Out and About to Celebrate the Mountains

Today were coming out of the mountains to do a day trip towards Torino to participate in a small expo called Bourcet a Carignano - La pianura chiama la montagna  Or the plains calls the mountain. Literal translations don't always make a lot of sense, but the gist of it is the mountain folks from Bourcet are coming down and out of our valley to show off what all we have to offer to our friends on the plains in Carignano. Sounds like another opportunity to sample the local food and drink while making new freinds and seeing some of our old ones as well. We're doing our part. We're gathering up some local goodies to sample that everyone has so generously donated to the cause.  Bourcet is a small village further up our valley that we gaze upon from our view across the valley. They used to be a year round residential village, but not longer does during the winter, they hope to make some improvements to their infrastructure in order to change all of that. Fabrizio's aunt used to be a school teacher back in the day when folks still lived their year round. Fabrizio's father and his hunting buddies maintain a small hunting lodge where they have a small garden of potatoes and salad to keep them going during hunting season. It really is a kind of boys club.  Bourcet is a charming and beautifully remote spot that enjoys a fair amount of summer visits. They have a wonderful trattoria and refugio, as well as a climbing area and access to some gorgeous high alpine hiking, especially wonderful when the flowers are at their best. Will share more on this outing soon, but thought I'd pique your interest for a later installment, sure to feature some food and drink. So check back soon.

Vendemmia in Val Chisone

I'm not quite ready to leave the autumn behind just yet, even though old man winter keeps blowing his frosty breath around to chill the bone and make you work even faster to get all of those autumn projects done before winter begins in earnest.
Our local vendemmia, or grape harvest, was well under way in September finishing up recently in October. It's a labor of love as the grapes are hand harvested and only picked when deemed to be at their peak. The wine growers experience helps them determine the best time for harvest, visually judging the color for ripeness and taste for sweetness. They also use an optical instrument called a refractometer, that measures the amount of sugar in the grapes supporting or not, their opinions of when would be the prime time to harvest. Naturally, the position of the vineyard and weather conditions all play their part in the drawn out maturation and harvesting process. The weather is critical in determining the harvest and is always a great source of speculation.

Recently we had the pleasure of introducing long time American educational filmmakers,

Sid and Mary Lee Nolan, to our Chisone valley.  They were in our area filming for their upcoming video of Italian wine regions. Naturally, we took them to visit the Coutandin family winemakers, whose Pomaretto vineyard we gaze upon from  our balcony. Their impressively steep vineyards are part of our "Bella Baita View" at the  base of of the French border skyline and mouth of the Germansca valley. Their terraced vines are so steep that they have installed a train to help them with harvesting and maintaining the vineyard. Below you see Daniele Coutandin, demonstrating the use of it for the camera.

 

Although the Coutandin operation is relatively small, Ramie wine has big bold flavors. They have gone from just over 800 bottles per year to 3,000 bottles last year.  Our alpine wines reflect the soil and environmental weather that can offer some insight into life in the Cottian alps. Back in January we were up in the vineyard as it was a beautiful mild day offering up the promise of spring and encountered some folks  working on the vines. Nice to see the full progression throughout the year.

 

This family winery mainly produces a rare DOC wine called Ramie, which is a blend of several local varietals. Their Ramie is quite smooth and fruity and goes down well with many of our local specialties, rabbit and polenta comes to mind. You might want to visit our part of the world and try it some time. We're always happy to point in any number of interesting directions.

We also made a a small tour up the valley to the imposing Fenestrelle Fortress and as well as some of our favorite haunts.
Later in the day, we also made a visit to the Dora Renato Cantina, who produce the other DOC appellation of our neighborhood, Doux d/Henry. This is light refreshing rose´ style wine, favored locally here and  in southern France. They produce a range of delicious local varietals also. A couple of other posts about them are here and here.

We rounded out the day tour with the unmasking of the 2009 edition of Pinerolo's Maschera di Ferro,
also know as the "Man in the Iron Mask" festival.  And who was that you ask? Well, you'll just have to wait until I can get a post up of this years festival. It is a wonderful event so, stay tuned.

Almost 6 Feet Under and Marmelatta di Zucca

They say it was over 1.6 meters in 24 hours, that's 5 ft or a bit more.
It cleared briefly last night but there is more snow on the way.

Our entrance to our flat.


In the neighborhood

Digging his way to to get the chickens

Disappearing chicken coop

The road beyond us toward the garden.

Another Val Chisone extreme weather event.
2 years ago we didn't have any snow or winter and the spring arrived almost a month early. This year we had a fairly normal winter and then we had a very soggy late spring and everything has been arriving very late this year. Now we have a very early winter with record snow.
Latest update. Now it's raining on top of our 6 ft of snow. The rivers are overflowing and they are watching the Po in Torino and all the way down to Rome, where it has been raining non stop whilst we were getting snow. Strange days indeed

So nothing left to do make Pumpkin Jam or Marmellata di Zucca.
Once done, slather some on your favorite tea biscuit or do like Fabrizio's grandmother, and make a sandwich of Pavesini biscotti and dunk them in for tea, or for a more grown up addition, vin santo, marsala or something along those lines.
I actually double this recipe as we have quite a bit of pumpkin and the moment and it made a delicious crostata filling.

Marmellata di Zucca

• 500 g (1+pound) pumpkin or butternut type of solid squash, cut up in medium pieces

• 200 g(1 cup) sugar
  

• zest of one lemon

Other optional additions

• 50 g (1/2 c) toasted walnuts or pecans

• 100 g sultanas or dry cranberries softened in a splash of warm cognac,
  
• Vecchia Romagna, comes to mind

Combine the sugar, lemon zest and pumpkin in a large heavy bottom sauce pan. Gently simmer until soft. I usually smash the mixture after it starts to soften to encourage to break down and cook a little faster. Stir occasionally. Add additional ingredients just before the mixture is done.
Cool completely before storing in the refrigerator.
I never bother to jar it as it usually gets used up rather quickly.