Happy New Year Everyone and Welcome to 2023. Thank you for subscribing to my newsletter.
2023 feels like the start over that I have been looking forward to. The last 2 years have felt like survival years, transition, adaptation and acclimation. Along the way we have made lovely friends and neighbours that helped us adjust and made our transition smooth. Our first two new years eve in Italy were spent in lockdown playing cards carte with our neighbours, eating various versions of panettone and pandoro, drinking proseco, home made liquors and at the end of the night a bowl of lentils. This year it came and went quickly once again. Not in lockdown but it was a quiet one again. Hopefully next year now that we feel that things are going back to normal perhaps we will host a party!
There is nothing like a new year to remind people to re-set and start again. The fresh start offered by January 1st is so tempting that every country seems to have created rituals about what to do on new year’s eve to make sure to get off on the right foot. Most of the new year’s traditions in Italy are about what to eat, and what customs to follow in order to ensure good luck for the next 365 days.
Italians eat lentils on new year's eve for wealth and prosperity because the flat legumes were once believed to resemble Roman coins. They're traditionally served with a huge sausage called cotechino that simmers with the lentils or with pigs trotters on a bed of lentils. Unfortunately, pig toes displayed in a bowl or cotechino is one tradition that I will probably not adapt to. Cotechino can be found in abundance on supermarket shelves at this time of the year. Stuffed in a casing with ground mystery pork meat, fat, rind, salt, and spices. It is definitely not the dieter’s meal.
SEE MY VIDEO CLIP ON COTECHINO
I prefer to serve a steaming bowl of hot lentils sauteed in garlic and fresh spinach and sausages made by the local butchers. First, the fresh sausages are cooked in a little olive oil until crumbled. In a separate pan, chopped garlic and a cup of fresh spinach leaves and diced carrots are sauteed together. A little salt and a teaspoon of nutmeg are added at the end of cooking. The cooked sausages are added along with the lentils with a cup of water or white wine. With a good stirring to combine all after another minute, it is ready for serving. For ease, I use one can of drained lentils.
This year I decided to add lentils to a pumpkin soup that I had been making throughout the fall. I sautéed diced pumpkins with chopped onions and garlic, a teaspoon of salt, black pepper and dried thyme. After 5 minutes of cooking, I added a cup of pumpkin puree. You can use broth. Once the pumpkin was cooked and soft I added it all to a blender to puree with a cup of water. You can add water according to whether you like a chunky dish or a more refined smooth texture. In a separate pan, I sautéed a cup of fresh spinach leaves with 1 clove of garlic (like above). You can use more spinach leaves as they wilt. I added a sprinkle of nutmeg to the wilted spinach. For this dish, I opted out of the sausages. It’s still good luck with or without as long as there are lentils! Time to combine all. In a soup pot, pour the pumpkin soup, then add lentils and spoon in wilted spinach leaves and heat to combine through.
There is nothing like a huge steaming bowl of lentils with a glass of prosecco to celebrate on a cold winter night. Eat a lot because they supposedly bring wealth in the coming year.
I am currently subscribed to Dianne Jacobs's newsletter. She has been a reference for me for the memoir that I am writing. She asked her subscribers about the frequency of receiving her newsletter. I am subscribed to newsletters that send 3 letters per week and others twice per month. So far I have managed to send it once per week. This led me to wonder how often would you mind getting a letter from me. If I send shorter letters more frequently would that be too much for your inbox?
Help me out: With the start of the year, I have goals to write more frequently. How do you want a newsletter in your inbox? How often is too often? Is once a month not enough? Which day do you prefer to get mail, Sunday or Monday?
LA BIANCA
It was a very busy Christmas season and it was wonderful to be so involved in the activities of La Bianca. Thanks to the counselor of La Bianca Romina Scocco for inviting me to participate and her team for an amazing job for all the lovely activities for the season. Please view their Facebook site for all the activities and if you happen to be here next Christmas THE LIVE NATIVITY is a must. Riccardo even participated as a shoemaker and took his job very seriously.
I would like to introduce you to the hamlet of La Bianca. This small fraction of the town of Allumiere has a total of 390 inhabitants. This is where my story begins about moving to Italy. I have been working on a book that started out as a cookbook and has turned into a literary memoir with recipes. It is a story that I have wanted to tell for a while. However, as a research scientist, this is a new avenue for me. So I have spent the last 3 years learning how to write this story. They say it takes 7 years to learn a new craft. So I am trying not to be too hard on myself with the process. Thankfully I seem to be nearing the end of the first draft! In the meantime, I began blogging about the history and culture of the region that I now call home. My friend Gabrielle who was the counselor for many years has fostered my desire to learn more about the history of La Bianca and has supplied me with a lot of reading material - but they are all in Italian. There is very little written in English. So I am working on deciphering this material with the help of google translate
To read more about La Bianca you can see my blog post on the link below
FOLLOW ON FACEBOOK TO VIEW FRAZIONE LA BIANCA
WHAT IS NEW
Living here in the mountains has been such an inspiration. I have been able to focus more on becoming not only a writer but a communicator of the aquaculture sciences. Most of you know that I am an aquaculture scientist and for the last 20 years, my career has led me into all aspects of science. From academia to working in the industry, at one point I was a farm manager in Jamaica and now I work as a consultant when the opportunity arises.
Last year I fulfilled a dream that I have had for a while. Lockdown did prove to be positive with anyone in the most remote regions now having the ability to have access to the internet and zoom. I started a network with Caribbean aquaculturists called the CARIBBEAN AQUACULTURE NETWORK. I held workshops and interviews trying to find the needs of fish farmers in the Caribbean. From this, I realized that there were many women working in various sectors doing amazing work in the Caribbean. I wanted to highlight their work as I do not feel that women get recognition in this field. In the summer CARIBBEAN WOMEN IN AQUACULTURE was born.
I am very excited to say that 2023 has started off well. My first byline was published in UK online journal FISH SITE. It is a publication of the first in a series called CELEBRATING CARIBBEAN WOMEN IN AQUACULTURE. Please view the link below to read more
READ CELEBRATING CARIBBEAN WOMEN IN AQUACULTURE
VIEW AND FOLLOW MY SCIENCE INSTAGRAM PAGE
WHAT IS HAPPENING IN ALLUMIERE
The winter days are quite dark and gloomy and we are now entering what I call the dog days of winter. January and February are the coldest and everyone has retreated indoors. Italians are social beings so this moment works well for no one. As a way to get through the winter my friend Paola has organized that we form a group to meet twice a week for yoga, meditation and exercise. So I am happy to say that I will be teaching yoga on Monday and Wednesday at 5pm in the Palazzo Camerale in Allumiere. If you are in the Tolfa Mountains please come and join us. It will be in my very bad Italian mixed in with some English. Hope to see you there!
As I look forward to a new year, a new beginning, and what I feel is a new chapter in my life, I plan to live and explore all aspects of myself, as a scientist, writer, artist, and yoga teacher. Thank you for following me on my journey. I look forward to sharing more of life in Italy with you.
Buon Anno
Cheers xxoo
Juli-Anne