We were greeted by a bunch of adorable bleating sheep. They just wouldn't shut up! Baaa Baaa Baaa, the owner of the farm said they were "showing off" for us and that they normally didn't make this much noise. It sure was a funny sound to hear!
Then we went inside to see how the sheep are fed and milked etc... The main export of this farm is cheese, so milking is a very important part of the average farm day.
I felt bad. I ate one later at lunch. But it was so good!
On a more humane note... we then saw how they make cheese! This was so cool, but also very very very stinky. I think it was the enzyme that they add to the cheese, or something, but the room smelled terrible. Not for someone who is feeling queasy, that's for sure! Here is the farm owner checking the temperature of the whey. He had to first heat it up to body temperature, cover it, and then let it sit for 25 minutes. And let me tell you, it was quite a loooong 25 minutes since it was such a stinky room!
In any event, this was a very cool process to watch. I didn't understand the process entirely as it was very early in the morning and I just couldn't seem to wake up today! Also... it was translated by Peter Fischer, my glorious amazing fantastic smelly German teacher! He is definitely my favorite teacher here and this field trip was great. That's him in the left hand corner in the picture below. Although English is obviously not his first language, he still manages to speak it faster than I can. He also adds big words into his sentences when he really doesn't need to. It's not a pretentious thing though, I think it's more like he really just loves these few words. His favorites are definitely "intensely" "immediately" "expediently" "ultimately" "tremendously" just to name a few.
So here we are listening in awe to Peter Fischer and waiting for the cheese to get chunky.
After the 25 minute wait, he heated the pot back up again and stirred stirred stirred vigorously. Then, all of the sudden, he turns the heat off and reaches into the pot with his bare hands and grabs the chunk of cheese that had formed in the middle! Now, keep in mind that this is still very very hot- I couldn't believe he just stuck his hands in there with no protection at all. I did notice that his arms didn't have any hair on them- possibly burned off at this point? That's just a theory but geeze you can see how hot the cheese still is at this point! I think it's a possibility.
So this first cheese (the one in the really big form) was a Peccorino, which is a hard cheese with a very pungent, strong flavor. It's really good and a specialty of the Umbrian region (where Perugia is.) The littler cheese molds you see are a different kind of cheese we saw being made- ricotta. After making the Peccorino, he heated the leftover liquid stuff up and did the same thing again. This time though, since it was cooked twice, it is ricotta. It all makes sense when you look at the Italian- "ricotta" literally means "cooked twice!"
We had a great "tasting experience" where we sampled "the intense flavors of the goat cheese with a common local food pairing" according to Peter Fischer. You guys should all try really good ricotta with honey or fig spread. It is absolutely amazing! After our apperatifs we went outside since it was such a gorgeous day and wandered around exploring the farm. It was quite the climb to the top of the hill but it was worth it- the view of the surrounding countryside was amazing.
Spring is finally arriving! Birds were singing and we could actually take off our jackets! A first since I've been here.
Sarah and Alyssa and I on a log enjoying the weather
So I know this is a funny picture but I wanted to sit in this olive tree- got me a better view of the place :)
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