Pass the Cheese Please!

Parole: Caseificio (cheesehouse), fattoria per la produzione di latte (dairy farm), mungiturare (to milk)

Happy Mid-May!  I have been very busy since spring break with our work experiences and other things that we have been doing.  The weather has been warm to almost too hot, and has been nearly always sunny.  Today is no exception, being in the mid-80s and sunny as can be.  Here is a recap of some of the things I have been up to.

Caseificio

For the first week of the work experience portion of our program, I worked at a small Caseificio called Punto Latte. Punto Latte makes 6 wheels of Parmigiano-Reggiano cheese a day.  Being small, we were able to stop and talk a lot about the cheese making, so we could fully understand the entire process.  We were also able to help make the cheese.  The milk used at the caseificio is from their own farm and one other farm.  Also on site there is a pig farm and a cheese/meat/salami shop.  At the caseficio, I learned a lot about the art of making Parmigiano-Reggiano cheese.  Daily, there are so many small adjustments to be made to the amount of rennet (caglio) and siero innestra (whey from the previous day’s cheese; used for maintaining bacterial profile and increasing acidity of the milk) that is added to the caldron.  I did not realize just how much the acidity of the siero innestra and the milk would affect how much ingredients were put in and the quality of the cheese.  Also, the size of the curd has a lot of effect on the cheese.  Too small, and the cheese will be too dry, too large, and it will ferment during aging.  The milk fat affects how long the cheese can be aged and the milk protein (specifically casein) affects the overall cheese yield.  In general, it takes 16 kg of milk to make 1 kg of Parmigiano-Reggiano.  After the initial action, the cheese is more or less molded into the wheel shape, put in a salt bath for 20 days, and aged for 12 to 30 months.  The average is 24 months, and at 12 months it is checked by a quality control institute and branded with the Parmigiano-Reggiano consorzio marking.  If it is not up to standards, the rind is ground off, and it is sold as a regular, “national grade” parmigiano type cheese.

Because of the other operations at the caseficio, we also watched pig halves be cut up into pieces to be sold in the shop, saw their pig operation, and saw some prepping for making salamis.  We also toured the dairy farm where the milk comes from to make the cheese.  The owner of the farm has very good dairy genetics as a result of meeting Dr. Robert Everett when he came to Modena a long time ago.

Paganina Dairy Farm

My second work experience was at a large dairy farm called Paganina.  This farm milks nearly 1000 cows, and had another 1000 in young stock.  I had never worked on a farm this large before; I have only toured them.  The farm’s milk went to their own caseificio to make Parmigiano-Reggiano cheese.  For facilities, all barns were cover-all type buildings, and in the building with the parlor, there were locker rooms, a commercial kitchen for everyone to use, and an office.

While we were there, we worked mostly with the vet and herd management staff, and we milked in the parlor.  Their parlor is a double-40 parallel.  This means that 80 cows are in the parlor at a time, and each group of 40 was in there for about 20 minutes.  Therefore, in less than an hour, I milked the equivalent of my entire milking herd at my farm at home.   There were usually 4-5 people milking.

Each cow has an ankle RFID bracelet/pedometer, which is a part of their “Total Dairy Management” program.  The cow is recognized by the system as she enters the parlor, and her activity level, milk, and milk conductivity are automatically entered into the system.  As she leaves the parlor, she is stopped on a set of scales, and she is weighed.  At this station, the computer also decides if she can return with the rest of the herd, or if she needs to go to the vet check pens.  If she has had a spike in activity level, needs to be checked for pregnancy, or a milker entered a problem code into the keypad in the parlor, a gate swings and she is separated.  I think this total integration is very cool.  It is neat to look at graphs of all of this data, and it helps in diagnosing problems.  One cow lost 100 kg (220 pounds) in one day.  She was sent by the system to the vet check pen.  She had a bad foot, which explains everything.

We got a lot of practical experiences working with the vets.  We got to practice a lot of rectal exams (or as they call it, “rectal exploration”) to understand the reproductive state of the animal.  We would feel for follicles, swelling, abnormalities, and pregnancies.  If she was in heat, manure was put on her rump to mark it (tradition on the farm) and then later she would be bred.  We learned how to prepare semen for AI, and since Liz is AI certified, she was able to breed some cows (with the help of a step-stool, of course).  One of the vets, Toto, liked the idea.  He is not any taller than Liz, and when I was there, he bred his first cow at this particular farm, and used the help of a stool as well.  While I worked with the vets, I gave a lot of shots and was able to help with a lot of therapies.  We also checked every breeding age heifer every day for heat.  If she was showing signs of heat, we did a rectal exam to confirm.

I learned a lot at this farm, especially because we spent a lot of hours there and worked with the vet staff.  It was my first time doing a lot of the things that we did with the vets, because my farm is so small that we don’t have nearly as many animals that need to be worked on.  I also learned a lot about how to improve personnel management on the farm.  It was nice to have an experience which was very hands on.  Both at the farm and the caseficio we were able to significantly improve our comprehension of Italian, as we were listening to it all the time.

Odds & Ends

Last week we did the next step for our “residence permit”.  Monday was our appointment at the immigration office.  We thought that we would be done with this whole process after this appointment, however, we are not.  We went to the immigration office, waited an hour, got called up basically to make sure that we were at the office, waited another hour, got called up for photo IDs and fingerprinting, and then waited some more, and then were called up to get our fingerprints taken again, along with our palm prints taken.  We were told last fall by the Visa Office in NYC that all we needed to do was turn in paperwork to the police office.  This whole thing is a bureaucracy madhouse in which we have had to do more paperwork, pay nearly 70 Euros, and waste a lot of time and fuel.  Our next appointment is in July, which is after we leave, as they know.  This whole “residence permit” seems pointless and has wasted many of our limited days here in Italy.

In a couple days I will post some more, so this post isn’t overwhelmingly long.  I hope the rain at home stops soon!

A dopo!

Parole: rompere (to break), pianificare (to plan),

Wow!  I can’t believe that it has been 12 days since my last post!  This last week was the final week of the coursework portion of our exchange program, so naturally it was a busy one.  We have the next two weeks off and when we come back, our work experiences will begin.

