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Tag: horses

  • Tupei farm and guesthouse

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    We are on the island of Sant’Antioco connected to Sardinia by means of a bridge, near the town of Calasetta, situated along a slope in the north-west of the island and partially encircled by white beaches and the sea. The ancient name of Calasetta, Cala di Seta, meaning Bay of Silk derives its name from production of sea silk, a marine type of silk which is extracted from a bivalve mollusc called Pinna nobilis.

    The Tupei farm and guesthouse is located in the hillside above Calasetta, about 2 km from the town and about 1200 m from the sea. It was bought by Michele and Silvana Puxeddu in the 1990s, both of who weren’t working as farmers in advance. He was setting up dropped ceilings  and wall decors, while she was working with graphics for advertising. Having decided to change their lifestyles completely, they left their jobs and selected a life following age-old traditions and offering hospitality to their guests.

    Having parked at the entrance of the Tupei property, we first passed a group of horses looking at us expectantly before meeting Silvana, Michele and their dog Aprile. In addition to horses, they also raise goats, almost all them very curious when we visited them. They also had a few chickens which were free to go wherever they wanted. Besides, they are cultivating olives, vines, vegetables and fruits organically, all of which are served in the guesthouse.

    Being very conscious and attentive, Silvana and Michele had decided before our arrival to join a project intending to let farmers themselves control their own seeds. Instead, the international development tends towards multinational companies selling the same types of seeds to farmers, minimising diversity, and requiring pesticides made by other multinational companies.

    Luckily, at the same time as our short visit to the island of Sant’Antioco, a group of courageous women from a local agency called Laore, which occupies itself with rural development and an organisation called Domusamigas arrived shortly after us, bringing many types of seeds in their car in order to start the project. On our walk to a nearby field, they explained that Michele and Silvana had decided to take part in a genetic and evolutionary improvement of seeds developed and selected by the renowned professor Salvatore Ceccarelli with the objective to turn control of seeds to farmers, safeguarding local seeds and increasing biodiversity.

    Having arrived at the field, which was already prepared by Michele, he set out to divide it into 40 equally sized rectangles being helped by the women from Laore and Domusamigas together with my guide. Using a masonry chisel and a mallet, he hammered the chisel into the ground near one corner of the field, then using a tape measure, he located the second corner of the plots. Next, he started making a line perpendicular to the first line. In order to verify that the lines were perpendicular, he and one of his helpers used the Pythagorean theorem. Actually, it was a pleasure to see this theorem applied to a real problem for the first time in my life. Having ascertained the angles and the dimensions, the women poured chalk along each line. Unfortunately, the planting of the seeds would take place another day, meaning that we couldn’t be present. All in all, 17 types of seeds should be planted, two of them local and two hybrids, some of them new, some of them old. All in all, three farms in Sardinia participate in this project and it will be done for several years.

    The objectives of the project in which Silvana and Michele participate are the following:

    • rediscover the evolutionary capability of local seeds.
    • hand back production and selection of seeds to farmers.
    • learn new techniques in order to increase biodiversity without using artificial fertilisers.
    • promote and facilitate collaboration between research institutes and farmers.
    • identify which seeds are most adapted to this land and environment.
    • reproduce and improve ancient seed varieties leading to increased biodiversity, autonomy and better health for farmers due to not using pesticides.
    • let the plants create new varieties by cross-breeding like what has happened since agriculture began.

    Professor Ceccarelli is known for his programmes of genetic improvement in which farmers are selecting and planting seeds together with scientists. The work of professor Ceccarelli together with other scientists, the International Center for Agricultural Research in the Dry Areas (ICARDA), has led to greater biodiversity and larger yields of crops in dry areas

    According to him we have to learn that “the seed is the foundation of life, food, and agriculture. However, farmers, who have been safeguarding and improving seeds since agriculture began, have been excluded from the production of seeds in the space of a few years. This exclusion has harmed everyone: farmers, agricultural research, our diets and the earth’s biodiversity. We have to make farmers cultivate various types of seeds for biodiversity, for themselves, for a secure food supply, and for the future”.

    We are grateful to Silvana and Michele Puxeddu for their hospitality and generosity and for letting us be present at such an important moment in their lives.

