Pass the Cheese Please!

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.

IZSLER in Brescia

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.

Part of the 30 Cow Rotary Herringbone

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.

Liz and a horse

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.

A few wheels of Grana Padano from the Latteria we visited

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

Grand Canal

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.

Ponte Rialto

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.

Venetian Ambulances even sound off the traditional European Siren!

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.

Sunrise on the back side of Giudecca, where our Hostel was located.

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.

Cinque Terre

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.

Culatello Maturation Room

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.

Biogas Facility

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).

Us, Giuseppe, and the owner

Us, Giovanni, and the owner

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!

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.

Aaahh the sights and scents of spring

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.

Lunch after the farm visit

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: 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 sign

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.

Our Group, including Dott. Ferri, and one of the owners of La Villa. They have about 3000 cheese wheels in inventory, which is a little more than half of what they want to have.

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)