Working in Tuscany, wk 3.
Trip Start
Mar 06, 2009
1
10
11
Trip End
May 07, 2010
Petroio, Tuscany, Italy
Monday, April 27, 2009
Barbara had purchased us a lot of groceries to keep us fed until they return. She asked us what we wanted and Milli told her some fish fillets. I went to cook said fillets today and found it was AN ACTUAL FISH - head, tail and all. Now I only started eating seafood properly a few years ago; I have a serious problem of not being able to eat of something that looked the same as it did before it died - which probably helped me become faux vegetarian (we prefer aquatarians). So I'm stuck with a stupid fish that was scaled but not properly gutted (guts galore) and I know this stupid fish wont turn into a nicely cleaned fillet unless I do something about it. So I cut off it's head. With a somewhat blunt knife. I swear that I saw one of its eyes move and look into mine as I made the cut. This is of course impossible and had to be my mind playing tricks on me, but that doesn't mean I didn't, on some level, 'see' the fish look at me. Next to be decapitated was the tail. There was lots of blood, and guts and there was a tantrum or two from yours truly, along with a fair bit of dry reaching, and then me storming out to have a shower - leaving wonderful Milli with a decapitated, bloody, full of guts and not yet fit for human consumption fish, that was in need of preparation and frankly, to be out of my site before I returned from the shower, saw it and then went off seafood for ever (which would have been a shame as I really like the taste of fish). Luckily for me Milli came through with the goods, as she usually always does.
We also had a crack at putting some dried beans into a mix of homemade salsa, sort of like baked beans. So we soaked the beans over night, and added them to the tomato salsa the next day, but after I heated the up the beans were still hard and crunchy. Of Course! - If you want to make BAKED beans you need to bake them! So today we baked the hell out of the salsa and beans... Still crunchy though. Realising that we should have boiled the beans first we felt somewhat dejected and a little over farm life (seems the crap bucket needs emptying... and that's my job). While I love Tuscany and the tiny villages surrounding us, I can't wait to get the Caribbean cost of Costa Rica... Only a week to go. Anyway Milli just gave me her camera to copy the photos over so while the ones here aren't technically from this week, they are from Tuscany.
Milli says:
We were back from Pisa and everyone was happy to see us! We got a 'cheers' for being back at the farm at dinner that night, and the shy dog Marymoon, whose past must have involved beatings, now prances about happily when we are around.
The next day it was back to work though and we weeded the rose garden all the while my listening to both Hamish and Andy on a podcast, and Shane cursing and moaning. Luckily Barbara and Ugo didn't give us too much hard stuff to do while they are away (they included laying in hammocks as one item to achieve!), and they also said if we came back to Tuscany we could stay with them as friends!! We may wait until they have a toilet and hot water shower installed....
In the couple of days before they left on their next walking tour Barbara cooked (and I learnt) a simple but great Sicilian pasta dish - steam broccoli, mash it, add salt, pepper, olive oil. Brown pine nuts and sultanas, add it all together with cooked pasta and cheese! Yum! Bit of the Arabic influence from down south Italia!
One afternoon we went on a walk to Castelmuzio (the second closest town to the farmhouse) and Ugo was eager to go....we later found out it was because he wanted to try out going different ways he hadn't been before...we found this out the hard way. The cats and dogs followed, the cats going quite a way but then stopping and admiring the wildflowers. The dogs pushed on excitedly with us. We walked basically across the valley instead of via the driveway. We walked up hills of planted beans, olive groves, forest with leaf carpets (at this point going with no path at all and getting lost for about 3 minutes - though the guys deny we were ever lost) and muddy tracks beside abandoned old buildings with no roof. We emerged at a residence that an American is in the process of buying, and finally out to the road perhaps halfway to the town. We were POOPED. Ugo was laughing at us as he is 70 years old....we felt quite unfit which is a shock to all who know us I'm sure.
We then had to keep walking along the road, Billy the older dog now regretting his choice to attend this journey. We saw a possibly even older Italian man riding his bike in lycra going back and forth which really made me mad. We did meet a few ladies and one of them was walking a small black dog who looked like a bat. He was low like a sausage dog but had huge popping up ears, and had paws that went out like a ballerina with attitude so he really was quite an image!
We celebrated finally getting to our favourite bar with a drink, and they gave us chips and herb crispy bread slices which made us all very happy pappys. They even let us bring the dogs into the bar and they lay in front of the fridge door which was convenient for anyone wanting a drink.
We had been asked by Barbara to bring back some shell type pasta but the Coop was closed (no rooster working the till) so we walked back. We learned about the couple of really bad homestay people who visited over the years (a greedy clueless American girl and a rude lazy guy who blew his nose in their nice cloth napkins!) and finally made it home. Biggest trek EVA. Ugo kindly gave us some of his homemade walnut liquor that night, which was really yummy! Ugo left and that evening there was a massive thunderstorm so all the animals stayed in our room until Barbara came home! Pets, not random deer and moles....
That night we awoke to hear a mouse eating and we saw the makeshift plastic bag bin moving. We had been told at the beginning not to do this in our room but I had forgot...it was really creepy and yucky actually! Next morning I moved the bag with the help of a long metal pole (obviously the mouse was long gone but still) and that night we encouraged all pets to stay with us - cats have some use after all!
That morning we were alone minding the farmhouse and since then we have been working on and off, cooking and just hanging which has been nice. Some days have been rainy which means no work but I have tended to the fire in the house to keep us warm - it's a full time job sometimes! I'm becoming more expert as the days progress, I should get my girls scout patch any day now.
We have read lots from our books and travel guides - its good to have some time to get ready for Central and South America. Especially now we are hearing about the swine flu. Not good.
We are getting WELL over the toilet and shower situation, often skipping a shower when its shitty cold rainy weather (we tried the yokel bucket wash but it didn't gel so we only do the outdoor shower) and though we have attempted to co-ordinate our poops for when we are at bars after our semi-daily walks, this has not yielded positive results. Shane has had to change the toilet bucket once and that is one too many times I'm told. We could just go behind the house and blame it on the dogs....what?
As Shane said we can't cook beans from their dried state - we suck to the Nth degree. Or masters even. For real, yo. Kind of embarrassing really (like the embarrassment I just felt when I read over the last paragraph..)
We also have been getting a little over pasta, though it pains me to admit it and I may need several years of counselling to deal with emitting that sentence. So Shane did excitedly pull out the 'fish' Barbara had got for us...only to find out it really was A SINGLE WHOLE FISH, and which we had real trouble dealing with. Am thinking of going totally vego and I know that is a sooky thing to say when I have to get down and gritty with it. Should have known if we are amongst little traditional towns - its not a freaking capital city so you fillet your own fish.
We did salvage some and had a great lunch with roast vegies but it did sober us. Despite me drinking a Duff beer (OH SO FREAKING COOL).
I worked on tying the vines in the vinyard today which was quite enjoyable and relaxing.
Our first attempt this week at walking to Castelmuzio ourselves resulted in our cracking it (no asthma puffer for Shane and my ankle was killing me - probably it thought we were going the longwinded way or something and was shying away from its responsibility to carry me) and we walked back down the 400 meters of driveway we had covered.
The second time we tried we were successful. But the Coop was closed - NO SIGNS FOR SUNDAY SO HOW WERE WE TO FREAKING KNOW.
Anyhoo, this week has been interesting and not bad...overall....but getting VERY excited about staying in places with toilets and hot showers, you know, mod cons.
