Pastor Kathy’s Blog

We are back and have been for a few days. I’ve been updating the blog with what we did in Val D’Orcia. Our experience there was rich and full in so many ways, not the least of which were the people. The other families in the farmhouse were great- we were all very compatible. And our hosts- both at the tastings, meals, farm tours, hikes- were warm and open, happy to share of their lives and themselves. It was hard to leave them behind, but I believe we were all ready to come home.

I want to share some pics of Jesus with some the friends he made- include a “flat Stanley” who was traveling with one of the families in our farmhouse- the mom is a special education teacher and was given Stanley for these travels.

Jesus remained in Val D’Orcia, at the invitation of Isa and her family. It was near the end of our journey, and we could think of no better place to leave Jesus. So we each wrote notes to our hosts on the back, and he is now part of their household. They so embodied his ministry of the table, that it seemed fitting to us.

We also want you to meet the cats of Cretaiole- especially the kitten. The cats were true farm cats, but made themselves at home. Every morning when we would open the door to our apartment we would be greeted by a couple who would come in for a bite and would wander in and out whenever we were there.

Our trip home was good- uneventful, and now we are establishing our daily rhythm for life and the rest of the sabbatical time. I won’t be blogging as frequently (unless you want daily reports on my herb garden! ), but will periodically blog as I reflect on the learnings I’ve gained from this trip and my sabbatical reading list. So, check in from time to time. We might even post a picture or two!

The Life of the cats of Cretaiole!

Gen makes friends with a chick!

one of the many friendly dogs we met...this one is a retired sheepherding dog

our littlest neighbor!

Jesus makes a new friend at pasta making class!

Luciano and Pastor Kathy with Stanley and Jesus!

How could we come to this area and now talk about food? Food here nourishes the body and the soul. It gathers people together, it builds bridges over cultures and generations.

Food here in Val D’Orcia is very local- what comes to the table is something they have grown or caught or raised. Many raise their own grain and have it ground for making bread. For some the only reason to go to the grocery is for coffee, salt and sugar!

We were served some extraordinary meals here. One was cooked by one the housekeepers at Cretaiole. Meals here come in courses. It begins with antipasti (appetizers), and there were small slices of omelet, toasted bread topped with cheese, hard boiled egg with carrot, tomato and basil or pate. The first course is generally a pasta course and in this case it was a white lasagna with sausage. The second course was wild boar (caught by the housekeeper’s husband) served in a flavorful tomato based sauce, white beans and spinach. Dessert was sponge cake rolls with chocolate and jam fillings.

Another evening we went to a former monastery that has been restored and made into a bed and breakfast/hostel. This meal, while following the format of the previous day included other flavors of the area: the antipasti included an arugula/cheese crostini, prosciutto, both on its own and heated with cheese. The first course was pasta (we might call it linguini) with mushrooms; the second course was roasted duck, salad, and pig liver wrapped in bacon (can’t say this was a favorite)! For dessert was cinnamon cake.

One of the hallmarks of the food here is its simplicity- not a lot of cream sauces or complicated processes- and yet the flavors come forth in wonderful ways. Part of that is good, fresh ingredients, and the love and respect with which they are prepared.

We also had an opportunity for a community meal with the other families staying at Cretaiole. Isa, one of our hosts, taught us how to make pici pasta. While we were doing that, her husband Carlo manned the grilled with ribs and wild boar sausage- by the way, if you have never had wild boar, it is wonderful! Aaron became a huge fan, and later ordered it at a local restaurant as well.

Then we provided potluck style vegetables, salad and dessert! Many things came fresh from the Luciano’s garden! It was a wonderful party! Another hallmark of meals here is that they are not rushed. You eat in a leisurely way, and you linger after dinner. Even in restaurants we found that we were never rushed out to clear a table for someone else. It encourages the soul nourishment as well as the body!

The table is set for dinner at the former monastery. This place still carries the quiet reverence of its history.

pig liver wrapped in bacon- rumaki on steroids!

Isa explains the finer points of pici making

Gen takes to kneading the dough...

Sam takes a turn working with the dough

rolling the pici is a skill that takes a lot of practice!

a tray full of pici ready for cooking!

good food and wonderful new friends!

Val D’Orcia is an agricultural region, so visits to farms were part and parcel of our time here. It was on these farms that we came to appreciate the passion of these people for the earth, their love of sharing their lives with us and the richness of the values of those working hard to keep family farms alive.

