of all the hazelnuts, the piemontese hazelnut is the smoothest, the richest, the most tenderly balanced. taste these five nuts and tell me which is the piemontese one, the smoothest one, which is it?
each nut had a varying number of followers. who thinks it is number three? hands up, let me count you. let me see, now who thinks it is number four?
it was number four.
it is official. nut number four is the smoothest because it comes from piemonte.
in the village of alba it is vinum - where wine specialists stand behind stalls and pour small wine tastings into the glasses of those who have paid the entry fee. simone and i pay for one glass and listen very attentively to the comments of the wine specialists regarding each individual bottle. the quality of the wine from the nebbiolo grape varies depending on the degree of exposure to the sun on the hillslopes or valleybottoms of piemonte. simone and i find the barbaresco decidedly aggresive, with some strong bottles offering what we decided to term notes of violence. it was all bark and bite, its different elements lacked harmony with one another. the barolo however, now there was a wine in which its elements were both robust and in harmony with each other. the wine had found its inner peace. it knew itself profoundly and was thus in complete tranquillity with the all of its essence.
all that good wine called for some good cheese, and we found it that night at sergio's, who had invited us for dinner at his wellmaintained old farmhouse with a wooden balcony amidst sloping vineyards and green trees. i felt that the house was filled with vivacious spirits, very vivacious and carefree i felt them. no doubt augmented by the speakers rigged up in every room pumping out eighties tunes loudly, the sad faded paintings showing the misery and comedy of the human situation, the energetic slim little dog with the impassioned urge to run everywhere all at once, to sniff everything and bite everything, bite especially my fingers and not even listen when i call sternly "sta' fermo, pepe"
he really is what one could call a crazy dog
he lacks inner harmony.
sergio - our animated old host wearing a jogging outfit - gives me a tour of the mystical house and in the stable i meet the goat trio - the ram and the ewe and the young 'un - all behaving especially timidly for goats. we bring logs back into the kitchen and feed them to the roaring stove. sergio serves us his own homemade wine from a big three litre bottle, and we eat softly steamed asparagus accompanied by a cheese sauce.
sergio is animated and avuncular. sergio says to me: "i will shows you my workshop. come" and from the worktop crowded with all kinds of tools he produces a slim piece of iron and proceeds to clasp it to the workbench before sawing it in two. now - to demonstrate how well he could weld it back together - he welded it back together, finely, sanding down the melted bulges with a whirring spinning disk which emitted a dancing flame of soft yellow sparks. "this is important" he said, and with tongs carried the glowing red bar to hiss it cold with water at the sink. i return to the kitchen while sergio continues to work. he comes in later and presents me with the finished knife, the blade sharpened nicely and gleaming whitely in the light.
it is rather a nice knife, but it is rather too heavy for me to carry everywhere in my rucksack.
when i first met simone in india he was already talking about his plans to live in a little house in the woods and grow vegetables. he said that his longing to return to his family's land in piemonte only increased as he travelled through south east asia. as soon as he returned in january he has been filled with vegetable plot and carpentry and furniture repair plans. simone and i are both aware of and want to accept the diversity of people on the planet. however, we are both convinced that a simple life in close contact with nature is not only what is good for us, but would be good for everybody, and for the planet too.
simone is undertaking his project alone, but he is happy to have my helping hand for a few days. in the vegetable plot we plant a line of onions, already green and sprouting. next to them we sprinkle a line of little carrot seeds and cover it with a thin layer of dark compost. we cut young straight branches from the hazelnut wood, then skin the bark with a type of small machete. back in the toolshed we cut them all to size and make a simple elegant robust wooden fence held together by screws.
later that night we light the grand pile of sticks gathered earlier that day. it is simone's task to manage this woodland and he has decided to allow the big growing oaks space to grow even bigger by removing the smaller hazelnut trees. the orange flame shoots up into the night sky. we have made a massive pile of green branches, but they do not all burn at once. besides, we control the little fire by pulling sticks from the big pile with a hayfork. in the embers we roast potatoes and bake bread round little sticks held over the embers and construct a little grill to grill slices of aubergine.
this afternoon so far has been slowly spent listening to the rain falling on the trees outside, cracking open hazelnuts and toasting them crunchy and brown on the grill. i am thinking of heading on soon but i have a cold - a tickly throat and a runny nose and i sneeze quite often. somehow so far simone has avoided catching it from me. maybe if i am feeling better tomorrow and the weather is good - which the forecast says it will be - we will walk through the woods and follow the ravine down to the cave. sergio says there is a very steep drop and the rock is big and strong and you can sleep in the cave.
