From Puglia to Abruzzo, Cheesemaking Along the Way

We left Puglia on Monday and headed to Abruzzo. Puglia is relatively flat and very similar to the U.S. Southwest. Lots of cacti, palm trees and other desert plants. Abruzzo, however, is mountainous and lush and a welcome few degrees cooler (although still pretty hot!). Puglia is the olive oil region and Abruzzo is more focused on wine (montepulciano), although plenty of olive groves still dot the landscape. We've visited and made cheese (or at least watched the making of cheese) at three places thus far, one buffalo mozarella and two sheep's milk cheese. More photos after the jump:

 Newborn Water Buffalo at Masseria San Biagio in Calimera, Salento

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Eating Local in Italy, So Far No Other Option...


Local Meat and Butcher Shop in Ostuni, ItalyThe wedding was fantastic and now we are on honeymoon in rural Italy. We are touring Puglia (the region most commonly referred to as "the heel of the boot") this week and heading to Abruzzo next week. We flew in to Bari and drove south, stopping in a few little towns along the way and ultimately reached our destination on a small road between San Vito dei Normanni and Carovigno. We were really looking forward to seeking out the best meats, cheeses, wines, etc that Puglia has to offer and so far it's been pretty simple.

All of the grocery stores (even the "name brand" ones) are full of Pugliese food and drink. Granted, there are plenty of worldly and processed food items as well, but the amount of local and fresh food far outweighs everything else. At restaurants the Pugliese wine list is pages and pages long,

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Our First Farm Heartbreak

Ok, maybe the heartbreaking cheese graphic is a little overboard, but still!

As we’ve posted about previously, the biggest update in our farming adventure thus far was an apprenticeship for Sweetbreads at Sprout Creek Farm starting this January and ending next June. We were planning to pick up our lives in Brooklyn and head out to Poughkeepsie to lay down some cheesemaking roots. Sweetbreads would say farewell to her office life and spend her days over the vat. I would keep my job in the city so we could pay our bills and continue to save. This was a big step for us and we were fully committed. We spent two full days at Sprout Creek this spring. One day visiting the farm, meeting the team and watching the goings-on from afar, and another day getting our hands dirty, milking the animals and actually making some cheese. We had been hashing out the details since early March and in June we got final confirmation about the apprenticeship. We were very excited and started to make plans for our new lives. We told our families and friends and I even made arrangements with my employer to commute four days per week and work one day per week from the new home. Everything was looking up!

That was until we recently got word that the terms of the apprenticeship were changing. Sweetbreads' involvement was going to be meaningfully less than originally expected. After some discussion it became clear that our expectations and those of the farm were very different, and it was better to move on. It’s unfortunate that we weren't able to work something out, but it’s far better that we came to this conslusion now rather than after we actually moved up there.

Of course it was (and still is) pretty tough for us to stomach. We had such good experiences at Sprout in recent months and we were really looking forward to getting our feet wet. We know that a much more difficult road lies ahead and we'll probably look back on this and realize that it pales in comparison, but for now it's heartbreaking. The good thing about New York is that there's many opportunities. Stay tuned.