Just a short one, I’ll write more about the specifics of this great app when I’m back home. Most important thing for now: apparently Slow Food recognizes the need for digital solutions on succesfull platforms such as iPhone to offer and disperse knowledge about local food!
Hopefully, WantEat isn’t the last in a series of (partially) Slow Food funded apps. Read more: here.
Well, I took a little break, my holidays started and tomorrow I’ll leave for the Salone del Gusto! I try to post some stuff while being on the venue, but only once a day since the costs of data roaming still keeps me from posting frequently…
If you want to know what’s going on in Torino at the Salone del Gusto, visit my blog the next few days, or visit the event’s page here!
Ciao a tutti!
I never heard anybody saying the word Bündnerfleisch with so much joy and laughter in his voice. Hans-Rudolph Merz, member of the swiss Bundesrat must have caught a cold which might have left him with a itchy throat. Anyhow, while making his point about some changes in Swiss trade & food laws, Hans-Rudolph Merz can’t get a grip and keeps on laughing:
For those of you who don’t speak German, but want to know what it’s about, here’s a rough translation up to the point where he says the word Bündnerfleisch:
Following point 6a of Chapter 2 of the
CN (e.g. Combined Nomenclature; trade regulations),
customs administration has published
so-called swiss Guidance Notes in addition to
custom fares. After that, particular products that
involve the addition of ingredients which will not
change the specific character of the product as
meant in this chapter, will be submitted
into chapter 2, for instance, Bündnerfleisch.
Hatecke's Bündnerfleisch
I’m a fan. No, even better, I’m a devotee! Ludwig Hatecke is the name of the man behind Metzgerei Hatecke in Scuol, St.Moritz and Zernez. He is also the man who embodies the brand that Hatecke actually has become after three generations. The visual style Hatecke uses led another weblog to designate it as ‘Art in meat’, I can only agree. Every monday at 18:00 you’re invited to join him on a degustation where you get to try the many types of Trockenfleisch (dried meat) he is famous for. The ‘line-up’ consisted of Bündnerfleisch, and several types of salsiz like Cervino (deer) and Agnello (lamb).
Bündnerfleisch and Salsiz ripening
While we tasted the delicious meat, accompanied by a very elegant Valtellina Superiore Riserva Sassella 1995, Ludwig explained passionately how Bündnerfleisch is made. The meat is being salted and turned several times a day and after that it’s being hanged to ripen during approximately two months. During the process of production, the meat loses 52% of its weight and it takes 1000kg grass to obtain 1kg of Bündnerfleisch. Although the meat Hatecke uses for his products is certified with the Bio-Knospe, the Swiss label for biological produce, Ludwig tells us he prefers non-certified animals that have led a happy life up in the mountains over certified animals that have lived near a busy area.
Impressed by his presentation and the passion with which he talked about his products, I decided to ask him about his opinion about local and regional food while showing him my test-version of the layer I’m developping. Turns out he is very enthusiastic about my efforts because he also thinks it’s very important to prolongate local and regional food-production. I feel a follow-up coming up!
In a previous article, I already wrote about the features of this app. I still use it with a lot of pleasure and it’s good to see them have this much attention, because this app is here to stay. Go Komoot!
I’ll start this post with the fun parts of that day, a bit more in-depth pondering follows in the second part of this post. Me and my Stevens mountainbike departed really early once again to make a trip to yet another local food enterprise. As I worked myself to the bone, climbing up the hills of Ftan at 25 degrees centigrade, I could already smell the bread I was about to bake alongside Jon Padruot Cantieni, the Dorfsbacker (village’s baker) and owner of the family company Pastizaria Cantieni. Leaving at 7:15 in the morning, expecting to arrive at 8:45 and eventually end up drinking coffee in the sun at the terrace of Hotel Bellavista for three quarters of an hour because I already arrived at 8:15, well, that made me smile alright. Didn’t relate in any way to local food though, but hey, who cares?
The guided tour Cantieni took us on gave me a nice impression of the village and how the people of Unterengadin used to live in earlier days. The tour’s highlight was Muglin da Ftan, Ftan’s mill. The miller of Ftan’s last working watermill diligently showed us the process of milling. As the video shows, the process starts at the top floor, where the wheat is emptied into a big chute. At the middle floor, the miller pulled a lever which affected the stream of water, directing it to the mill; gradually, the machine started working! The wheat trembled onto the millingstone and at the lower floor, the milled wheat was captured in a bag, ready to be milled once again.
After that, we headed for Cantieni’s bakery to get our hands dirty. Of course, it would have been nice to make the dough ourselves with the freshly milled wheat but time wasn’t on our side. Instead, the dough had been made that morning and was waiting to be cut into pieces. After some short, subtle kneading, the breads where put in the Holzofen and while we waited for half an hour we were served some delicious Ftan cheese, homemade bread and of course, his specialty, the Engadiner Nusstorte, the walnut-caramelcake typical for Engadin.
