MY PERSONNEL WORKLOAD

Black and white Risotto, using squid ink and a 24 month matured parmesan cheese for a creamy risotto served with calamari and a crispy parmesan waffle.

I would say most people ( understandably) assume that living in these fantastic hills of Umbria we are woken each morning by a beautiful dawn chorus, well at this time of year nothing could be further from the truth. It starts off not too bad ( maybe a bit raucous ) with our mad rooster giving his all at full volume but instead of the hills coming alive with the sound of bird music we are surrounded by the noise of machinery signalling the start of a long days work for the farmers.. Tractors, grass cutters  strimmers  (very popular at the moment ) in fact all manner of motors are  being driven , wielded , pushed and dragged all in preparation of the soil for sowing seeds ,planting crops,vegetable gardens ,flower beds, vineyards
But this year my personal workload in the great plan of things is to focus only on the fun parts, planting seeds ,doing light tasks, and of course being in charge of the kitchen.. I know we are in 2014 and women are completely equal and as strong as men, but quite honestly this archaic concept of the man being the hunter and the little woman at home in the kitchen …. at this time …really appeals to me.. This could be of course because I`ve noticed over the last couple of weeks with this new arrangement  my back and neck have not been so sore. Also Nick started to get worried when I priced up enough cement to concrete over our lush ever growing green green grass.Ok I `m only joking , but it really is never ending physical  hard work making a living in the countryside and I can understand why all the farmers seem to have a  curved back” the land is low” as they say.

Anyway that is why it is very important to escape from time to time, which we do , and just walk and look around and appreciate how beautiful mother nature is naturally  Not only are we completely surrounded by all this spectacular Umbrian countryside we don`t even have to work at it, not even cut the grass. I LOVE IT

Then when we get back home Hilda the goat is still  busy feeding, the chickens are happily pecking around and the rooster is still singing his heart out, so nothing changes. I cook a nice Risotto ,we open a bottle of wine and we sit under the porch having had an amazing afternoon with a great ending. And just let me say that at that stage we revert back to modern times just long enough for Nick to do the washing up !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Sagra in Casa House

I wish you all a great week end and see you for the next story about my countrylife in Umbria.

Ciao e un abbraccio a tutti.