IZSLER

Last Friday with our Food Safety class, we visited the Instituto Zooprofilattico Sperimentale della Lombardia e dell’ Emilia Romagna.  This more or less means we went an organization which does consulting, experiments, and lab work for anything that has to do with animals and food.  There is an entire network of these institutes across Italy, and the one in Brescia is the headquarters for the regions of Lombardia and Emilia Romagna, and is where the milk testing lab is.  We learned a lot about what the Instituto does, and toured the facilities.  They began milk testing for quality reasons as it was related to milk pricing.  Now they do tests on individual cow’s samples and daily bulk tank samples.  They also test the long term stability of foods in their “challenge lab”, where they make foods or new food ideas from producers and see what happens from a microbiological standpoint.

Dairy Farm, Horse Breeding, and a Milk Processing plant

Tuesday, we went on a surprise field trip with Giovanni and Giuseppe for ag systems, and we visited a 450 cow dairy farm with a 30 stall herringbone rotary parlor.  The workers stand on the inside of this rotary, and it only requires 2 workers because they can walk straight across the middle instead of around the outside of the carousel.  They also have many horses they use for breeding, some beef cattle, and lots of solar panels.  We saw a couple fouls that were born within the past week.

After lunch, we went to a latteria¸ which processes Provolone Dolce and Provolone Picante (like a sharper, more flavorful cheese, not necessarily “hot and spicy), Grana Padano (a cheese that is made in a process similar to Parmigiano-Reggiano, however is not the same as it), UHT milk, and fresh milk. We toured the cheese making facilities and at the end, we got to taste some cheeses in the cutting room.  The Provolone was the best that I have had.  It was Picante, and had a strong flavor.  After the cheese facilities, we toured the fresh milk processing and we were each given a liter bottle of milk.  That milk was the first fresh milk we have had here in Italy.  We usually but the UHT milk because it is cheaper and does not need to be refrigerated (yeah it takes some getting used to seeing milk on a shelf.  Eggs don’t seem to be refrigerated in stores either).  The UHT packaging is especially neat because the containers are filled aseptically, meaning without coming into contact with air after pasteurization.  This means they are filled in a vacuum.  It was a productive day and it was interesting to see what a commercial, “American sized” milk processing facility looks like here in Italy.

TIM

Down the road we have a small TIM store.  TIM is telecom Italian Mobile—my cell phone carrier here.   The same two women are always working in the store whenever we visit.  Last weekend, I gave in and bought an internet key—it was just too frustrating at times not having internet in the apartment.  It was also a really good deal.  When you buy an internet key, they need to copy your passport.  The women know some English, and were reading the “We the people…” section of the passport, and said “we want to go to New York!  How about you run the TIM store and we come to New York?”  Today I stopped in to put some more credit on my phone, and when we walk by we make sure that we wave.  It’s fun to get to know and talk with the locals.

Silages

Wednesday we went to a seminar in the morning on Silages and Inoculants presented by Dr. Limin Kung Jr, PhD from the University of Delaware.  It was presented to the Faculty in English, and Federico had to translate to Italian.  He did a great job.  After, we went to dinner with some faculty members and with Dr. Kung.  Dr. Kung knows Van Amburgh and Overton, speaks at a lot of meetings in the northeast, and does research with the Miner Institute.

Dinner with Bentley

Thursday night we were invited to go to dinner with our Cultural Aspects of Food professor—Stefano.  He teaches for the ALMA Culinary institute, and his class of 20 American students was going to an authentic Sardinian dinner, and he invited us along.  As always, it was delicious.  We had many antipasti, and the main dish was a suckling pig.  The antipasti included cold cuts, salami, dried eggplant, tomatoes, breads, and a minced fish in a sauce with celery sticks.  The pig was juicy and delicious.  We also had a red wine to accompany the meal.  Most of the antipasti had cheese on them.  Usually it was some type of sheep cheese, as sheep farming and cheese making is very popular in Sardinia.  The restaurant owner himself is Sardinian, and he came out several times to check on us.  It was a very filling and a meal that was worth the money.

Bad Luck

For me, this week has been full of both good and bad things.  On a good note, this week Federico gave us the bikes that he has been telling us all about.  It is so nice to bike to and from the Vet campus.  When you include walking to the bus station and the tardiness of the bus system, going to the faculty by bus can be a 30 to 50 minute commute.  On bikes?  I have made it in 9.  Everything is so flat around here too, so it is easier than biking around Ithaca.  The only hills we have are to go under the rail on each side of the river.  These hills also cause some problems.

Being a road bike, “ol’ red”, my bike, has a few gears to choose from, but the only way to change the gear is to take the chain off.  Let’s just say that my bike thought it was time to shift.  Read that as I was coasting fast back up hill after going fast downhill under the train tracks, and the chain came off.  I coasted to the top of the hill and tried to get it back on.  I noticed that the chain was on the second smallest gear that day, and it seemed like it was pedaling harder than it was the previous days, leading me to think that the chain slipped to the smaller gear at some point (as the sprockets are not light up straight with each other).  So I wanted to put it on the next gear, where I thought that it was before.  I put the chain on the rear sprocket and popped it on the front one, but I popped it on too tight.  The bearing is bad that the rear sprocket is on, and it pulled it forward with all of the pressure of the tight chain, and now it doesn’t pedal at all.  Looks like I need to loosen the rear wheel and slide it forward to get the chain back off and maybe put a new bearing on it.  Guess I will be borrowing some tools from Federico soon.

To top things off, I also do not have a camera.  My trustee GE J1455 camera bit the dust this week—or rather, got bit by pavement.  I don’t really understand how it happened entirely, but as I was pulling it out of my pocket to take a picture, it fell to the ground, on the lens, with the lens extended.  No more pictures from that camera.  The lens rattles, there is no picture, and the screen says better luck next time.

Cibus Tour

Friday we went to the Fiera, which is an exhibition center.  It has many open halls and buildings for exhibitors.  This weekend the Cibus tour is there, and it features local producers and displays with the Slow Food Foundation.  The Slow Food Foundation purchases foods from small, traditional producers and markets them, in order for the producer to remain in business.  We tasted so many samples of balsamic vinegars, oils, salamis, cured meats, and cheeses.  We also picked up a lot of literature on local producers.  Further, we also saw the producer that we visited last week with Bentley, who made the Culatello for the upcoming Royal Wedding.