While exploring the landscape surrounding his bakery that day, Cantieni implicitly clarified some changes in and consequences for the configuration of Unterengadin’s food system. Local pastry production in Ftan decades ago, meant eight mills milling different oats each, exporting the surplus. Today, the flour needed to bake bread and the Engadiner Nusstorte, is coming from Gran Alpin, a cooperation that stimulates biological agriculture in Graubünden the Kanton which Unterengadin is part of. This shit in export – import of oats is mainly due to change in the configuration of the population Cantieni serves; from ‘native’ Ftan village people and perhaps some surrounding villages to (inter-)national gourmands in numerous countries all over the world.
Tour made with support of www.komoot.de
In her work as neogeographer, Di-Ann Eisnor is concerned with “scaling participation in map-making”. According to her “scale is impact”, because “those who create the maps are represented on the map”. Very clear talk that focuses on the potential of neogeography in shaping the ‘fixed’ reality as we know it, into a reality more in sync with certain communities’ believes, traditions, visions. I believe in this potential, therefore I will keep on creating a map, and ultimately a Layer, that includes local and regional alternatives to obvious, easily accessible fastfood and low quality restaurants.
As Churchill said ‘we shape our buildings thereafter they shape us’ but in this case
we create our maps thereafter they shape us. The cool thing about now,
is that with social mapping, with the concepts of neogeography that put tools in the hands
of millions of people to make their own maps and their own picture
of the world. We can now go back in and recreate our map and that’s what we’re
trying to do.
What!? Buttermilchquarkkuchen? Fichtenspitzenhonig? These are only two of the delicious delicacies produced at Alp Uina Dadaint next to their fresh milk, butter and cheese!
Thanks to my visit to this alp last year, I already knew it takes a quite challenging tour to get there. Just when I thought I had found the most remote dairyfarm (Alp San Flurin), Alp Uina Dadaint turns out to be even more remote. From the little town Sur En, there’s a single trail leading up, eventually, to the Sesvenna Hütte which you can only reach by passing through the Schlucht, a former smuggler’s trail from Italy to Switzerland. A few metres before the Schlucht, Uina Dadaint is idyllically situated on a open field.
The German couple who runs this alp together with a few co-workers only have twelve cows at their disposal. As they started back in 1999, they still had their home in Germany and worked on the alp all summer long. Recently, they decided to move to Ramosch, where they live throughout the year.
The products they make here are absolutely worth making the tour. I ordered coffee with Buttermilchquarkkuchen, which translates best as buttermilkcurdpie. When the piece of pie arrived, the woman excusingly explained the pie was one day old instead of fresh. It was a little dry but it still had a fabulous taste. As I informed about the several types of sirups and honeys they made, I was offered a small portion of the Fichtenspitzenhonig, which translates best as firtwingehoney. Although it has the same texture as honey, this product is made by boiling down sugar along with firtwinges and other herbs. The sweet, herbal taste turned out to accompany the Lammsalsiz very well!
Finally, I just had to buy their Mutschli, a small fresh cheese and their old alp cheese. The former has a nice light-sour taste and the latter has a very powerful and salty taste.
Sled carrying fridge in front of Bain Tuffarolas
Breaking patterns pays off. See, I had this efficient, plain A-to-B-type of route from Scuol back home. Route brought me home the first time; why even try a different one? A few days ago, I had time enough, the sun was shining bright, I took an alternative route. Without it, I never would have passed Bain Tuffarolas, a Demeter-certified farm near Sent. Now, why would there be a sled in front of that farm in the middle of summer?
As I got closer, the sled appeared to be carrying a refrigerator that contained all kinds of cured meats! It’s one of the many self-service refrigerators in this rural area. Equipped with an honesty box, these selling points are an ideal way for farmers to sell their products.
The refrigerator contained, amongst several other types of cured meat, Lammsalsiz, or lamb sausage, which made my mouth water! Needless to say, I bought that one.
Lammsalsiz
While writing this post, I’m having my first try at this biodynamic piece of meat. The Lammsalsiz is kind of juicy, so it has little bite. The taste was good though, a bit gamy, spicy with a slight touch of iron to it. Although dry sausages still are my favorite ones, the people at Bain Tuffarolas have to keep up the good work! Taking their website into account, one can tell these people are both passionate and serious about their job since they’re willing to take you on a guided tour and they’re affiliated with Bio Suisse, Demeter and ProSpecieRara. Will be visiting them soon!
Making tours on my mountainbike gives me loads of pleasure. Simply being outdoors, enjoying fresh scents and colors, putting myself to the test and sometimes even getting lost: it can all give me instant satisfaction. When you have a certain goal in mind, it might come in handy to do some accurate planning before-hand though. It even might be comfortable to have someone who will guide you during your tour. Someone that will also help you organize your experiences after you’ve come home. Komoot can be this companion as turned out before, during and after my first tour, proudly using the beta-account the guys at Komoot provided me! Let me give you a rather extensive impression of the tour I made to Alp San Flurin.
