Yesterday was a root day in the biodynamic calendar so we harvested the last of our beets, carrots, salsify, swedes, turnips and parsnips. The garden is pretty much empty now, ready for its winter rest. There is just enough hearty brassicas and some kale to sustain us till early spring. Yesterday we dug up roots…
Gelatin made from bone broth is one of the essential ingredients in my kitchen. I make mine using pork. Having raised pigs for years I’ve learned to appreciate the way pork gelatin enriches so many things. It adds body and hearty flavor to ragu, stews, anything braised. I use it to make my favorite head cheese…
When most of us think of the Côtes du Rhône we imagine an area beginning south of Lyon and ending south of Avignon, home to Croze Hermitage, Gigondas, Tavel, Beaujoulais, Condrieu and Chateauneuf du Pape. Few realize if you leave Lyon and follow the river upstream there is a plethora of other fascinating and little known wine…
The Valtellina, unlike many other alpine regions, is not a place whose glory is immediately apparent. Nor does its sheer natural beauty shock or take one’s breath away. But it is well worth a visit. This valley reveals its majesty slowly and like an acquired taste delivers rich rewards for those travelers willing to…
As promised in my post about Poschiavo here is the recipe for the delicious cheese stuffed buckwheat crepes we enjoyed for lunch at the lovely Hotel Albrici. In the Swiss canton of Graubunden where I tried them the crepes were made using stone-ground buckwheat flour from the Mulino Aino I’d visited that same morning. They were…
I stumbled upon the Valposchiavo quite by accident several years ago after a research trip to the Italian Valtellina for Piano. I was looking for buckwheat or grano saraceno. Buckwheat is the noble cereal that has fed this alpine region for centuries but sadly very little is grown here today. I’d heard one might still…
It was just ten days before I was born, on September 19, 1958 that the last family to farm La Petraia, the D’Ambrosio’s, left to emigrate to the US. When Michael and I arrived in 2001 we found a property long abandoned. Since then we have had the good fortune to oversee the restoration project…
Finally, after a cool wet summer our white grapes were harvested this week in the 2 fruit days we had to work with in the biodynamic calendar. Now they’ve been pressed and the juice transferred to steel fermentation tanks. Here’s a look at the process…..