Localita il Piano

I am up dating this by bumming wifi off a hotel in Spoleto. But my experiences so far have been absolutely incredible. I was dropped off by the bus from Spoleto, on the side of the road, literally. I went down a long gravel/dirt/mountain road that lead to the farm house. Beautiful. The Appenine mountains surrounding me. I met the other wwoofers (the other peple working on the farm with me). Mami (from Japan), Kristen (from Florida), Jacek (like Yatzek) and Olga ( with Jacek from Poland). Total two guys and three girls working with Adolfo and Darcy, the farm owners.

We are put to work but the tasks on the farm are all things the Darcy and Adolfo do with us. So far we have been working on installing irrigation in what is going to be a new vineyard, feeding the animals (chickens, donkeys, horses, a sheep, some goats, geese.) We also have been irrigating other young orchards that are in need of water. I also milked a goat, my favorite so far. Ha. The goat milk here is plentiful. Jar after jar after jar. I made goat cheese mozzarella, riccota, and lemon cheese spread. I seeded 10 different types of tomatoes (Darcy has 40 types in her garden, perfect I know). The food here of coarse is fresh from the farm or traded from other local farms. Paterno (the town this is closest to) has 11 people. Adolfo, Darcy, and their son Ben make up three of them. All the others are Adolfo's relatives, except for one random guy who moved there. I don't have much time to update with details so that is why I am basically spitting this out.

We also had a party on Tuesday for Adolfo's birthday. The family came in and we had pizza from their outdoor brick oven, to die for. Toppings: zucchini, squash, tomato, chard, mozzarella, zucchini flowers, anchovies, potatoes, basil, and some other spices, and i know there were more but I cannot remember them all. What a classic Italian night with big family and good food and wine. Played ping pong. Had quail eggs with umbrian black truffle. The man that brought them has quails and a truffle hunting dog. So bringing this extremely expensive delicacy was free for him.

Yesterday evening we went into some of the orchards to pick some plums, a few apples, and some type of cherry. Ben came along with Adolfo and the other wwoofers. We all really get along well and have had a great time exchanging language and culture. Polish, Italian, English, Japanese. It's all meshing here at Localita il Piano! I am going to add a few photos that will do a lot of the talking for me. I see why God made the world and said, "It is good."

All of us volunteering on the farm! 

I will post more picture when I have internet, readily available in several days.