Fall Colors and First Snow

The first snow fell this November and then within a few days it was gone!

 Now you see it...

Now you don't!

Oh well..that leaves us plenty of time to enjoy the fall colors....

Valle D'Aosta Day Trip and Fontina Cheese

My boyfriend's family produces Toma cheese which is the most commonly known cheese of the Piemonte region.

Toma Cheese, typical cheese of the Peimonte Region, Italy

But every once in awhile we get a hankerin for some Fontina cheese and what better reason than cheese to make a day trip to the neighboring region of Valle D'Aosta.

 Main Shopping Street in the Center of the Capitol City Aosta

 It's very fancy

 Main Piazza and old municipal building

 Arc of the Duke of Aosta

 Grand Paradise National Park near Cogne

 Home of the Jeanet Brothers Farm inside the Nat'l Park!

 They produce all of this wonderful fontina cheese made from the milk of their cows.

The old fashioned way!

Plum and Almond Crostata

October is a quiet and beautiful time of the year here in Sauze di Cesana. Not many tourists make it a great time to get things done around the farm in preparation for winter. While Luca and his brother chop firewood, I make plum jam and plum cake from the plum trees growing in the area.

Plum and Almond Crostata Recipe 
(adapted from La Cucina Italiana June 2011 Issue)

The original recipe is made with apricots, but it's great with plums as well.

Ingredients:

300g all purpose flour
100g butter room temp
100g ground almonds
 50 g water
100g powdered sugar
80g sugar
1 large egg white
20-30 little wild plums or 12 regular plums halved and pitted
1 egg
pinch of salt

Preheat oven 200 degrees C.

Mix together flour and butter until it forms soft crumbs, then add 80g sugar, egg, pinch of salt and water. Form dough into a ball, cover with plastic wrap and leave in fridge for 30 min.

Combine the ground almonds and powdered sugar and the egg white.

Roll out the dough and press into a 20cm pie or spring form cake pan. Spread almond mixture into the circumference of the pie crust. Place plum halves face down in a circular pattern in the pie.

Bake for 40-45 min with heat only from the bottom of the oven. Decorate with powdered sugar.

Wild Things: Berries and Fungus Among Us

Summer came late this year, and September is hotter than August...here are just a few of the yummy wild things you can pick up around the end of the summer in our fertile valley.

HUGE but not edible

 Luca told me not to eat these

which was a pity because they were everywhere

Orecchiette!!! These are the ones we EAT! 

 wild blueberries

 wild cherries

 wild strawberries

 wild raspberries

wild gooseberries

My Honey Collects the Best Honey

1st Place Winner in Western Alps Honey!!

My boyfriend is truly multi-talented and always busy as a bee. At the end of the summer he harvests the honey that he has been carefully nurturing all year. There are 2 types of honey that his bees produce. Millefiori (thousands of wildflowers) and Rododendro (Rhododendron).

Valle Argentera wildflowers are what the bees like!

a little smoke relaxes the bees

adding some extra combs on top of the hive

sha-warms!

coaxing them down into the hive

one at a time, no pushing!

these lucky bees get nectar from the organic strawberry field too!

The Bee Whisperer, unafraid.

strong family of bees!

helping myself to some honey

Millefiori Honey ready for the shop!

Hiking in Valle Argentera

Valle Argentera is so wild. There's only one dirt road alongside a crystal clear river that passes through the valley which divides into 2 smaller valleys at the 10th mile, the Long Valley and the Valley of the Great Miola which end at the foot of the Grand Queryon. (begins on country road SP 215 between Sestriere and Sauze di Cesana)

Smugglers used to smuggle salt between Italy and France and left behind numerous ruins of fortifications along this territory. The highest mountain in the valley is the Col Ramière - 3,007 m - which links to the the Val Thuras (Cesana Torinese). Waterfalls and sprawling green pastures and trails for summer hikers offer scenarios of untouched beauty. In the winter, waterfalls of ice and snow covered peaks are a haven for those wishing to make excursions of off-piste skiing and winter sports.

 Hiking the Pelvo Peak

 Weeeee a baby glacier!

 a very old tree

view of wild Valle Argentera

 People used to live here!

 Waterfall Valle Argentera

 Wild Lily

Half way up the Pelvo

Pristine and full of wildflowers hence the name of our guesthouse Villa Millefiori

Wild White Horse