A Traditional Food Retreat

Following our Gluten Free Getaway in Lucca, a fantastic group of folks interested in reviving traditional foods arrived to spend time with Jenny McGruther from Nourished Kitchen. After settling in on an unseasonably cold and rainy day in late May in Lucca, our guests gathered for appetizers and conversation in the ballroom. Our local chef served sheep’s milk cheese from Garfagnana, traditional Tuscan liver pâté served on sourdough crostini baked by a historic local bakery in a wood fired oven, panzanella, fried polenta with mushrooms and seasonal vegetable flan.

Most of the guests have been loyal followers of Jenny’s blog and were excited for a chance to spend time with her at the villa. It was so fitting to be talking about food traditions in a town like Lucca, where so many of the same traditions that the guests were learning about were common practices in the local way of life.

On this trip there were children who showed the adults how easy it is to become instant friends.

An elegant dinner was served in the villa dining room. Our hometown chef, Aurelio Barattini, prepared local specialties like zuppa di farro made with einkorn wheatberries and rovellini lucchesi. His panna cotta has to be the best any of us had ever tasted, which he served with baked, carmelized fruit. Yes!

If you are not familiar with Jenny, you should know that she is a true wealth of information and has an amazing capacity for teaching. Jenny is very knowledgable about food and how to prepare ingredients in a way that supports a healthier body. In fact, each class ran over by hours because the guests could not help but ask questions. Jenny’s responses were always accurate and in depth and this made her workshops very impressive. We all learned so much during this week and the food was really delicious.

We travelled together to our largest einkorn farm, just out of Siena. You may recall our farmer, Leonardo. He greeted us for a tour of the farm, explaining the differences between spelt, emmer and einkorn, as well as showing us ancient varieties of barley and oats. We took in the breathtaking vista of the extensive farmland and learned about the sustainable farming practices used to grown our einkorn wheat. We also learned how difficult farming can be. You could see the strain on his face as he explained how late the crops are this year because of the cold and rainy spring. In fact, in late May, the einkorn was still wheatgrass. On the way back to Lucca, we stopped in Siena and took a look at Piazza del Campo, grabbed gelato and then visited the cathedral.

Each guest that travels to Italy for Jovial’s culinary Getaway is special in his or her own way. For some, this special something might not be apparent on the first few days, but after spending a week together with occasions to exchange conversation in such a beautiful space, each individual’s goodness surfaces and this makes for a memorable vacation.