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The products |
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The Extra Virgin Olive Oil Our olive-grove, with about 1.100 trees of the species Frantoio, Moraiolo and Leccino, are mainly sowed from a mixture
of the former olive-grove, that was once very common in our region. |
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Instead of fertilizers we can choose either a
treatment of “Sovescio” legumes or we simply cut the grass under the olive trees. The trees will be cut only a little bit each year, which
normally will occur a manual premature harvest; all these
methods serve to produce a maximum of quality and to get a stable production in the course of the
years. The olives will then be fringed in the better oil mills of our region. |
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In the year 2002 our Extra Virgin Olive Oil
was characterized in the “Guide of the leading controlled quality olive oils”, as follows: “ … by looking at
the oil you will see intense golden yellow colors, lightly green and clear. The smell introduces itself elegantly and
harmonically, rich of tones of fresh, green country herbs and a scent of unripe tomatoes. The
taste is elegant and vegetable and is characterized by soft tones of white fruits with a touch of artichoke
at the end and a determined bitter and piquant content. The oil goes excellent with raw meat carpaccio, salad of sea fish, soup of legumes as
well as grilled fish and poultry.”
The following sizes are available:
0,75 liter bottle
0,50 liter bottle
0,25 liter bottle
0,25 liter cruets
5,00 liter glass container |
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The Pici Roughly a third of the area of our farm is cultivated with grain, mainly with Durum Wheat; this type of grain we
use to produce the Pici (thick spaghetti – typical pasta in theTuscany), which we produce as first farm since the year 1996.“The Pici are
certainly one of the most authentic |
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dishes of the typical Tuscan cuisine, referring to the rural
culture of the Orcia Valley and the southern province of Siena.
But they were strongly discriminated by the pasta law which was not even mentioning the Pici. Nevertheless, they survived also in
the 60’ies because of the tradition. In the end it is
also thanks to the housewives who once as farmer’s wives on Sundays and on holidays cooked a “better” meal
by preparing handmade Pici with |
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flour of soft wheat and accompanied them, like the pasta, with
various sauces, “alle briciole” (with toasted bread quares), “ai funghi” (with mushrooms), “all’aglione” (with a
garlic – tomato and chilly pepper sauce).
The Pici though are not only a tasteful
pasta course, they are also from their nutritional point of view very “precious for the health”. And so it occured, that slowly,
time after time, the Pici in the mid 60’ies were re-discovered by a bigger public in the taverns of
Monticchiello (SI). From there they were distributed in a lot of restaurants of the South Tuscany......”; this
quotation about the Pici, was written by myself in one article of a respected guide of “farmhouse holidays”, that was published some years ago.
The use to
cultivate soft wheat in the Orcia Valley was partly lost; our Pici, that are made of the Durum Wheat of our growings, close in
some way the circle, by creating a connection between the raw material and the final product that is used by the consumer. The high
quality of the wheat permits to produce even more tasteful Pici, which particularly during the cooking keep their
consistence as there are no eggs added while mixing the dough.
After the Pici have been dried, they are packed and have therefore a
long durability.
Please pay attention that you do not stir the Pici while they are slowly boiling, in order to avoid
that they will brake. Afterwards you have either the choice to cover them with a meat or vegetable sauce.
I would like to take
the chance to recommend you on this occasion a typical vegetable sauce recipe called “all’aglione” (a tomato
garlic and red chilly pepper sauce): “Fry slightly the garlic and the red chilly in a pan with Extra Virgin Olive Oil. Add some tomato sauce,
a pinch of salt and if you prefere add also thinly cut parsley or basil and cook all until you obtain a thick sauce. Add the Pici already
cooked and sautee them with the sauce in a pan. Help yourself and have a nice
meal”. Our pasta confections are either
available as 500 gr. or 250 gr. packages and provide
you on every packing all the necessary
information of the cooking duration as well as a typical Tuscan recipe. Certainly
all the recipes are also translated in English and German and contain
besides the “Nutrition facts” to inform you about the characteristics
of the product. |
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The Barley Among the different types of cereals, is the barley probably the most simple
in the cultivation. Well, you actually can receive even with only a few expenditure and a restricted work very good results. |
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Barley has always been cultivated in the Orcia
Valley and can be used either as food and flour or as roasted barley for
beverages but even as animal food. The most common type of barley though was probably
in the last half of the century the one that was used for the beer production.
Furthermore it is also possible to roast
our barley in order to get a tasteful beverage. Especially loved by those, who consider
the coffee as too |
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strong. Moreover the barley (pearl-barley
or whole meal barley) is nowadays often used for soups.
Regarding its use in the
kitchen we did prefer to reveal only the first hull in order to keep all the important nutrition values. Over and above
that, this method leaves the grain its important content of fiber.
The barley for soup is available in the 500 gr. confection and contains all
important information regarding the preparation, the cooking and a typical recipe on the etiquette.. |
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The Chick peas In the agricultural succession it is essential
to create the best prerequisites for the fertility of our ground. Therefore we tried to plant various legumes such as
chickpeas that already traditionally were |
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The only change that we did, was that we
moved them now to the open fields, certainly with
quantitatively lower capacity but qualitatively very good results. Our ground is
normally considered as extremely “poor”, as it is very rich of clay. This
fact is on the other hand very good for the circle of the chick peas; they dry in the summer and
let also the plants themselves completely dry
out. Doing this, |
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all the seeds have a limited dimention. Our
chick peas of the type “Piccini Toscani”(tiny Tuscans) have a small diameter and are smooth, round and easy to cook. They do
not make a hull and will melt deliciously in your mouth, after you tasted them
once. The chick peas are available in the 500 gram confection
and contain all important information regarding the preparation, the cooking and
a typical recipe on the etiquette. |
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