Now is the start to spring break.  We will be busy traveling somewhat separate ways as we meet up with other friends studying all around Europe.  This means it may be a while before I write again.

Ciao!

Parole: Vaporetto-(“Bus” type boats in Venice), centro commerciale-(mall)

I have been meaning to write for a few days now, but I have not had the time!  I got back from Venice on Sunday evening (public transit held out for us), and between the weekend, many field trips, and the sunshine, I have not had a chance to write.

Venice

Venice was gorgeous.  In the words of Lucas Fuess “It is a city that truly took my breath away when I stepped out of the train station”.  It is amazing how the train station is right there on the Grand Canal.  The city is very walkable, and is easy to get lost in.  When we got there, we just wandered around, not really having a specific place to go.  There were literally 1000s of tourists, many of whom were American.  On some vaporetto rides, we would get into a conversation with other Americans.  There was a guy in the same room as me on the Hostel who was from Erie, PA.  The city was warm and beautiful, and definitely worth visiting.  Also on a vaporetto, we saw huge cruise ships close to the islands.  The cruise ships were towing tug boats.  I haven’t quite figured that part out yet.

While we were there, we figured that we would get cultured.  We did this by wondering around streets in non-touristy areas.  I don’t find touristy areas that attractive anyway, because they were that—tourist oriented and full of overpriced, low quality food and goods.  One of the places we wandered to was the Ghetto.  Apparently, it is where the first Jewish ghetto was.  We could not see anything other than a brick wall with barbed wire over the top of it, and some plaques expressing sorrow for those lost to the Holocaust.  Nonetheless, it was powerful.  We also visited San Giorgio Island, where there is a church, and we took an elevator to the top to see views of the city.  Next stop was the hostel to check in, drop off out backpacks, and head back to the main part of the city.  While we were there, we saw a beautiful sunset on the water.  For dinner, we cultured Victoria by eating at the Hard Rock Café of Venice.  The atmosphere was lively and the food was delicious.  We ordered an appetizer that included potato skins, onion rings, buffalo chicken wings, chicken fingers, and more.  For the main course, I got a combo of part of a pulled pork sandwich and part of a rack of BBQ ribs.  We were so full.  I think Victoria enjoyed the American culture of the restaurant.

After dinner, we wandered through San Marco Piazza again.  It was so peaceful.  The air was warm, and there were less than 100 people in the piazza.  Everything was so quiet, except for a small band playing at a high-class restaurant on the piazza. The next morning, I made sure to get up to catch a glimpse of the sunrise on the water.   Later, we wondered around some more, took some another 100 photos, visited a modern art gallery, ate at a more traditional restaurant, and said goodbye to Venice.

For those of you wondering, Liz and Lindsey went to Cinque Terre for the weekend.  Cinque Terre literally means 5 lands, and refers to 5 towns along the west coast of Northern Italy.  They said that it was also touristy with many English speakers, but it was a beautiful, must see place.  They didn’t go to Venice with Aubrey, Victoria, and I, because they will be going over spring break with some family members.

Cultural Aspects of Food Field Trip

Monday was an all day trip with Stefano, our Cultural Aspects of Food instructor.  We headed north to Busseto to see for ourselves exactly what is involved with pork processing.  Our first stop was a commercial food processing facility, which makes mortedella (similar to what we know in the US as Bologna), more types of salami than I can even think of, and Culatello.  The salamis we saw ranged from big to small.  After they were hung on racks, the salami began the completely automated maturation process.  Robots work around the clock picking up the 4 meter tall racks, and moving them from room to room as needed, based on temperature, humidity, and mold growth.  They would even sense when their battery was dying and would take themselves to their charging station.

The commercial facility also made Culatello di Zibello, DOP.  Culatello is an aged ham, from the back part of the thigh.  It usually weights 3-5 kg, and is aged for at least 10 months.  It does not have a bone in it, so it can be matured in the more humid air in regions near the Po River without worrying about rot.  At the factory, there was a lot of mechanization, however, some of the steps, such as sewing the pig bladder around the Culatello, are still done by hand.  The maturation room for culatello was made to look like an old fashioned culatello cellar.  It was dark, and included a special room for guests, just like the traditional rooms.  Even the light switches were the style of another era.  The secret to proper maturation lies in the molds and bacteria in the room.  This is often found in the floor tiles.  Stefano told us that one Culatello factory had to relocate in order to comply with DOP regulations, and they took all of their tiles from their maturation cellar with them, in order to have the same bacteria and mold growth, and to guarantee their flavor.

For lunch, we ate at an eatery called Al Cavallino Bianco, where we enjoyed several cold cuts of types of hams and salamis, tortelli, and a pasta with pieces of Culatello in it.  For desert we had semifreddo.

After lunch, we visited a black pig farm and traditional Culatello production facility.  The black pig is an indigenous breed to the region, and is the traditional pig for prosciutto production.  The owner also makes all of his own culatello, among other cuts of meat.  In his drying room, which is open to the air as it traditionally is, he had almost 2 million euros in inventory.  He had even more in his maturation room.  The maturation room was located in the cellar of what is now a resort.  The resort looks like a small castle, and it has some rooms for people to stay, some gardens, a really classy restaurant, and a culatello maturation cellar.  Formally, the building was a checkpoint for shipments on the Po River.  As it is on the Po River, it is subject to flooding.  When the river floods badly, the owner has to take all of the culatello (by hand) from the cellar to upstairs by 3 floors to safety.  He said that it took him about 36 hours when the river flooded badly a few years ago.  A neat fact is that Prince Charles of Whales had pigs sent to this Culatello producer to be turned into Culatello, and some of it will be used in the upcoming Royal Wedding.

After our cured meat visits, we visited a Corte.  A Corte is what used to be a large farm entirely enclosed in a way that made it its own self-sustaining community.  We had a look around.  This one included an area which had antique agricultural equipment, including plows, carriages, butter churns, and cheese caldrons.

