Chuck & Jeannie Blethen

Transcription

1 Chuck & Jeannie Blethen 2010

2 Slow Food USA/Asheville Convivium

3

4 First stop - Milano

5 .. And a few sightseeing stops like the Milano Cathedral

6 And on to

7 Arriving in Malpensa (Milano) Airport

8 We arrive at the Registration point in Torino

9 Registration line at Terra Madre

10 Opening ceremony

11 Artisans & craftsmen sell their wares on the floor

12 ...and farmers display some of their bounty.

13 Grape Pommace Cheese

14 Grape Pommace Cheese?

15 Yes!!

16 Valle d'aosta Exhibit

17 Valle d'aosta Exhibit Just look at the presentation!

18 Sausages, oh, my!

19 Entrance to the Salone del Gusto

20 Seeds from other countries in the main hall

21 Porcetta Italian style

22 5000 attendees are served lunch all local and organically grown

23 Meeting Terra Madre Delegates from around the world

24 An old friend of David Kendall shows up Emil Underberg from Germany

25 Jeannie enjoys tasting the Italian-made Biodynamic wines

26 Everyone was asked to sign the poster about biodiversity

27 The large hall where the various sessions were held

28 Simultaneous translators in their booths beside the meetings

29 Volunteers hand out headphones for the simultaneous translations each session had to have separate headsets

30 Many Delegates were dressed in their traditional costumes

31 A map showing the breadth of Slow Food around the world

32 Tasting honey

33 Learning about the many varieties of apples

34 One of Slow Food s political campaigns is against GMOs

35 Another one of Slow Food s political campaigns is against land grabbing by large corporations

36 And another is against over-fishing by large corporations

37 Bus 24 s spontaneous dinner at the great hall before the closing ceremony

38 The closing ceremony at the end of Terra Madre 2010

39 Vandana Shiva was a featured speaker at Terra Madre 2010 she does not like Monsanto!

40 Slow Food Founder, Carlo Petrini

41 Dancing after the closing ceremony

42

43 Next stop for us was Valle d Aosta about 80 miles north of Torino

44 Here was the real Mountain Fire in the Italian Alps at sunset!

45 The Alps greet us on our first morning in the mountains

46 There are castles on every bend of the river that flows through the valley

47 All of the roofs are covered with 2 inch thick slate

48 Typical breakfast at La Vrille Bed & Breakfast

49 Chuck checking out the grapes growing on steep slopes in Valle d Aosta

50 One evening we have dinner with Barbara Swell s daughter, Annie de Bacco, and her husband Gianluca

51 A bird s eye view of the La Vrille B&B totally self-sustaining

52 One of La Vrille s steep slope vineyards

53 A co-op winery of eleven communities

54 We visit Gianluca Macchi, Executive Director of CERVIM, Centre for the Research, Study, Protection, Co-ordination and Advancement of Mountain Viticulture

55 Here we review a steep slope vineyard that has been terraced without retaining walls

56 Andreoli Engineering has designed a special crawler, the UT60 evo, for working on the steep slope vineyards of the Italian Alps

57 Here we visit the highest vineyard/ winery in Europe at 8029 feet above sea level. It is no problem to grow grapes in our mountain counties with a mere feet of elevation!

58 Here we visit a chocolate and art market in downtown Aosta

59 All of these items are made of chocolate!

60 Our only souvenir from our trip a friendship bowl from Valle d Aosta

61 Next stop Valtellina, about 90 miles northeast of Milano

62 Isabella & Emanuele, owners of Ar PE PE Winery

63 Isabella talking with her vineyard harvesters on their steep slope vineyard

64 This steep slope vineyard requires a towing system with baskets similar to a ski lift to get the grapes to the winery via trucks waiting on the road above

65 Here you can see the baskets used to bring the grapes up to the waiting truck

66 Harvest baskets brought up the mountain from the vineyard on the ski lift are transferred to back-pack baskets for the final trek to the waiting truck

67 Here we visit a value-added market in downtown Sondrio. The man is showing us an antique bee hive

68 Grapes, apple orchards, and olive trees cover every available patch of land

69 Some of the vineyards growing on some of Valtellina s 2500 kilometers of hand built stone wall terraces

70 Vineyards and orchards reach up to the tree line

71 The Italians practice integrated, intensive farming fields of potatoes, vineyards and cows grazing along side each other.

72 Preparing to make Passito (special sweet wine) in the field

73 Departing Sondrio via train to Milano

74 Milano Central Station then by bus to Malpensa airport

75 Malpensa Airport our point of departure from Italy

76 JFK welcomes us back to the USA

77 Thank you Slow Food USA! Thank you Slow Food Asheville! Thank you to all of the members and volunteers who helped us raise the airfare in the Mountain Fire fund raiser event in Spring Creek!