each nut had a varying number of followers. who thinks it is number three? hands up, let me count you. let me see, now who thinks it is number four?
it was number four.
it is official. nut number four is the smoothest because it comes from piemonte.
in the village of alba it is vinum - where wine specialists stand behind stalls and pour small wine tastings into the glasses of those who have paid the entry fee. simone and i pay for one glass and listen very attentively to the comments of the wine specialists regarding each individual bottle. the quality of the wine from the nebbiolo grape varies depending on the degree of exposure to the sun on the hillslopes or valleybottoms of piemonte. simone and i find the barbaresco decidedly aggresive, with some strong bottles offering what we decided to term notes of violence. it was all bark and bite, its different elements lacked harmony with one another. the barolo however, now there was a wine in which its elements were both robust and in harmony with each other. the wine had found its inner peace. it knew itself profoundly and was thus in complete tranquillity with the all of its essence.
all that good wine called for some good cheese, and we found it that night at sergio's, who had invited us for dinner at his wellmaintained old farmhouse with a wooden balcony amidst sloping vineyards and green trees. i felt that the house was filled with vivacious spirits, very vivacious and carefree i felt them. no doubt augmented by the speakers rigged up in every room pumping out eighties tunes loudly, the sad faded paintings showing the misery and comedy of the human situation, the energetic slim little dog with the impassioned urge to run everywhere all at once, to sniff everything and bite everything, bite especially my fingers and not even listen when i call sternly "sta' fermo, pepe"
he really is what one could call a crazy dog
he lacks inner harmony.
sergio - our animated old host wearing a jogging outfit - gives me a tour of the mystical house and in the stable i meet the goat trio - the ram and the ewe and the young 'un - all behaving especially timidly for goats. we bring logs back into the kitchen and feed them to the roaring stove. sergio serves us his own homemade wine from a big three litre bottle, and we eat softly steamed asparagus accompanied by a cheese sauce.
sergio is animated and avuncular. sergio says to me: "i will shows you my workshop. come" and from the worktop crowded with all kinds of tools he produces a slim piece of iron and proceeds to clasp it to the workbench before sawing it in two. now - to demonstrate how well he could weld it back together - he welded it back together, finely, sanding down the melted bulges with a whirring spinning disk which emitted a dancing flame of soft yellow sparks. "this is important" he said, and with tongs carried the glowing red bar to hiss it cold with water at the sink. i return to the kitchen while sergio continues to work. he comes in later and presents me with the finished knife, the blade sharpened nicely and gleaming whitely in the light.
it is rather a nice knife, but it is rather too heavy for me to carry everywhere in my rucksack.
when i first met simone in india he was already talking about his plans to live in a little house in the woods and grow vegetables. he said that his longing to return to his family's land in piemonte only increased as he travelled through south east asia. as soon as he returned in january he has been filled with vegetable plot and carpentry and furniture repair plans. simone and i are both aware of and want to accept the diversity of people on the planet. however, we are both convinced that a simple life in close contact with nature is not only what is good for us, but would be good for everybody, and for the planet too.
simone is undertaking his project alone, but he is happy to have my helping hand for a few days. in the vegetable plot we plant a line of onions, already green and sprouting. next to them we sprinkle a line of little carrot seeds and cover it with a thin layer of dark compost. we cut young straight branches from the hazelnut wood, then skin the bark with a type of small machete. back in the toolshed we cut them all to size and make a simple elegant robust wooden fence held together by screws.
later that night we light the grand pile of sticks gathered earlier that day. it is simone's task to manage this woodland and he has decided to allow the big growing oaks space to grow even bigger by removing the smaller hazelnut trees. the orange flame shoots up into the night sky. we have made a massive pile of green branches, but they do not all burn at once. besides, we control the little fire by pulling sticks from the big pile with a hayfork. in the embers we roast potatoes and bake bread round little sticks held over the embers and construct a little grill to grill slices of aubergine.
this afternoon so far has been slowly spent listening to the rain falling on the trees outside, cracking open hazelnuts and toasting them crunchy and brown on the grill. i am thinking of heading on soon but i have a cold - a tickly throat and a runny nose and i sneeze quite often. somehow so far simone has avoided catching it from me. maybe if i am feeling better tomorrow and the weather is good - which the forecast says it will be - we will walk through the woods and follow the ravine down to the cave. sergio says there is a very steep drop and the rock is big and strong and you can sleep in the cave.
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