Hogs, Biogas, and Afternoon Relaxation

On Tuesday, we went on a trip with our Agricultural Systems class.  Giovanni and Giuseppe took us to a farm which was formally a dairy farm.  With poor dairy prices, the farm sold all of its cows about 7 years ago.  Now they raise pigs.  However, that was not the most exciting part of the farm.  For me, the highlight was their large biogas system.  The farm uses hog manure, among many other ingredients, to produce (methane) biogas to burn in an engine to produce power.  The power unit is made by General Electric of Austria, and they generate over 8,000 KW of energy a year.  They use a little over 5% of this to power the biogas facility itself, and their house and farm uses less than 1%.  The energy is bought by the government, as power companies are not allowed to purchase power from private sources.  The facility costs almost 4.5 million euros, and has an expected payback time of 10 years.  It has been in operation since July, and took 6-7 months to build.  Maintenance of the entire system, from overhauls of the 20 cylinder, 60.0 Liter engine, to simple checks, is included in this price by law.  This is because the government wants to guarantee that the power plant will always be running, so they do not want long term financial problems to interfere with mechanical issues.

So, how is the electricity produced?  The secret is the biology between microbes and the ingredients in the two methane digesters that they have. Each day, 46-48 tons of “feed” are fed to the digester.  The two main digesters each run at a different temperature, and contain a different microbial profile.  The temperature is maintained from the heat of the engine that generates electricity.  (Engine heat is also used to dry bales of hay).  The ingredients are put into what looks like and operates as a very large, stationary, self-unloading wagon.  As needed, and as controlled by computer, the conveyors turn on and off, and distribute the “feed” between the two digesters.  The digesters are fed a special diet, as determined by a biologist that works for the company that builds the facility.  This diet includes hog manure, runoff from the barnyard and around the bunks, corn silage, haylage, beets, onions, leftovers from olive oil processing facilities, bakery wastes, sunflower, sorghum, and potatoes.  They can have such a diversity of ingredients because they have a large land base from when they were a dairy farm.  Now they use the same land to grow crops for the digester.  The methane produced by is captured, dehumidified, cooled, and burned in the engine to produce electricity.

The silages that they feed the digester are stored in bunk silos, covered in plastic.  So, I asked about agricultural plastic recycling.  In Italy, it is just like recycling plastic bottles.  It is the normal thing to do.  Further, the plastic does not need to be perfectly clean in order to recycle.  If it is soiled, however, you will have to pay a fee to take it away.  (I am not sure if there is normally a charge to have the plastic taken away to be recycled).

On our way back to Parma we made a couple of detours.  Our first was to a town called Sabbioneta, a small village enclosed by a wall built in the 1500s.  In the town, there is an antique shop which is a part of the owner’s house—as in his family still lives in the building.  It was closed, however, Giuseppe said that you can wonder around the entire house, viewing antiques.  Next, We stopped to see Giovanni’s farm.  He has a small dairy farm and his milk goes to Parmigiano-Reggiano cheese production.  We also took a tour of a building that used to be part barn and part house.  It is being renovated little by little to be turned into a home.   Just like a lot of buildings here, it is mostly being reconstructed with brick.  In the house we saw some antique tools for houses, including a framework to put under the bed covers to put hot coals in to keep the bed warm on cold days, and a machine to beat bread dough.  At his farm, I noticed a small tractor with steel wheels and a set of drags behind it.  He said they use steel wheels when they use the drags, because it is the last step in seedbed prep, and the steel wheels help to minimize compaction.

Following the grand tour, we stopped at his parent’s farm.  Here, we spent an hour or more relaxing in the shade of their porch, enjoying homemade wine, homemade salami, Parmigiano-Reggiano cheese, crackers, and bread.  This semester is such a change from Cornell in the since that in Europe, relaxation and being “easy going” are essential parts of your daily activities.  (Grazie mille alla famiglia di Giovanni Ferri).

Shopping

This week I came to the unfortunate realization that my sneakers were not going to get me through the rest of the semester, and that I needed to buy new ones before spring break.  It is so hard to find a pair of shoes that are American sized and that are a regular, athletic/all-terrain type sneaker like what I usually wear.  After a couple days of searching, I finally found a pair that will work in Euro Torre, a shopping mall near our house.  Also in the mall is a store called the Brico Center.  Every time we walk by it, I make a joke, calling it Home Depot.  Couldn’t be closer to the truth.  It is literally a home depot type store.  It includes home décor, posters, tools, lumber, paint, concrete, outdoor equipment, and lawn mowers.  If I ever need to fix something in the apartment, I know where I need to go to get the job done.

What’s next?

I apologize for the long post.  Like I said, a lot of interesting things have happened over the past week.  For those of you that read it all the way, congrats!

Friday we are headed to a milk testing lab in Brescia with our Food Safety class.  That makes 3 field trips this week.  I love all the field trips and exposure to Italian agriculture that we are getting.  As far as the weekend, no plans are set yet.

Arrivederci!

You don’t.

Parole: sciopero (strike), pendolare (literally means to pendulate; refers to commuting to and from a place), subito (immediately)

Strike One:

Yesterday was Thursday.  This means that we had to travel from the Vet Faculty to Campus to go to our Italian class.  This process takes 2 buses and about 40 minutes.  We went to the bus stop at the faculty  to catch the 11:47AM bus.  We waited.  And waited.  And waited.  We waited so long that we decided to wait for the 12:17PM bus while we were at it!  By 12:30, we were tired of waiting, so we ended up walking 10 minutes to the next bus stop, where we caught a bus after 10 more minutes.

As it turns out, the bus drivers in Parma went on strike on Thursday.  We talked with our Italian profesor for a few minutes after class, and she asked if we pendolari a piedi (commute to campus on foot) or a bici(on bikes). I told her we commute a autobus. She said that we needed to go subito, because in apparently, there was a strike, and in 10 minutes the buses would stop running their routes again!

Strike Two:

Today we were supposed to go to Venice.  Guess who was on strike today?  The entire Italian train system (with the exception of a few trains that have to run by law).  To get to Venice from Parma, we have to change trains in Bologna.  We went to the station, and found out that the train to Bologna is running, however, there was no way to know if the train from Bolongna to Venice would be in service.  So, we sat in the park, relaxed, and enjoyed the sunshine, instead of risking spending the night in the Bolongna train station.

