Day 4 Tuscany 

We were picked up from our inn at 8:20 this morning for a 30 min drive to Tuscany’s best Buffalo mozzarella producer, Caseificio Inno al Sol. Owner Guido and his team of skilled workers make amazing cheese and use renewable energy produced by the buffalos’ waste. 

On the back table you can see huge folds of mozzarella. 

The man in the center is making a mozzarella braid. You can’t actually see him twist the braid because he has to make it in the water. 

There are some other amazing products made from the buffalos’ milk: yoghurt, ice cream, ricotta, even cappuccino. 

They also sell some local honey. 

These tanks bring the milk from the milking barn to the production room. 

This dome shaped equipment is designed to function like the cow’s stomach, taking the waste and bacteria and “digesting” it to then expel the methane gas which is used to create power. The waste from 400 water Buffalo creates 400 kw per day. They completely run the farm and sell excess to the local energy company. 

These are river water Buffalo originally imported from India. They keep one bull per 20 cows to reproduce. 

They are very curious and gentle animals and are very well cared for. 

The vegetable garden

We were given a guided tour of the farm and facilities before enjoying a wonderful cheese tasting. Everyone seemed to like the ricotta best. It was very creamy and light. 

Kim had an espresso

some had a cappuccino

And we all had the ice cream.

 

Next on the agenda was a tour of Tenuta San Carlo, Principina al Mare, an organicTuscan rice farm. 

In 1936, Achille Gaggia decided to invest in a piece of land in southern Tuscany. Though originally from the northeast of Italy, he saw great potential in the beautiful, wild landscape along the western coast of central Italy in the Maremma region. 

Over time, this land – called Tenuta San Carlo – passed from Achille to his daughter, Olga, and her husband, Ennio Lotti, who each had their own visions of what it could become. 

Olga chose to plant a part of the land with pine tree forests and to fill these forests with horses. Ennio set to work growing crops, including rice, on another portion of the land. In the years that followed, their son Marcello and his wife Diane helped to manage the farm and a local breed of cattle.

Today, the great-granddaughters of Achille – take care of this land. Samantha manages the agritourism part of the family business, while Ariane acts as the farm manager and led the way to obtaining organic certification for all of the agricultural activities.

To honor the history of the farm they chose to dedicate the line of organic rice products to their family by naming each variety for their relatives. Every kernel of rice grown at Tenuta San Carlo is imbued with the story of these people and this place. They constantly steward the land so that it will continue to produce food and sustain the local ecosystem for many generations to come.

Ariane is growing organic and stone processed Tuscan rice of the highest quality. She and her sister (who both lived in New York and only visited while growing up) inherited the farm 7 years ago. They had to decide who would move to Italy and continue to run the family farm. Ariane has a background in agricultural studies so she came. We were shown how the rice is processed and the two different varieties they grow. 

On the left is how the rice looks from the field and on the right after we scraped the shell off. 

The two varieties are left: risotto, and right: brown. 

This is comparing the risotto to the white rice (processed brown rice). 

Then we went to the rice field 

They mostly sell the whole grain to rice processing companies but Ariane recently developed her own products for sale locally. These are left to right: white rice, 25 min brown rice, 45 min brown rice and the risotto. The products are named after her great grandfather (who originally bought the farm), her grandmother, her grandfather and her father. 

In the van on the way back to our inn, we were offered beverages that had been packed by Flo. 

A homemade lemonade that was so delicious and refreshing!

After an afternoon rest, (noticing a pattern here 🥱?) Flo met us in front of our inn to walk us up to the medieval part of town where we will cook up some risotto from the rice farm we visited. 

On the ancient wall by the old church. 

Inside the old church. When we took photos of the outside of the old church a couple of days ago, I just assumed the inside was abandoned and neglected. Not so. It is still a functioning church and the doors were open while the men were cleaning. 

We arrive at the community kitchen in old town where we will cook tonight. 

The first thing we make is biscotti 

Biscotti is placed on a cookie sheet and sprinkled with sugar for a nice crunch. 

This is Flo. Don’t know if I’ve posted a pic of her yet. She’s absolutely delightful. 

While the biscotti is baking, we are walked back up to the rocks where a beautiful picnic of hors d’oeuvres have been set up for us to enjoy. 

Me with my mouth full of gluten-free bruschetta, topped with artichoke and tomato, and just reveling in this incredible setting. 

The old church. 

The biscotti is baked now and we are getting instructions on how to slice it for the second bake. 

Sliced and ready to go back in the oven. 

Now it’s on to the risotto. 

It’s a fairly complicated process to get a creamy risotto with just a little bite in the center, similar to al dente pasta, but a bit more involved. 

 A lot of stirring and tasting goes on. 

Once it’s at the right stage, butter, parmesan and parsley are added and there’s another stirring process that takes place off the stove to cool it down properly. 

Kim has it down. To me it felt like rubbing my tummy and patting my head at the same time and I just didn’t have the right coordination for it. Guess we know who will be cooling it down when we make it at home 🤣

When the risotto was done we were walked back to the main square of old town where our outdoor dining experience awaited. You should have heard the gasp when we turned the corner and saw this tableau. Amazing simply doesn’t describe it. What a lot of work to carry all those candles and dishes and lights and decor 

At each setting was a cushion and light blanket, which came in handy as the night cooled. We were also presented with a gift of risotto rice from the farm to take home, as well as a bag of biscotti. We made way too much to eat it all tonight. 

Here we sat, under the Tuscan stars, eating the best risotto and biscotti ever, and conversing with new friends. No one wanted the night to end. Which is why this didn’t get posted until today. How do we top this experience? You’ll soon fine out. Ciao!