Our first visit was to Luciano’s farm home, St. Gregorio on the edge of Pienza. This is where Luciano and his wife Liliana, as well as Isabella and Carlo and their children live. This is where wine and cheese, olive oil and prosciutto and salami are made. This is where we also could get fresh eggs for our selves.

Carlo shared with us the history of wine making and how the process has changed from his father’s generation. While he and Isabella talked, Luciano quietly brought out meat and cheese to share, as well as wine for us to taste. Then, after the sampling of meats and cheeses and wine, Luciano takes us to where the cheese and meet are aged. It is still amazing to me how we can understand him without his knowing English or we knowing Italian.

Another farm visit also included a pizza making lesson! Sandra and her husband and five sons have an organic farm where they have an advanced cheese making process and she walked us through all the different kind of sheep and goat cheeses they make.

We learned how to make a good pizza crust, saw the wood fire oven that is used to make the pizzas as well as bread for the family.

After a tour of the farm, younger members could top their pizza dough and the cook made all kinds of pizza for us- with onions and olives, prosciutto and mushrooms, artichokes. They put peccorino cheese on the pizza rather than mozzarella and that was delicious!

This is an organic farm (as are most of the farms here), and they are part of a world organization where volunteers from around the world can come and work on the farm for room and board.

Again we were graciously received, and fed abundantly from the fruits of their labors. Lunch included not only pizza, but fresh cheeses, marinated chickpeas with herbs, and of course, the wine produced on the farm.

Carlo and Isabella answer questions about their wine making

Luciano showing us his aging peccorino cheese, wrapped in walnut leaves

The lesson in pizza dough!

Sandra explains the way she checks the temperature of the wood oven-she uses her hand!

The daily washing of aging cheeses in salt water to keep the bad mold away!

Fresh air and fresh pizza- life doesn't get any better!

Sorry about the lag in blogs, but my computer didn’t do well on the battery when we were using the free wifi available to us. But now we will try to catch you up on our Tuscan adventure!
Cretaiole is the name of the farm where we were staying. It has six apartments and we had the largest one (three bedroom, two bath). There are three other families here with multiple generations and children raning from 3 years to 16 years, and then our three young adults. Over the week we did build a community, as you saw each other daily and often did some of the activities together. That has been an added bonus of this trip. It was built in the 14th century but has been modernized, with electricity and plumbing and heat, but in such a way as to not compromise the integrity of this beautiful stone building. As I said before we have a large garden right on the property and we we given our first day lettuce and arugula, zucchini and onions and cucumber! We were welcome to go and pick whenever we wanted.

Cretaiole is near the town of Pienza and about an hour away from Siena, for those of you with maps. (I saw your comment Heidi!) It is in a distinct part of Tuscany known as Val D’Orcia, the valley of the river Orcia. Each region of Tuscany is unique in culture and food and landscape. But most of the calendar and postcard pictures you see of Tuscany come from Val D’Orcia.

The people of Val D’Orcia while welcoming those of us who come to visit, also work hard to preserve their way of life and their values- hard work, honoring the land and using what is in this region to eat and live. They are especially known for peccorino cheese, extra vigin olive oil and Brunello wine. While they are surrounded by all this beauty, it is hard work for them to maintain this life. These are small family farms, where they sustain themselves with what they can grow and raise or hunt. But it is a rich life as well, with close knit families and communities.

In the next blog I will tell more about our activities and the people we have met.

The view of the Val D'Orcia from Cretaiole - view we had from our bedroom windows!

The farmhouse where we stayed

The courtyard of the farmhouse

Our kitchen!

Our dining/great room (and kitchen was part of this space)

Luciano's garden!

The olive groves

The vineyards!

Jesus was the honored guest and host at our table!

The kids having fun in our great room!

The ping pong tournament begins...

And continues as Gen beats both guys!

We are now in Tuscany! Our Farmhouse apartment is wonderful and our hosts are so friendly and gracious. Luciano, the father in law of our hostess Isabella, comes every evening with a different treat- last night it was his own fresh ricotta cheese! He doesn’t speak a word of English, and yet somehow we communicate. Yesterday we had a tour of their farm and got to try and buy cheese, meat and wine, as well as a wonderful pasta sauce. Today we had a pizza making class and farm tour of a totally organic farm with sheep, goats, chickens, pigs and peacocks! The pizza we had was baked in a wood fired oven and all the products on it were from that farm! We ate overlooking the valley and the town of Pienza. Lovely.

Internet here is spotty, so will post pictures later. We have many to share!