Strike Three, your out!

Hopefully, we do not reach this point, however, there may be more public transit strikes while we are here.  They are a fairly regular occurance, happening 2-3 times a year.  Tomorrow morning we are going to head to Venice, stay overnight, and come home on Sunday morning.

A package for me!

Finally, I just wanted to say THANK YOU to my family for sending me a package of Easter goodies, girl scout cookies, Jiff Peanut Butter, and the latest edition of the New York Farm Bureau newspaper, Grassroots. Now I am all caught up on NY agriculture.

Ciao!

Parole: antipasti (appetizer), sole (sun, something present in Italy and not New York)

I find nothing more encouraging than a burst of spring weather after some rain.  Yesterday was one of those dreary and rainy days.  Add that to the time change that we had this weekend (which I did not realize was occurring until 11am the day of the time change), and it sure makes it hard to get out of bed in the morning.  Usually I am up and awake with the sun shining into my room; however, the darker mornings have made for some tired awakenings.

The spring weather is great.  This afternoon is breezy and sunny.  The weather on my computer’s desktop says that it is 64 degrees F here, and 28 degrees F in Ithaca.  I think I made the right decision here.  This morning I could smell fresh cut grass and blossoming trees as I walked to the bus station.  Currently, I am sitting in Parco Vetrai, which can be seen from my window in the apartment.  It is less than a 5 minute walk away.  I am sitting here writing, listening to an old man hit rocks with his push lawn mower, watching dogs run around, and trying to catch some Italian words that dog owners are yelling.  (Even the dogs know Italian!  I better get cracking on this whole language barrier thing.)  There is internet here in the park too.  It is provided by the same service as what we get in the apartment, however, it is a different access point, which seems to be more reliable thus far.  Life is good.

Yesterday we visited a farm in the mountains with Federico and Prof. Quarantelli—Federico’s boss.  We went on more extremely curvy and narrow two way roads.  The purpose of this visit was to investigate into some problems that the farm is having with nutrition, which is causing problems with laminitis and mastitis.  The feedstuff, which is fed to cows individually as pellets at grain feeding stations, seems to have some vitamin deficiencies.  Last summer, Federico’s lab tested the amount of vitamins in the pellets, and the amount was far less than what the feed bill says it should have been.  Now they are with a different feed company and are trying to figure out some more nutritional issues.

A lot of the farm visits that we make are ones similar to what Cornell’s Cooperative Extension service does.  The professors do a lot of consulting for farmers as problems arise.  There is no extension service in Italy.  Federico says he would like to start one for Parma, but there is no money for it.

Following the farm visit, we ate a very big lunch.  Our antipasti was a pizza-type bread, however instead of sauce and cheese, it had ham, sausage, and some vegetables.  For our primi piatto, we had polenta.  Polenta is traditionally a food for poor people.  It is basically cornmeal mixed with boiling water.  We tried three different toppings on our polenta: mushrooms, 4 cheese, and ragu.  I liked ragu the best.  Ragu (not to be confused with the tomato sauce company in the States) refers to a tomato sauce with meat in it, and the ragu polenta also had strips of bacon on top.  For our secundo piatto, we had pork cooked in a balsamic vinegar sauce.  It was just right in terms of the strength of the vinegar.  Finally, for dolce, we had salame di cioccolato, which is basically chocolate cookie dough with some pieces of nuts or chocolate in it, sliced to looked like salami.  It was a very filling meal.

On the way home from the farm, I rode in the front of the van with Quarantelli.  His English is limited, as is my Italian (however everyone, including us, Italian students we meet, and the staff that we work with, have become more proficient in each other’s languages).  So, from an observer, it would look like Quarentelli and I were playing charades.  We would talk about companies that we drive by, high speed trains that would speed past us on the accompanying rail, and about the different types of crops and fruit trees along the road, using hand signals to try to describe what we were talking about.  It’s fun to decipher and figure out what words and phrases really mean.

Well, that is all for now.  I am going to type up some notes here in the park and enjoy the sun while it lasts.  I am sure it will be raining again soon.

Adopo!

Parole: gratis (free), grazie mille, (thanks a million!)

Welcome to Italy:  The land of unique cheeses, specialty pastries, delicious wines, and awesome people.  This week has been full of examples showing how giving Italians seem to be.

This week, we stopped by at the bakery located two buildings down the street from us.  Monday we bought a couple loaves of bread.  They were a typical Italian bread, being soft in the middle, hard on the outside.  The woman working at the bakery threw in a couple pieces of focaccia and torta frita for us for free.  A couple of days later, the same person was working, and we bought two more of those loaves of bread, as well as two regular loaves of wheat bread. (We cut the bread in half horizontally and added tomato sauce, cheese, and prosciutto, making a pizza (it was delicious).  Again, she through in some free goodies.  Sure, we stopped by in the late afternoon, so it is probably near closing and she just wants to get the bread off of the shelves, but it is that giving mentality.  We bought some more bread today to go with the 1.5 liters of homemade olive oil that Federico gave us.  (In addition to opening his home to us, driving us places, introducing us to people, and spending a lot of time with us.  He also said that his wife wants to plan a trip with us.)  We also made friends with the woman works at the pastry shop by the station, where we bought some goodies to take to Federico’s last Sunday.  We make sure we wave to her when we walk by every day.  It is nice to have some local companions in the area.

The giving character of our ag systems class has made sure that we are not going hungry.  Tuesday, the instructors provided us with something called Columba, a special sweet bread in the shape of the dove, only available this time of year, before Easter.  They also provided us with a wine.  Thursday, they brought in homemade salami, a homemade Malvasia Dolce wine, (a dessert wine, very sweet, almost like grape juice), Parmigiano-Reggiano cheese, torta frita, and focaccia.  I suppose you could say that we are beginning to “figure out the system” in that class.  Every day we talk about differences in our societies and they ask us about foods that we have tried here in Italy.  Often they will mention to us a food that we have not even heard of, and will be very surprised when they find out that we have not tried it yet.  As a result, they bring them in for us.  (And we are not just saying that we have not tried the food so they will bring it in, we legitimately have not tried some of the foods they have mentioned).  Further, as the salami and the wine came from Prof. Ferri’s farm, I asked him where his farm is.  He said that it was a few kilometers away, and that we could stop in on our way to our field trip on Wednesday.  Further, Professor Bonazzi said that if we wanted to, sometime we could visit his brother-in-law’s place, as he  makes real balsamic vinegar.  Again, it is so awesome how the Italians have really opened up to us, making us feel welcome, and making sure that we have the best experiences here that we can have by helping us to see and taste some of the best things in Italy.  We are very thankful for how much the people around us have done for us.

