Bosco and Venice

First, everyone should know that Bosco Delrey's first single is out and available on iTunes. And it's damn good. You can read about him on MadDecent's blog or just search Bosco Delrey in the iTunes store.

Next on the docket, I'll tell you about Venice. We only stayed one night and it was raining and miserable weather, but the city was one of a kind.

It was refreshing to go to a place with no need to look both ways before you cross the street because there are no cars, only boats. Big ferries traveling up and down the Grand Canal, two person gondolas driven by men in striped shirts and straw hats, and motorized water taxis were the only means of transportation. During the day, the streets were mobbed with tourists and were quiet and empty at night. Venice is a museum in that it's kept alive for people to come visit.

Murano: We traveled to the island that produces all of the famous Murano glass, which was lined with shop after shop that were selling dizzying amounts of jewelry, plates, figurines, creepy clowns, vases, wine stoppers, and chandeliers. We had a hard time finding an actual glass workshop, but luckily we wandered down a corridor and saw one man working. Most likely, a lot of the products there were imported from Asia, considering some of the pricing was pretty reasonable. We found two amazing stores though that had to be authentic. One had vases and glasses with flower decorations on them, and the other had the most incredible chandeliers I have ever seen. If only I had the money or a house to decorate! 

Jewish Venice: On the second day of our trip, we visited the Jewish Ghetto in Venice and toured three of the five remaining synagogues. During the 14^th and 15^th Centuries, even though the Jews were confined to one area, Venice was apparently one of the more tolerant places for Jews to live in Europe. Jews from different cultures immigrated to Venice but stayed separated, which explains why there were 5 different synagogues to accommodate the different traditions. Today in Venice, there is a permanent community of only 30 people who are recognized by the Jewish Community (excluding Chabad-Lubavitch and the hundreds of Jews who travel through Venice on trips and travel). Sorry there are no pictures of the synagogues because the tour guide was watching me like a hawk, but I did get a shot of the Kosher restaurant and glass figures of religious men.

Today is our last day on the farm, and tomorrow begins our long haul of traveling to Cinque Terre, Florence, Rome, Mykonos, and Athens. My life as a WWOOFer is put on hold for a while, but will hopefully resume at some point in my life. ‘Till then…ciao bellas.

Dancing Vegetables

I met a girl named Youlia in Paris and she sent me the link to her awesome video short which just happened to be all about dancing vegetables. Funny how I am now planting vegetables... Coincidence? I think not.



If you liked it (which I'm sure you all did), become a fan on Facebook to help move the film forward.

Milano

The image I had of Milan was a modern, sleek, fashion capital. But the city proved me wrong. It was much more than just extravagant outdoor malls and designer stores. There was history, stunning buildings, casually dressed people, and of course.....the Duomo.

It's big. It's Gothic. It's Duomo.

Hey Mambo

We have arrived on our fourth and final farm called Il Cavicchio in Rastignano, Italy. We are actually farming veggies this time around, so my farming tips are back in action.

Today we planted tomatoes and zucchini in the morning, and squash and melon in the afternoon. It has gotten very hot here, so we take a break during the middle of the day.

Before we arrived, another WWOOFer prepared the land for planting. He set up the drip irrigation system and lined the rows with plastic to prevent weeds from growing.

To plant, we poked holes in the plastic, dug a hole, dropped in the plant, and then covered it back up with the finest soil we could find around us.

After planting, we pretty much drowned the veggies with water from the hose. The plastic helps to keep the water in and the weeds out.

After watering, we had to go back and make sure no roots were showing, otherwise they would be scalded by the sun. If they were, we just put more dirt on top.

Farming Tips:

1. Tomatoes, eggplants, and peppers grow best when planted in two rows, 70 cm apart from each other. Within the rows, the plants should be 60 cm apart. This takes into account how big their roots grow.

2. Zucchinis, squash, melons, and watermelons grow best when planted in one row, 1 meter apart. If you are using a drip irrigation system, they should be planted on one side of the piping, as close to the actual tube as possible.

