Tag Archive for: simple life
Salvatore (Sam to anyone not in Italy) finished painting the walls of the Metato – Castagne (Chestnut) room…
Notice the small door (top right hand corner), this is where the chestnuts would be put through onto the mesh for smoking. The walls are covered in a black tar like substance which the locals assure us will never be able to be painted… you can see the beams that held the mesh and the little door above.
Sam came up with a mix of cement, lime and something like bondcrete to bind it all to the wall. First he coated the walls with the watered down bondcrete mix to seal them.
The great thing about dirt floors is you don’t have to worry about drop-sheets!
The “paint” went on with the “paint throwing machine” although we ended up using a brush like the top of a yard broom in the end to get the mix on the walls…
Sam and Carina had great fun putting the ceiling boards in, the upper level is her new “cubby house” … she can get into all the small angled places, hold nails and is learning to use the hammer…our little “reno girl”
We lined the dirt floor and put lining boards on the ceiling, oiled the door (and found the key) and the windows are in.
Life’s Postcards
So what is a Metato?
When you want to know something ask a local.
Joseph grew up in the “Snow White” cottage at Borga Nari, so we asked him about the strange little door in our house. He told us that as children (he had nine brothers and sisters) the family would collect the castagne and dry them in the metato to make flour. “Ahhh so that’s what it’s for” at last we know!
In the metato there would be a mesh floor on the upper level holding the castagne and underneath a couple of smouldering fires.
The chestnuts would be smoked for six or seven weeks (getting turned every couple of weeks) and at the end would have shrunk to a third of their original size.
The flour was used to make bread and was the main source of food for the winter.
The mountains around our house are covered with castagneti (chestnut woods) and for us it is a fun afternoon exercise to roast them in the pan we found… but only a few generations ago they were a staple part of the diet for the locals.
Castagnaccio – chestnut flour migliaccio, a flat firm chestnut cake described as peasant food at it’s best, and a fixture on winter tables …
pic: authentic italy
Related Links
Life’s Postcards
Today we put a deposit on our house which is about 3 kms out of the town of Gambasca, Piemonte. It is straight up a road that in some spots reminds me of Lombard St (the very crooked road in San Francisco). Are we nuts? Most certainly. Do we want to renovate this rustic farmhouse in the mountains? More than anything! We could hardly contain our delight when we drive up the mountain road with the agent. Sam knows I love it already and no matter what it looks like inside it is ours from that first moment.
The further up the mountain we drive the thicker the forest gets. At our first visit it was cool, deep green with dappled light. Our farmhouse is off the road to the right, down a bumpy driveway usually draped in the local dogs and cats. They always move out of the way with seeming annoyance for daring to disturb them.
The two cats think they are dogs and one time I found Smokie the cat curled up on a chair (that’s her in the photo) with Smarties the puppy. When we turn the corner my jaw drops, this is it, the rustico part of the borgata which is overgrown with weeds and deserted when we moved in.
On our first day all I could think of were a three year old and a one year old toddling around here. Snakes hmmm no idea? Mine shafts, wells, a Mothers mind goes into overdrive.
What are we going to tell the parents home in Australia? We now own a part of history, dirt floors, vaulted ceilings, rock roof, no windows, and totally isolated (believe me that’s how it felt on the first night). Time to renovate!