An additional event we attended this week was a seminar on Milk Quality.  Yes, it was all in Italian, and yes we understood some of it.  I couldn’t quite concentrate on the speaker enough to know exactly what he was talking about; however, they had PowerPoint slides which helped.  With the slides, I could read along and figure out the general idea of what they were talking about.  Yesterday when we met with Federico, we went over some of the highlights of the conference, discussing how much casein, fat, and somatic cells affect Parmigiano-Reggiano cheese yield and quality.  The seminar also talked about different types of casein and how they affected cheese yield and quality.  It was fun to figure out what they were trying to present, so we asked Federico for a schedule of classes we could sit in on in Italian at the vet faculty.

Today we are headed to Mantova to do some exploring.  Also, our internet is not working at all at the flat anymore.  We are so dependent on it, as it is our only connection to the outside world, and we look up so many things all the time.

A Dopo!

Parole: cavallo (horse), delizioso (delicious)

Sam and Lucas arrived this weekend!  Sam spent the weekend getting caught up with some of his Italian friends in the area, and Lucas spent the weekend with us.  Because Lucas is an English speaker, I found myself structuring my sentences in a simple form, and talking slower and more clearly, as we do when we are speaking English to a native Italian speaker.  I caught myself doing it, and after that I made an effort to speak in my normal fast, mumbley, hard to understand American accent to him.

This past Saturday was the first Saturday that we spent in Parma.  So, we did more exploring around the city and showed Lucas around.  We visited the city’s market.  The girls bought “Italia” socks.  This market is much, much smaller than ones in other cities that we have visited.  We also went to Parco Ducale.  The park was full of couples (who made sure you knew they were couples), dogs, runners, walkers, bikers, and one roller-blader. There were so many people everywhere in the city!  Now and then Lucas would say things like “This is so Italy”, referring to the hundreds of people strolling around the city, socializing, shopping, relaxing, and enjoying themselves.  They were not in a hurry, and had no better place to be.  Such a difference when compared to the American culture.

We exited the park on Via John Fitzgerald Kennedy, and walked through a food market, which featured local cheeses, salamis, and prosciutto.  It looked delicious.  Then, we headed went back toward the city center.

On our way, we found what I think is the best gelateria we have visited so far.  Attica Due Torri, literarily meaning old two towers,  gives you up to three flavors in generous portions on a cone for a whopping 1,70€.  What a deal!  I ordered a flavor called cookies, and another one called Due Torri.  It was odd ordering the flavor called “cookies” since it was an English word and we ordered in Italian.  The gelato was so delicious.  We took pictures of the place and will make sure that we visit it again when we are on that side of town.

Next we found a store called “Scout”, which is a clothing store that we saw in Bologna.  The girls wanted to go to, however we couldn’t find it when we tried to look for it again  (or I “forgot” where it was).  The Scout in Parma was neat, being retrofitted into an old stone building.  It included three levels in the small space that it took up, and it still had an original statue inside the building.  Scout is a little on the pricey side, especially if you are looking for Carhartt brand clothes. (getting closer to a Tractor Supply Company store!)  Apparently Carhartt is the brand to have in Italy.  Here, if you are wearing something that says Carhartt, it means that you are rich.  This makes sense as a Carhartt T-shirt was priced at 40€.  That is probably almost as much as my Carhartt bib-overalls!

We crossed the river, and went back to the city center, looking for a place to eat.  We found a place that looked promising:  Fair prices and a great menu posted for the evening.  However, like most places, this osteria wouldn’t be open for another hour (8pm).  So wondered around, and in the Italian way, we stopped at a bar for a glass of wine.  It was less than 2€ for a glass of wine, and they provided us with chips and bread.

We returned to the osteria that we spotted earlier.  It was called I Tre Porcellini, which literally means “the three little pigs”.  It was delicious.  I had gnocchi with gorgonzola sauce.  For desert we ordered something called semifreddo¸ which translates to semi cold.  It was so delicious, that we ordered a second one. We did some research and found out that it is a mixture of gelato and whipped cream, plus some other things.

The good food didn’t stop there.  The next day Federico invited us to his farm.  For lunch, we enjoyed Parmigiano-Reggiano cheese with both authentic and commercially made balsamic vinegar, and with honey.  Real balsamic vinegar has the consistency of molasses, and is sweeter than normal balsamic vinegar.  Each year, people will add grape leaves to the top of a barrel to ferment, and drain the vinegar out the bottom.  It takes years to get enough of it to use.  For our primi piaitti, we had homemade lasagna (it was made by one of his neighbors who discovered that she makes really good lasagna, so she decided to start selling it).  Our second dish was chicken in a mustard/cheese/oil type sauce.  It was really good.  Even though we were all completely full by this point, we also had apple pie, which was actually like a lemon cake with apples baked into it.  This was a very filling and very delicious meal.

Since we were all stuffed full, we needed some exercise.  Federico gave us a grand tour of his farm.  It formally was a dairy farm, and now it is a hobby farm, with a pony, horses, donkeys, geese, a dog, and some cats.  He has a stud and he breeds horses to sell.

Next, Federico and his wife, Elena, took two horses across the road, where his father lives and where more horses are boarded.  We dressed the horses and saddled them up.  We rode them around in a field behind the barn.  The sky was clear, and we could see the mountains on the horizon as we rode horses into the sunset (well, I guess it was during sunset, but you get the idea).

After it began to get dark out, we headed inside for some tea and some pastries.  Federico’s son, Samuele, (3 years old) was loving the attention that he had been getting from us all day.  He used his counting skills to put spoonfulls of sugar in our tea.  Then, when no one was not looking, he snuck an entire spoonful of sugar into his mouth.  Based on his actions and his ability to entertain us throughout the day, it was very clear to us that Samuele was just like his father.

