Producers
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The Best Pecorino Cheese I have ever tasted!
The home on the farm View from the farm happy sheep Up another mountain today about 1000 meters up to Cerasa Farm. The Cavani family is part of a project to save the native breed of Garfagnana sheep. Signora Gemma uses their milk to make pecorino cheese. She explains how she makes…
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Spinning Fibre Demo & Water Mill
Demonstrating making wool fibre After the Breadmaking, some of the local ladies from Petrognola (I believe church ladies) did a demonstration of spinning with a distaff and drop spindle. Spinning is the process where, in this case, wool or other fibre are pulled and twisted to form yarn. The distaff is the rod that holds…
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Baking Potato Bread & Farro
After breakfast, we drove from Venturo to Petrognola a beautiful little village in the Garfagnana to meet with Paolo Magazzini, the village baker. He showed us how to make the bread dough using a starter that he has kept ‘alive’ that was his mother’s (who has since passed) and putting in freshly boiled potatoes that…
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Farm to Table Caseificio
With a busy day planned, we then drive to Pontremoli in the Massa-carrara province to scout out a recommended location for a nice lunch. Trattoria Bacciottini, via ricci Armani 13, known for their Stoccafiso (stockfish) and Baccala fritto (fried cod). Having had my fill of cod a few days prior at the festival, I opted…
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Everybody loves Biscotti
Today we drove north to visit and interview potential producers for existig tours and some new tours in development. Panificio Lazzeri We drove to the village of Pontestazzemese to Panificio Lazzeri. This producer originally started making breads but realized his biscotti were in high demand and now mostly produces handmade natural biscotti. Located on…