Yes, we are now in Italy. We had a couple of days without internet, so this will be a summary of our arrival and adventures thus far.
Before leaping to Italy, though we did have a day exploring Dublin, which included time in the Gaelic Athletic Association Museum - a much more involved organization in preserving the life and culture and language of the Irish than our athletic groups are in preserving anything but their particular sport. Very interesting! Then we went to the Dublin Writers museum which was also great.

The next day we flew to Bologna and took trains from there to Parma to LaSpezia to Manarola one of the Cinque Terre ( 5 Towns). These towns are set on cliffs overlooking the Mediterranean. Everything was lush and green and the water was a beautiful blue. The first evening we arrived just in time for the sunset, and it made the 12 hours of plane and train travel worth it (not to mention the long and steep climb up to our rooms.). The next day the kids explored the five villages after we ate lunch and I slowly wandered Manarola, did some people watching then went back to our balcony overlooking town and did some reading and unwinding.

From there we took the train to Florence and are staying just south of the Arno river in a great B&B. Today we explored the city, taking in the Uffizi, the Duomo, some heavenly Gelato from Sams favorite place and experienced genuine Florentine hospitality when we stepped into a restaurant as it was beginning to rain, only to find they had just closed 15 minutes prior. But a kind man (waiter? manager? owner?- we dont know) showed us to an outdoor, but undercover table where we had a delightful lunch and he encouraged us to stay until the rain ended. He could not have been kinder.

Tomorrow we head for Tuscany and our week at a farmhouse!

The only Presbyterian Church we found- in Dublin!

The Gaelic Athletic Association Museum at Croke Park, an enormous stadium

The view from our room in Manarola the night we arrived!

Terraced garden go clear up the mountain!

The view from our room of the town and the sea.

Jesus and Sam map out our day in Florence!

The first of many stops for Gelato!

Sunset over the River Arno

I’m not sure when this will get posted as we are now on the road through Ireland. We left Dingle on Saturday morning. It was hard to leave Eileen and Tim, as they had become like family to us. (Eileen kept offering to sell the house to Sam and Gen, but they thought they would do it only if Eileen and Tim came with the place.) We realized how spoiled we had been by them.

The night before we left we went back to O’Flaherty’s one more time. I must correct earlier posting where I noted that Mazz O’Flaherty was the musician and owner. It turns out that his name is Fergus O’Flaherty and his sister is Mazz. She is a musician in her own right and owns the Dingle Record Shop. I (Kathy) stopped in and she and I shared a cup of tea and 90 minutes of wonderful sisterly conversation. (We also bought a couple of CD’s- so you can hear their voices).

Upon leaving Dingle we first made a trek up to Connor Pass. Tim had been recommending this all week, but after hearing another guest talk about the drive, I must admit to being rather intimidated by it. But upon Tim’s urging and the kids’ wanting to see it, we went. The drive wasn’t bad at all and the views were spectacular.

Leaving Dingle we headed for Waterford. This was a delightful drive through small villages and the mountains (not bad driving at all). We arrived at the Granville Hotel in Waterford- our only hotel experience of this trip. It is an historic hotel from the 1800’s and nicely restored. But we all missed the Collins’ hospitality. We went into the hotel pub for dinner and sat next to members of a women’s football (soccer) team while we all watched a hurling game on TV. Sam learned that in all likelihood we would not get to see a game in our remaining time- we just did not work schedules well for this.

This morning we went to the Waterford Visitor’s Center, which was very interesting and did a bit of shopping. Then we drove to the Rock of Cashel- the remains of a church with a surrounding cemetery which is still burying folk who have burial rights there. It was incredible to see the church remains and to hear the stories that surround the church. Ireland really does have a fascinating history. And the day was glorious- we had perfect temperatures and cool breezes with sunshine.

We have arrived in Howth a fishing town outside of Dublin. We have just had an incredible seafood dinner at a restaurant where the chef sets the menu based on what the fishermen bring in each day- our dinners included smoked salmon (smoked right here in Howth), mussel, monkfish, lemon sole, and John Dory. We are staying right on the water (the Irish Sea and very near the pier.).

Jesus with two new friends!

This bread with raisins was awesome! Eileen had it specially baked for Krriary House guests.

Jesus thanks our hosts Tim and Eileen.

The Rock of Cashel

The kids inside the Rock of Cashel

Jesus with Sam and Gen at the Rock of Cashel

Dinner at King Sitric's in Howth

It has been an incredible couple of days here in Ireland. Wednesday was an easy going day, with shopping in Dingle, getting gifts and souvenirs (including Sam and Gen’s wedding rings- made by a local artist, they have the Celtic eternity knot- very lovely!), then rest and reading, dinner at James G. Ashe where we had incredible sea food. Sam, by the way, is doing a study in all the varying ways to get fish and chips here and in a future blog will give his evaluation. The evening ended at Moriarty’s for a pint and some traditional music- this time by a group. It was great, but crowded.