I leave you with Rosemary Clooney, because this is what I have been humming to myself all day.

How to make cheese

Yes, the day has finally arrived for the post about making goat cheese. I laid it out in a few logical steps with visual aids. If anything seems confusing, or you want a more in depth explanation of a certain part, leave a comment and I will respond.

We make two types of cheese at the farm:


Two types of cheese from Renee Orenstein on Vimeo.

Steps to make fresh cheese:

1. The milk is transported down to the fromagerie (the cheese building) and distributed into plastic bins with ferment powder and rennet.


What goes into the milk from Renee Orenstein on Vimeo.


Transferring the milk to the fromagerie from Renee Orenstein on Vimeo.

2. The milk has to sit for about a day so it has time to ferment and become cheese. The consistency becomes similar to fresh yogurt.

3. On day two, the water is drained from the containers as best as possible. Then we scoop the cheese into the molds with metal ladles. Depending on the orders for the day, we either make 3/4-liter, 1-liter, or 1.5-liter molds of cheese. Some of the cheese has olive tapenade or pesto in the middle.

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4. The water in the cheese drains through small holes in the plastic molds. After a few hours, it's time to flip the cheese. We turn the cheese upside down and place it back into the mold to allow more of the water to drain.

(fresh cheese with pesto and olive before flipping)

5. The next step is salting the cheese. Sprinkling some salt on top soaks up even more of the water.

6. The next day, we take the cheese out of the molds and place them on drying racks. Et voila! Fresh cheese.

Steps to make tome cheese: (sorry no videos for this one...)

1. The milk is transferred to the tome, a large metal basin (shown in video above), and is heated with a gas flame while stirring occasionally.

2. After reaching 39 degree Celsius, we scoop the cheese into a strainer and transfer it to a plastic mold lined with a cheese cloth. One day's worth of milk makes 6 molds of this cheese. It isn't as economical as making the fresh cheese, but some people prefer the taste and texture.

3. We then press the cheese into the mold using our hands to get the air bubbles out, cover it with a corner of the cheese cloth, and stack it on top of the other tome cheeses.
4. A few hours later, the cheese is flipped and placed back in the mold upside down, still in the cloth.

More about goats.

Here are some entertaining tidbits about life on the farm.

1. We have fleas. Enough said.

2. Today a goat got stuck in the fence. She thought she was skinny enough to get through, but her hips were too wide and she was too stupid to go back the way she came. We ended up having to saw her in half and make her into sausage. I'm kidding. We're vegetarians.

3. Tammy likes to poke the goats in the udders to get them to move.

4. On Thursday, we lost all of the milk from the morning (but it was NOT our fault). Someone hooked the hoses up wrong and instead of going into the tank, the milk went directly onto the floor of the fromagerie and down the drain. Bye bye cheese.

5. Instead of going into the barn, a goat climbed up onto the roof and we had to chase it off.

6. I have found all types of creatures in our room, which I have flung outside using the dustpan. They include: a snake, a giant beetle, a bee that was surprisingly just napping in our bathroom sink, a slug, and a snail that climbed into my shoe overnight. I have also probably killed 75 fleas.

7. The baby goats like to follow Tammy and me rather than the rest of the herd, which can pose a problem when we are bringing them to graze in the fields. There have been numerous times when we had to just bring a few of the naughty ones back to the barn for the night because they wouldn's stop following us. We give them their baby formula and don't headbutt them like the rest of the goats, so they like us way better. I'm sure if we stayed here a few more weeks, we would be awakened by the baaaah's of a baby goat in our bed.

8. Today, I swore a goat said my name.





Puppy Alert!

The man who lives next door trains collies to herd sheep, and today after work we went to watch. It was like puppy school, except there was a herd of sheep and all of the dogs were exceptionally smart. The lessons were more for the humans, and not so much for the dog. Here are some photos of the collies and some adorable puppies.