It was such a great day in the countryside.  It was so nice to get away from a city environment and into open, green spaces to work with some animals and see another farm, and to be in a home.  I want to send a HUGE thank you to the entire Righi family-especially Elena, who worked so hard making food for us and helping us with the horses.  Again, the Italian hospitality is fantastic, as we felt so welcome by Federico’s entire family!  The weekend worked out great for Lucas so he could experience our great little city and the Italian countryside in a family environment.

I have one more thing about food to add.  Today, our food and culture instructor wanted us to experience our lessons first hand, so we went to another osteria.  Federico and Sam Fessenden joined us, as we enjoyed another big meal.  It included cheese from mild to strong in flavor, tortelli (not tortellini, its similar to ravioli) stuffed with potato, ricotta & herbs, and squash (ours was like a pumpkin filling, very sweet), and pesto di cavallo, which is seasoned, minced, raw horse meat.  For dessert we had tiramisu and cheesecake covered with chocolate.

As you can tell from the food we have been eating, I will be eating sandwiches (without Nutella) and salads for the rest of the week.  Lucas headed to Venice this morning to do some exploring there before he leaves Italy.  As for us, we will be in classes and visiting farms.

Cheers!

Parole: burro (butter), zangola (churn), macchina (car)

Yesterday we went on a field trip.  We piled into the faculty’s Mercedes van and headed towards higher ground.  Our destination?  La Villa:  A farm and cheese house operation owned by two entrepreneurial-minded brothers.  The farm is located in Urzano.

La Villa is an “azienda agricola biologica”, which translates to an organic farm business.  They milk 150 cows twice daily in a double 12 parlor.  They have Holsteins, Brown Swiss, and Rossa Reggiano breeds of cows.  The Rossa Reggiano is the original breed for making Parmigiano-Reggiano cheese.  There are only a few herds of them left.  They do not produce much milk, but their milk high quality, making it ideal for cheese production.  However, they tend to get nervous easily.  A farm we visited last year that had this breed told us that the cow likes to have the same person milk them each time, otherwise they get nervous.  It is just a characteristic of the breed.

In the caseificio at La Villa, they make organic Parmigiano-Reggiano cheese.  As they were putting the blocks of curds into cheese cloth, they gave us a handful.  It was sweet and sticky.  After the curds were taken out of the caldrons, they took us to the room where the cream separator tanks are.  The evening’s milk is put into these large, shallow tanks, for the cream to rise overnight.  The now-skimmed milk is then drained from the bottom into the caldrons with the morning milk.  The owner explained this process in Italian, and we were able to understand without translation.  Partially due to hand movements, partially due to familiar words, and partially due to seeing this process before.  Our instructor who was translating for us was impressed when we understood.  They then take the cream and turn it into butter, in their room called a burroficio.  The whey is sold to feed for pigs which are going to prosciutto production.  In this set-up, they are able to make use of all of their raw materials.

The next innovation we saw was their artificial hay dryer.  It has been in the process of building since 2000, and should be completed to be used this summer.  They dryer consisted of two huge concrete buildings.  Everything here is made of concrete, because they do not have the wood resource that we in the United States.  It has to take so much more engineering to build everything from small barns to large factories entirely out of concrete.  The buildings had a floor in them that was made up of old railroad ties (which are also concrete) spaced around 2 inches apart.  Because it was under construction, we were able to walk through the bowels of the facility to see how it works.  There are two squirrel-cage fans that are about 5 foot in diameter each, and two large heaters.  Natural gas will fire the heaters, and 3-phase power will run the fans.  The fans will blow hot air through the slotted floor to dry the hay, and then the air will escape through an opening under the rafters.

High above us there was a hoist which had an arm and a cab.  The operator will climb up a staircase and get into the cab to operate this hoist to move the hay around the building.  However, the staircase is not built yet.  So I asked “How do you get into the cab?” and they said “We haven’t figured that out yet.”  Italians can be funny too.

At the conclusion of our grand tour, we went to their cheese store, where they provided us with wine and cheese.  It was delicious.

On the way home, we took a different road winding down through the mountains.  These roads are narrow with sharp bends and steep banks on either side.  The car ride itself was an adventure.  On the way home, the instructors showed us a castle in the area, which was built in the 1400s by someone for his lover.  It looked really familiar, so I asked if there was a restaurant in it.  They said there was.  As it turns out, it was the same castle that we ate at when we came last year!  They said they were hoping to impress us with the castle, and were disappointed when they heard that we have already been there.

I learned a lot on the trip, and I am looking forward to many more experiences like this throughout the semester.

Finally, today is a national holiday in Italy.  That’s right; we have St. Patrick ’s Day off.  However, it is not for St. Patrick ’s Day, it is for the celebration of 150 years of Italian unity.  Not everybody agrees with this holiday, so only time will tell how it works out. Also, this weekend Lucas Fuess and Sam Fessenden, some friends from Cornell, will be visiting us on their spring break tour of Europe.

Addio!

(I forgot my camera, photo’s courtesy of Lindsey)

Parole: gravità (gravity), cotello (knife)

With four hungry people living in one apartment, the dishes pile up quickly.  Daily there are at least 12 spoons with Nutella or peanut butter-like remnants in the sink.  We all willingly take turns at washing dishes and making meals.  There is no set system, it just works out.

Yesterday I did the pre-dinner dishes, and tonight I entertained the post-dinner crowed of Ikea specialties.  Yesterday we were home a majority of the day, because Wednesdays are free in our schedule, thus explaining the pre-dinner party in the sink.  Throughout the semester, we will be using Wednesdays for field trips and farm tours, which is very exciting considering the number of regular field trips we take at Cornell.  Allora, I while I was doing dishes tonight, I realized that a lot of the lessons that I learned in my regents level physics class (if Mr. Basset is reading this, I LOVE PHYSICS!, also known as “Amo la fisica!”  I will be sure to yell it in the streets of Parma) can be applied to this daily chore.  Here are some examples:

1.  No two objects can occupy the same space: This law even exists between water and sponges, when enough force is applied.  When washing a cup, I generally follow the standard rinse, dump, sponge, rinse again procedure.  I would say that “dump” would be the most important step.  If the there is some water still in the cup when one goes to sponge the inside of the glass, you will know that you are learning a physics lesson.  This is because when the sponge is put in the glass, water will proceed to shoot out of the opening of the cup, splashing you.

