste testing. Thanks to the sponsors San Lorenzo, Fattoria Italiana and Acetaia San Giacomo I had the opportunity to try some mouth watering cheese, stuffed peppers and top of the line balsamic vinegar. An interesting topic was brought up by Fattoria Italiana at the event: adopting a tree, an animal, some land. The concept is quite simple. Let’s say you adopt an olive tree from a farmer for a year. The farmer then sends you the products that it yields for that year. In this case, it would be olive oil. This market is now opening up to the USA. It might not be the best way to lead a sustainable lifestyle, but at least you can be sure you will be getting high-quality products.

The event ended with a visit to an artisanal cheese-making farm called Parco dei Buoi. There I was able to watch Francesco make handcrafted ricotta. I never realized just how much work goes into making this cheese. After milking the sheep, Francesco heats the milk with a curd to make pecorino cheese. The cream that is left on top is taken and then heated again with a little milk while stirring it with a special wooden rod, called “spino”. When it starts to thicken the heat is turned off and the ricotta is scooped up into special containers. The term “ricotta” translates into “twice cooked,” giving name to this delightful cheese that tasted wonderful by itself or even with a drizzle of honey. Buon appetito!

Tags: food, foodcamp, molise