  • The Catean farm

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    The Catean family lives in the lowlands in the village of Rotbav about 20 km north of Brasov. There, they have a dairy where they produce cheese twice daily, while their horses live in a stable a few kilometres northwards, and their sheep stay on meadows a short drive from the farm. Early in the morning we could watch cheese being made more or less manually, first by pouring milk from a milk can through a filter into a large container, then heating the milk to about 40°C and adding rennet to separate the cheese mass from the liquid. After waiting about half an hour, it was time for separation where the cheese mass was lifted by hand into a wide, open container with an opening in one end and being oblique such that the liquid could flow out and being collected in another container. Putting the remaining cheese mass in a porous cloth, and compressing it in various ways, even more liquid was ejected. Finally, the dairy workers tied the cloth tightly around the cheese mass and put wooden boards and weights on the top in order to get rid of even more liquid.

    The three sons of the Catean family, Silviu, George and Ionut, have taken university degrees, but all of them prefer to stay at their parents’ farm. One of them told my guide that it is in their blood to be farmers, and they can’t help it. However, they are running a profitable farm and their products are renowned for their excellent quality.

    All the brothers are members of Slow Food Brasov, and they have been actively participating in a project called Transhumance 2013 where 6 shepherds and a flock of sheep too young to produce milk walked along the whole of the Carpathians from Romania to Poland, via Ukraine, the Czech republic, Slovakia and Poland, a distance of about 1400 km. Actually, transhumance is as old as the hills, often being practised by farmers living in the lowlands bringing their livestock to the highlands in spring and back again in autumn. Besides, nomads have gone wherever there was food for their animals for millennia. However, due to border controls, passports, etc. this has more or less stopped, and it is to be hoped that their project will be an annual event.

    After having paid a visit to their beautiful horses residing indoors due to the strong heat, we went by horse and cart to their sheepfold. Walking on a gravel road, the horse brought us to a sheepfold, while her foal was walking next to her. There, they could both eat as much as they wanted, while we were visiting the sheepfold. It seems like Romanian sheepfolds are organised in more or less the same way, with an outer fence and an inner one located next to a shed where the shepherds are milking the sheep. The sheep enter through two openings in the shed, before getting milked by one of four shepherds. It was unbearably hot with no shade, but the sheep were waiting patiently, and the horse was sweating heavily. How man and animals survive, I have no idea, but probably the horses and the sheep best suited to the heat have been selected for breeding since ancient times. Going back again in a horse-drawn cart, we passed a nest of storks, 3 chickens and one adult. How they survive the heat is another mystery.

  • Animal market near Saliste

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    When visiting the Lebu family, my guide was told that there is a big animal market on the outskirts of Saliste three times a year. Fortunately, that happened to be when we were in Saliste. Since a new highway to Sighisoara was being constructed at the same time, the animal market had been moved to a wide field further way from Saliste and having driven on a muddy road for some time and passed some horse-driven carts, we arrived at the market. The market is open for two days, on the first day small animals like sheep and pigs are bought and sold, while on the second, big animals like cows are horses change owners.

    Entering the market, I could see mostly men standing around and talking, while most of the horses were eating hay. One farmer was passing with a horse-drawn cart on which was standing a calf and being followed by a cow, while another one somehow attached a chain around the mouth of a young ox in order to make it walk where he wanted.

    Makeshift bars had been set up and someone was barbecuing meat, while poultry in small cages on the ground were for sale. Lots of horses had red tassels on their heads to ward off evil spirits. They were also for sale together with a large selection of horse harnesses.

    A screaming piglet was brought into a car, but it turned quiet after it had entered the car.

    Unfortunately, not knowing the language made me miss the horse-trading.

  • Viscri village

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    We arrived at Viscri from Brasov in the afternoon, having passed a potholed street lined with meadows, occasional deciduous trees, lots of flowers and distant hills. Then, suddenly, houses started appearing on each side of the road until we arrived at a crossroads. There, in front of us, was a creek surrounded by wide, grassy verges. Then, a wide gravel road followed by a grassy stretch with occasional fruit trees and benches and then a narrow sidewalk followed by a row of houses as far as the eye could see. On the other side of the creek, followed by a grassy stretch, there was also a narrow sidewalk followed by a row of houses. When later it started raining in a village with a similar layout, I soon found out that the sidewalks were excellent pathways while the puddles and mud on the gravel road were best to avoid.

