24 January 2010

Hello friends!

Today is Sunday, and I have been at Pignano for one full week.

I arrived last Sunday evening, after taking a train from Milano Centrale to Firenze, and then taking a bus to Volterra (with one lay over at Colle Val d'Elsa). My drop off location from the bus was a stop called Bivio del Castel Fiorentino, which is, quite literally, in the middle of no where. I was picked up by friend Juba and one Davide Stampa, and delivered safely to the farm.

One of the first sights to greet me upon my arrival was two hanging pigs that had recently been slain and skinned. Apparently the cold fresh air is quite good for the curing process (is that what is happening here, curing?) and so they were left out for a few days. The air is quite cold is Toscana this time of year, so it is perfectly safe in terms of hygeine to leave them in the shade for a bit.

After the pigs I met the people. Tess is 25 and a Portland native who has been on the farm for almost a year. Zach is 25, from the suburbs of Miami, and has been WWOOFing around the world since dropping out of pharmacy school. He is also our resident bread maker, which is pretty awesome. Tess, Zach and Juba are the only WWOOFers on the farm right now. Otherwise Pignano consists of 11 adults and 9 children, a mix of Italian, English and Romanian families. Pignano is owned by an absentee billionaire, and this community has been living at Pignano and working the land for about 15 years.







The villa itself takes up I think 750 acres. The buildings primarily are 17th or 18th century, though some of the foundations are Etruscan in origin. During WWII the villa was occupied by Nazis, and now it is a hotel in the summer months and a home to farmers year round. The place is magnificent, essentially a mansion.

The day after my arrival Davide, Juba, Zach, Tess and I drove to nearby Siena for a day of ambling and eating. It was divine, and such a lovely way to start my time here.










Since then I have been working. Basically we each have one day off a week. The day starts at 830, when we all meet in the smaller kitchen for a light breakfast and coffee, and to hear details of our assignments if we are to work outside. Otherwise we are assigned to work in the kitchen. Lunch is around 1230 for about an hour or so, and then we work till about 3 or 4 sometimes.

I have worked outside twice since I have been here. The first time I carried the halved bodies of the aforementioned swine to the place where they would be dismembered. I also transported bundles of kindling (note: physical labor is HARD work!) that are to be used for building fires for the bread, and visited the chickens and pigs. The second time I spent the day weeding the saffron patches. Otherwise I have been in the kitchen, chopping vegetables and cleaning after lunch.

Life is here is good. It is of course an adjustment, as I think we all know that I am not, by nature, a ruralist. But it's been good to experience this pace of life and to talk to some of the long term residents here about their take on this sort of living. (What I have learned is as follows: you need a lot of land to make a farm work, and after 1.5 years at Pignano one comes to the realization that the problems are within you and not so much from the outside world).

So that's what's going on with me. Hope you are all well!

Love, eva