…here on the Pollinaria farm in Abruzzo, Italy have reached their peak spring moments and final installations as we prepare to leave after a few weeks of living with them. (see lots of new pics po..
Tag : Italy
…all of the wild spontaneous plants we can find growing on the sprawling sloping expanses of the farm that have some domestic use, like borage, mustard, dandelion, chicory, chamomile, mint, cardoon, wild rose, fennel, blackberries, nettles…but our wish list of as yet unfound delicacies includes wild asparagus and nati..
…by farmer Luciano on his big tractor gets the compacted clay soil ready for our planti..
…that consumed me – and I consumed so many of – during my summer chapter of Domestic Integrities at Pollinaria, and now just wishful little buds that I won’t be around to taste in a f..
…on the way from Amsterdam to Abruzzo for the final seasonal chapter of Domestic Integrities at Pollinaria is warm sunny summery deep breath of ancient urbanism before we head East for ..
…here at Pollinaria – the farm west of Pescara where Domestic Integrities E01 is being developed through four seasons – has just finished today, exactly as we are returning for the fall cycle of the project…but at least we managed to scavenge a few beautiful purple bunches left behind on the vine a..
…named Fernando Marcantonio, aged 95, residing in a remote small Abruzzian village learned how to make baskets from his father and grandfather when he was young – something that they did by necessity, to contain everything that needed containing at home (ricotta, figs, olives, grain…) – but then he entered into the family’s farming life – went to ..
…is the annual traditional meal here at Pollinaria farm when all of the grain harvest workers involved in the two-day operation on these hundred acres gather with their family for a celebration feast that overwhelmed us with course after course after course after course after course, including unmentionable meats unappealing to this vegan – but luckily just ripe ..
…consumed most of this very hot day in this cool moist rocky valley stream (found after a three hour drive the other day in search of the perfect place to bring our 80 sheeps-worth of filthy but gorgeous just shorn raw wool for washing al fresco, which proved difficult during these semi-drought conditions of no rainfall ..
…on display at the the Museum of the People of Abruzzo – and historically found in the farmhouses dotting the local hills – will be of keen interest for the first edition (produced at Pollinaria in the spring) of a new series of projects dealing with the domestic..
…is the homemade honey operation of Tulio who we visited this morning – a first possible collaborator in our as yet somewhat undefined but clearer by the day spring project – at his suburban Pescara residence located on the land where his father and grandfather cultivated the land, and raised cows, where he as a ..
…(the Museum of the People of Abruzzo) which engagingly presents the rich essence of Abruzzian domestic culture, the stories and related materials of how people have survived and created in this region for centuries, where I was especially captivated by the production of quotidian baskets, ricotta, olive oil, wheat, linens, clothing, and bread, made it ..
…took me from Tiburtina station (after landing at Fiumicino – followed by a quick detour to Piramide where I met with friends and collaborators about the upcoming Roma Mangia Roma book from Nero still in the editing process) – through the white mountains to this city on the Adriatic under a fluffy white blanket after weeks ..
…which seems to be a very tranquil town during the day, surprised me last night when the very designy chic bars and lounges spilled out on the the ancient whitewashed pedestrian streets, and the whole town (crying babies, rambunctious kids, cool teens, strolling couples, shuffling elderly) turned out to fill the Piazza San Oronzo and ..
…was the order of the day, as I finally departed Lecce, continuing my Puglian journeys gradually making my way west then north on the slow side roads through countryside and small towns with no final destination in mind, stopping off in the ceramics center of Grottaglie, the pretty hilltop town of Locorotondo, the trulli village ..
…in super baroque style are intricately carved into local honey Lecce limestone covering every available square millimeter of each billboard-like neighborhood church facade, and parts of almost all of the pallazzi, announcing the style, taste and riches of the local sponsoring noble family – is the visual pleasure of the city to be enjoyed at every ..
…are what have drawn me to this place more than anything, such as the dry-stone conical domes of the trulli, modest shelters or residences found mostly in the central Valle D’Itria (around Locorotondo, Alberbello, Martina Franca, Ceglie Messapica); the fortified farmhouse complexes of the masserie; and the primitive storehouses and temporary shelters dotting the landscape ..
…is something I have had an intense architectural crush on since first reading about them last year (a fortified farmhouse unique to Puglia, often with a series of connecting vaulted spaces made of local stone on the ground level for animals and farm workers around a central protected courtyard overseen by more comfortable castle-like quarters ..
…this evening were just pulling back into the docks where crowds of locals were waiting to receive them…and why I wondered, was it their families? was it a ritual? had they been away for weeks? but no, they were just waiting to inspect the day’s catch and pick up something fresh f..
…at the masseria I visited late this afternoon near Nardo’ must be the coolest thing I have seen on my Puglia adventures so far – an Animal Estate of the most sophisticated and monumental sort, which from the outside seems to be a fortified castle tower, only to reveal a surprising very contemporary-seeming interior lined ..
Recent Comments