Harvesting almonds in the Italian countryside… how romantic
I’m really not sure how my time at this work/stay will go, simply based on my first day. For privacy reasons I have changed the names of the people and places I am writing about, so that I can write freely what I observe as an outsider, stopping in to work and stay in this interesting and lovely little corner of the world.
My first morning at Casa Giulia, I woke up at 7am to learn how to prep breakfast for guests. Giulia walked me through setting the table (I never learned properly, oops), baking the cornetti, where to buy fresh bread, etc. By the time her clients sat down for breakfast, we had a feast prepared (by European standards). I set things down on the table with a, “prego,” and had people convinced I could speak Italian, until they asked me for something, and then my cover was blown. Fortunately, so far everyone who has stayed here speaks English, luckily for me.
After cleaning up breakfast, Giulia introduced me to her boyfriend and the chef of Casa Giulia, Giacomo. She wanted me to work closely with him in the garden, but he doesn’t speak English so our communication will be limited. I didn’t get the feeling he was particularly interested in communicating with me, anyway. Giulia walked me around the property and showed me the long rows of olive trees that needed to be weeded — about 4 football fields in all. Whew. I’m a bit out of practice when it comes to the work thing, so yeah it might take me a minute to find my stride. Like a month or so.
The land here is pretty hard packed earth, full of prickly grass, so I told Giulia I would need some good work clothes and tools before I could start. In that case, she said, just do whatever you feel comfortable doing today. Rad, I can work with that. She, Giacomo and her 8 year old daughter, Vanessa, were preoccupied with planning the camping trip they planned to take the next day.
Just a few hundred olive trees to weed, no biggie
Giulia told me they were going for a quick lunch to discuss camping logistics, but would be back soon because 8 of the guests would be dining here tonight and Giacomo would be cooking for them. Great. Looking around, I was overwhelmed with the amount of work I could do. I walked around the property and noticed a few almond trees full of perfectly ripe to rotting nuts. Harvesting is the most fun part of farming, so I think I arrived at the right time. I got a ladder and a basket, and picked about 15 pounds of almonds.
By this time I had done my agreed upon 5 hours per day, so I had lunch with Giulia’s mom, Teresa, who is staying here and helping with Giulia’s one year old son, and another Workawayer, Laura, who has been here for a month. They are both lovely people and I was happy to have the company.
After eating, and unaccustomed to any sort of work, I was pretty beat. I went into my room to relax, and made the mistake of reading up on how to process almonds. Apparently you have to remove the outer husk immediately or else the almonds will rot and all your hard work will be for naught. So I got up and proceeded to husk 15 pounds of almonds. Nobody asked me to do this, and the almonds probably would have been fine, but I was determined.
In the evening, Giacomo and Vanessa showed up but no Giulia. I expected Giacomo to start cooking, but he disappeared. At some point, Teresa got a call from Giulia saying that Giacomo wouldn’t be cooking dinner, and could we pick up some pizzas and serve those to the guests. Also, it might rain and the only seating is outside, so figure something out. Laura suggested we move the tables into the yoga room, which was a great idea, so she and scrambled to move all the tables and set them for dinner while Teresa cooked up some side dishes.
I’ve never worked in a restaurant before, so I cackled to myself as I led our guests to their tables and asked them what they wanted to drink. I don’t know why it was so funny. Giulia finally showed up right around the same time as the pizzas, and Laura and I served pretty unappealing, semi warm pizzas to our hungry guests. At least the sides were good. After the guests had been served, Teresa served dinner for me, Laura, Vanessa and Giulia in the kitchen. Giulia had disappeared again, so the 4 of us ate. I wondered how our guests felt about being abandoned after being served a mediocre dinner. Granted, Italy isn’t known for its dining service, but it was embarrassing for me to contribute to it. But hey, it was my first day. If nobody else is worrying about it, why should I?
At one point, a guest came into the kitchen and asked if they could have another bottle of wine. Laura got up to get it for her, but I was busy on the ground pretending to be Rose from Titanic while Vanessa tried to guess, during a rowdy game of charades. After our game was finished, Laura and I cleared the tables, as our guests had disappeared to their rooms. Giulia popped back in to do the dishes and play another round of charades with Vanessa and me. Giacomo was nowhere to be found. And that concluded my first day at Casa Giulia.
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