Last weekend we went to another small town, Aosta, which is 2 hours train ride from Torino. Syd read it from a travel guide that a farm house (agriturismo) near Aosta (30 min drive all the way up in the mountains) can provide room & board, and also teach us how to make goat cheese. Well, knowing Syd's a cheese lover (he has also converted my mother and me into cheese), we had long planned for this adventure.Oh, boy, was it cold (~ 8C)!! Aosta is located north of Torino which is close to the border of France and Switzerland (St. Bernard). I'll leave you to imagine the temperature in the mountains at night. And yes, there was snow in the mountains.
The valley of Aosta is breath-taking. The view was worth the trip to come to Aosta. The farm house we stayed at is managed by a family. The grandparents take care of the guest rooms and the cooking (we had a typical Aosta-style dinner while breakfast was already included). The daughter-in-law handles the goats, milks them, and makes cheese while the son takes the home-made products (cheese, salami, soap, etc.) to markets. They also have a bunch of chickens and geese, 3 pigs, 3 dogs, and 2 cats. As a city girl who had never been with so many animals at once, it was exciting. I got to pat some of them (not chickens and geese cuz they were too fiesty) and to eat some others (sorry :( ).
Photo on Left: The farm house
Photo on Right: One of the specialities of Aosta - can you guess what it is? It tasted great with warm chestnuts and honey on rye bread. But many of you probably won't eat it (we won't either for a long time). Answer is at the end of this entry.
Well, so the next morning we were supposed to make goat cheese but... goats are not making enough milk at this time of season. During summer, they are usually milked every 12 hours. Bummer. Oh well, we still checked out their living quarters (eew, too many flies), milking machines, and cheese-making rooms. Man, it was the only time I feel being a male is not a privilege. The male goat was separated in a small cell from other goats who can run around in a huge field... I guess since the sole job for the male goat is to 'have fun', he only gets to do that once in a while (fall).
We also found out that I was the 3rd Asian (the other two were Japanese and Singaporean) who ever visited the farm house in this remote village in the mountains for the past 22 years. I guess we Asians just don't go to cold mountains too often.
Answer to the mysterious dish: lard.
1 comment:
That's not the Italy I knew! I think you secretly moved to Bulgaria and didn't tell us. They have cheese there too, you know....! :-)
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