Thursday brought our trip to the Ring of Kerry. A long but spectacular drive along the coast. It also included stops at the remains of ring forts and a castle, a hike to some cliffs, and lunch at Frank’s Corner in the village of Cahersiveen. We also met a friendly dog, and many sheep. A highlight of the trip, though was seeing a rainbow across the water. Imagine- a rainbow in Ireland! It still continues to amaze us the variety of geography in such a small area.

After supper, we returned to O’Flaherty’s for music and relaxation. We’ve included pictures of some of the friends Jesus has made – including a waitress, and a barmaid and a regular of Moriarty’s. We continue to meet friendly and wonderful folks wherever we go!

The wedding rings!

Relaxing with Jesus at lunch

Jesus' new friends at Moriarty's

Aaron on top of one of the ring forts

Castle remains near a set of stone ring forts

The kids on top of the Staigue Ring Fort

Our Irish Rainbow!

Our new friends from Kirrary House at O'Flaherty's

We haven’t said a great deal about the food here, but it has been wonderful! One of delightful discoveries for us is finding we all like porridge. We have had it each morning with raisin bread and jam or scones, eggs cooked to order, bacon or sausage if we want it, and juice and tea. Eileen and Tim are attentive and you never leave the table hungry. These breakfasts have sustained us well for our morning activities.

Last evening we ate at an amazing supper at Out of the Blue, an all seafood restaurant. The menu varies based on what the chef has purchased across the road at the docks. We had melt in your mouth scallops and tender salmon steaks. More ironic when you think the night before we sat on benches across the street and ate fish and chips from paper bags!

Our day yesterday began at the Dingle Pitch and Putt, Sam’s choice for an activity. We had a beautiful morning to be out for this game of two club golf- a pitching wedge and a putter. The view from the course overlooked Dingle Harbor and Bay. We all had a great time, and while we didn’t take score, it could be safe to say Gen’s name is now Tigress Woods!

In the afternoon, we all went with Gen and Sam when they picked out and purchased their wedding rings! Look for pics in the future when we pick them up after being sized.

Our time for history and culture was at St. Joseph’s Presentation Convent. There were these extraordinary stained glass windows made by Harry Clarke. We were unable to take photos of these but will have postcards to bring home.

After our special supper, we went through an Irish downpour to O’Flaherty’s for some Irish music. Mazz O’Flaherty, a musician of many talents- tin whistle, guitar, banjo, mandolin, accordian and voice. He also called upon folks in the crowd who sang and recited poems. It was a warm and comfortable evening.

We then made our way home and fell asleep to the sound of gentle Irish rain.

Which way do we go? Road signs in Ireland!

Sam at the tee!

Aaron pitching- great form!

another wonderful drive for Tigress Woods!

Sam and Aaron hunting a ball!

Sam and Aaron negotiating the sand bunker

Mazz O'Flaherty singing and playing- in between sets he tended the bar

One of the advantages of our being at Kirrary House is our hosts. Eileen and Tim are wonderful sources of information and today we took full advantage by going on Tim’s archeological tour of the Dingle Peninsula. Starting with gravestones that dated 600-400 BC, we learned about early Christians (600 AD) and their monastic life, the way they served their communities and the fascinating way they constructed their homes and oratory (church) with stacked stones. Then we moved to 1200 AD and the Norman influence in building bigger churches. Along the way we had spectacular views of the Blasket Islands and learned the history of the people that once populated them. We visited cemeteries that held the remains of both early residents and recent ones, including an American WWI veteran and his family.

We came away with an appreciation for the hard working people of Ireland, their faith, and their resilience. As we drove along we could see where the furrows left untilled from the time of the great potato famine.

Our day ended with getting takeout fish and chips from a place that opens when they get the fish from the harbor and closes when they sell out. We took our food to the harbor to eat and watch the fishing boats head out for the night. We also enjoyed making friends with another raven and some sea gulls.

Another lovely day in Dingle!

Our tour guide, Tim Collins, with two gravestones from 600 BC

An ancient Christian baptismal font.

An oratory (church) from 600 AD

Gen standing in the doorway of Gallarus Oratory (1200 AD)

The Norman Church and cemetery (1200 AD) Modern burials have taken place there for those with burial rights.

The kids at the beach across from the Blasket Islands

Our dancing seagull friends!