    It doesn’t take long to discover that Viscri is very different from most villages having chickens, geese and ducks walking freely around as they please! In the courtyards, it’s common to see hens pecking, while turkeys and guinea fowl do whatever they want.

    Just walking along the main street of Viscri, it’s impossible not to notice lots of horse-drawn carts passing back and forth, some carts empty apart from the driver, while others may be fully loaded with beehives, milk containers, hay, and so on.

    Next day at sunrise, sounds of domestic animals and people crying could clearly be heard. This was the daily morning ritual when the cows and goats, after having been milked by hand, walk out from the courtyards in order to join the cowherds who bring the animals to some pasture nearby. The same procedure was repeated in the evening in reverse with the animals returning to the village and finding their way home where they would be met by their owners.

    Being surrounded by nutritious meadows, it’s only natural that sheep from Viscri spend the time from spring to autumn outside. We went by a horse-drawn cart early in the morning passing a large flock of sheep being guarded by a shepherd. Going by horse-drawn cart entails feeling all bumps along the road, squeaking from the cart and encouraging calls from the driver to the horse, while passing a beautiful landscape consisting of rolling hills and some deciduous trees. The hills were covered with high grasses and lots of flowers.

    The sheepfold we arrived at consisted of a primitive hut for making cheese and preparing meals, and a short distance away, a large enclosure partly full of sheep, and an adjacent enclosure almost filled to breaking point with sheep and bordering a shed with two holes large enough for a sheep to pass through. Having closed the entrance to the small enclosure, the sheep had to exit via the holes in the shed where 5 men were waiting for them. Each time a sheep entered the shed, one of the men would grab it by the tail, pull it back and milk it. This operation lasts only a short time, maybe less than a minute, then another sheep is milked. Being a very hot day, the sheep waiting to be milked were breathing heavily making a continuous sound. When all the sheep had been milked, the milk was brought to the primitive hut and poured into a wooden container. Rennet was added to the milk in order to separate the whey from the cheese mass.

    After having had lunch consisting of polenta and pork, one of the shepherds separated the cheese mass from the whey just by stirring the milk with his arms. After some time, he was able to feel that the cheese mass was being separated from the whey. He then brought a porous cloth into the container, somehow put the cloth around the cheese mass and lifted it up into another container with a sink such that the whey could escape.

    Having compressed the cheese mass to his satisfaction, he tied the cloth tightly around the cheese and hung it up such that the whey could go on dripping down.

    We didn’t stay to see how they treated the whey, but having watched cheesemaking several times, it seems like every cheesemaker prefer their own way of making it, even though they want to obtain the same, that is extracting the remaining cheese mass from the whey.

    It may seem like milking sheep for hours in a place with no running water, then putting one’s arm into the cheese mass would  create perfect conditions for dangerous germs in the cheese. However, having tasted cheese made in more or less the same way at several places without getting sick,  these guys somehow know how to make cheese safe for consumption although their cheesemaking is distant indeed from the way the cheese most consumers are eating is made.

    Going back to Viscri by the same horse-drawn cart, the driver stopped on a meadow with tall grass, brought out his scythe and started scything. After about a minute, he had cut a large amount of grasses and flowers, which he put in the back of the cart as food for the horse.

    We left horse and driver at a large trough in the middle of the village where the horse could have a well-deserved drink after having worked hard.

    In the evening we visited Gerda Gherghiceanu, in whose courtyard we could watch a bunch of turkey chickens mount a ladder in order to enter their home, a hole in the wall. The mother turkey waited until all her chickens had come home before she flew up the ladder and somehow entered the small hole in the wall in order to be with her chickens. Having passed the guinea fowl, we entered a barn where 3 pigs were kept, of which one of them would probably be slaughtered at Christmas.

    Gerda is renowned for her delicious meals, but we visited her in order to see what kinds of jams and juices she made.She told us that she mainly uses fruits and berries from her own garden, while her husband makes wine from their grapes. Some of the berries get picked from her own orchard, while other ones are gathered from the surrounding forests.

    She makes the following types of jams:

    • rhubarb
    • wild strawberries
    • blackcurrant
    • plums
    • apricot
    • hiprose
    • syrups:
    • elder
    • rhubarb

    and the following juices:

    • apple
    • grape