We had a guest speaker in the morning - Andrea Fugaro from Coldiretti. Coldiretti is the largest organization of farmers in Italy with 1.5 million member. The organization is designed to advocate for farmer's as entrepreneurs and help change policy so small farmers can more easily make a living.
In the afternoon we went to the Sarchioni gelato factory and met a father/son team whose family has been in the food business for more than 150 years.
We learned the ins and outs of gelato making and tried some lemon sorbeto. We teased a little bit of gender information out of the folks at the factory but didn't make tons of headway with them. We found out only 2 of the 8 people working there are women and that the men are the only folks who drive the trucks.
We spent a significant amount of time discussing the value chain of the various fowl that are raised on the farm and where the value is added at each step. Here are some pretty chickens we met:
We also learned about some amazing Italian dogs that guard sheep. These particular farmers have somehow magically trained these dogs to guard their chickens so they don't have to intrude on the local wildlife by hunting or trapping.
The division of labor at this farm seems to be that the man deals with the agricultural regulations, the woman deals with the guest house and they both do the actual farm work with the help of one other employee.
Lastly, as always, Domiano showed up for our field trip. He tickled the ivories as we finished eating supper:
In the afternoon we went to the Sarchioni gelato factory and met a father/son team whose family has been in the food business for more than 150 years.
We learned the ins and outs of gelato making and tried some lemon sorbeto. We teased a little bit of gender information out of the folks at the factory but didn't make tons of headway with them. We found out only 2 of the 8 people working there are women and that the men are the only folks who drive the trucks.
In the early evening we moved on to a local farm where we toured the fields with one of the owner's of the farm:
We spent a significant amount of time discussing the value chain of the various fowl that are raised on the farm and where the value is added at each step. Here are some pretty chickens we met:
We also learned about some amazing Italian dogs that guard sheep. These particular farmers have somehow magically trained these dogs to guard their chickens so they don't have to intrude on the local wildlife by hunting or trapping.
We ended the day by having a farm to table dinner at the farm. We ate chicken from the farm in a couple of different forms, vegetables from their gardens and other locally sourced items.
The division of labor at this farm seems to be that the man deals with the agricultural regulations, the woman deals with the guest house and they both do the actual farm work with the help of one other employee.
Lastly, as always, Domiano showed up for our field trip. He tickled the ivories as we finished eating supper:
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