2.  Gravity-It’s the law: The faucet in our kitchen sink is located high above the bottom of the sink.  This means you can get more dishes in it before you need to wash them.  However, it also means that acceleration due to gravity will cause the water to accelerate towards the center of the earth and will come into contact with the bottom of the sink so fast, that it will splash.  This coupled with a relatively shallow sink, will also result in a wet dishwasher. However, gravity is also a plus in this situation.  The dish drying rack is located directly above the sink, inside a cabinet.  It is a brilliant idea.  The dishes are out of sight in a cabinet while they are drying.  The water will drip directly into the sink as they dry.  This, coupled with the correct ambient temperature and relative humidity will result in dry dishes in a relatively quick manner.

I am sure that more laws of physics will become more evident as the semester continues.  Over spring break I am hoping to explore the phenomenon we call “lift” as we conquer Europe.

This week was our first week of classes.  I wasn’t sure if I could handle sitting through a two hour plus lecture, as there are times when I can barely sit through a 50 minute class at Cornell.  However, I am impressed.  The professors have been very engaging, and have share a lot of interesting information with us.  Our first class, “Italian Food:  History, Culture, and Taste” made me hungry while we listened about the rise and fall of the Roman Empire, their encounters with so-called “barbarians”, and how food and agriculture influenced everything that they did.  In our EU and Italian agriculture/economics systems classes, we have learned a lot about how policy in the EU has both stimulated and repressed food production over the past 60 years in order to support producers.  I have found it easy to stay attentive in all of the classes because of their interesting material and engaging instructors.  Everything is just so different over here, especially when it comes to policy, so I think that is why it is so interesting.  I am excited to see what the next week of classes will bring.

Tomorrow is Friday, and due to a slight adjustment in scheduling, we don’t have classes.  We will be meeting with Federico to take care of some more Italian bureaucratic issues in order to legally reside in the country for more than 90 days, and translate some tourist information about Verona for a possible weekend getaway.

Ciao!

PS-The weather as been fantastic this week!  Sunny and 50s (F)

Happy 71st Birthday Chuck Norris!

Nuevo parole di Italiano: fattoria (farm), caseificio (cheese house),

The official first week of classes for Universita’ degli studi di Parma has begun.  So what did we do this week?  We had some experiences on the Parma buses, learned some Italian, visited a farm, enrolled in the University, and paid some rent.

We have now figured out the bus system here in the city.  As you know, our last trip on the buses lasted a little bit longer than we expected it to.  We now have a bus pass for a month, and then in April we can buy a three month bus pass if we want to.  They only sell the “three month” passes every three months.

After our bus adventure, Federico decided the next day that he would pick us up at our apartment.  We went to the vet faculty and did some more translating of the blog and learned some more grammar from Federico.

Wednesday, Federico picked us up in the vet faculty’s van.  This van is like a box.  The sides and the back are literally straight up and down.  From our apartment we went to a dairy farm owned by the Scalabrini family, about 25 kilometers outside of the city.  It is a “antica fattoria e caseifico”, meaning it is an old farm and a cheese house.  The site includes its 300 cow dairy operation, its cheese production facility, and a store.  This combination is something found often in Italy.  As they are producing genuine parmigiano-reggiano cheese, they cannot feed fermented forages or TMR as per their co-op’s requirements.  They feed hay and grain.  They are not looking for quantity, but quality.  Further, the evenings milk sets in shallow vats in the cheese plant overnight in order to separate the solids, and when the mornings milk arrives, the partially-skimmed milk is added, and the cheese making process begins.  This means that timing is crucial.  As such, the farm uses a double 14 parlor in order to milk their 300 cows fast to feed the cheese plant.  This is a common practice in Italy.   Unlike in the States where parlors often run around the clock, they only milk for 4 hours a day to get the milk to their cheese plant on time.   At the end of the tour, Federico bought us 2 kilograms of Parmigiano-Reggiano cheese, and the farm owner gave us what is an equivalent to about 2 containers of fresh Ricotta cheese.  (Grazie mille per Federico e la famigla Scalabrini!)  We mixed the ricotta with some tomato sauce and threw it in with some big noodles for dinner.  It was very delicious.

Today Federico picked us up again and took is to the central offices of the University in a small car, called a Fiat Panda.

The offices are located in the center of the city in a building that we have heard is upwards of 400 years old.  According to [http://old.unipr.it/ects.php?info=Guidaateneo&tipo=a0506&ID=4&lang=en], the earliest diploma found from the University was from 962 AD.  In the central offices, we went to the Erasmus department, which is the European name for an exchange program.  Here, we paid our rent (350€, which is roughly $482), got enrolled in the University, and learned about the bus system as I mentioned earlier.  However, to be fully enrolled, we need to bring passport-type photos to the Erasmus office, so we can get our ID cards and our exam booklet.  Luckily, we can just go to a photo booth (like the fun ones in malls) at the train station to get instant passport photos ourselves, relatively cheaply.  Once that is finished, we will be completely enrolled.

After enrollment, we took the bus “campus”.  What they call campus is where the main academic buildings and departments are, including the basics:  The ag school, engineering, math, sciences, and linguistics, among others.  We headed to the linguistics department for our first day of an elementary Italian course.  It was a bit overwhelming, but the translating that we did, our background in Spanish, and the lessons with Federico gave us enough background to understand what was going on—for the most part.  In the class there were students from Poland, Portugal, the UK, and Iran.  They knew much more Italian than we did.

Following class, we went back to the central offices for a meeting for Erasmus students about a teaching placement opportunity.  The University partners with local primary and middle schools and lets exchange students help teachers teach their native language.  This means that we would be able to go to an elementary or middle school and help teach English-an AWESOME opportunity.  We also can get credit for this if we put in enough hours.  Our ability to do this will depend on our class schedule, which we will find out about next week.

One more day of classes, and then we are off to Milan for a day trip on Saturday (at least that is the plan so far).

Arrivederci!