the arrival of Paula

We went to bed later than usual, as we wanted to welcome Paula, who came all the way from Koln to Graz by train; then Daniele went to pick her up for a hour-long car trip. The lights were dimmed, we prepared some silly choreography and a song; but the moment we all met, nothing else came to mind than to exchange some pleasantries and ensure a warm welcome. It was, thus, a shorter night of sleep, as we started our meetings today at 8:30AM (plus, the lack of sun was very unwelcome for an outdoor yoga session, and there was also no meditation session. Maybe I'll slowly transition into waking up earlier).

our first meeting at the farm

For the first morning with the whole group, we were joined by Nataša. We sat on the other living room – some sort of a covered porch, and which will be renovated soon, using techniques we should learn throughout the summer – and took some time to share some initial impressions on the present situation. It was heavily stressed that we need good communication, as we are all away from home and in a very different environment than usual; also, working the field can get quite intensive, so resting well is a must. We also saw a broad outline for the forthcoming months for the first time, which includes many exciting and varied activities: gardening, woodworking, organisation of a communal library for the village; we will, too, be hosting guests for some special sessions – photography workshops, and bird-watching sessions, for example – that Nataša has met throughout her activist and journalist career, throughout the years. As this was happening, we were greeted by the pleasant sound of the heavy rains outside, which kindly reminded us that no matter how much and thoroughly we plan, we are always at Nature's mercy in what our real possibilities of work are regarded.

All of it was very inspiring, albeit, maybe, a little overwhelming; but definitely not in a bad way. Once again I notice that, for once in a really long time, I am integrated with my daily life in a much different level, as many things that I deeply care for – ecology, sustainability, community life – came together all at once. I'd say this feels like a major opportunity to set in stone a good foundation not necessarily just for the summer, but for the forthcoming period of my life. It feels nice to be along like-minded people, which overlap on some, if not most or all, of these sensibilities: it is not something too common in the city setting, so distant from nature.

on the validation of science and counter views to my own

I was reminded that just yesterday I went to visit Público's website, and came across two articles in particular that highlight a big ridge between their stance and my own impression of the world: this article defends that 'biological' agriculture is actually worse to the environment, while this one (much more recent) defends that 'biological' vegetables are not any more beneficial than the regular ones. Of course, I do not expect these matters to be simple – in fact, nutrition is often regarded as a particularly contaminated area in what external influences are concerned – but it is nevertheless bizarre to see science as a back-up for any given argument and its contrary. Having had a background in statistics, and after reading some additional books on the matter, I am thoroughly convinced that one can use data to support any viewpoint. At some point, I'd like to give a proper read to these articles, and maybe comment them. After all, I'm sort of unemployed – I have all the time in the world.

the first adventure at the kitchen, with Riccardo

A little less than a month ago, we all received an email with some inquiries on our favorite foods: both the ones that we couldn't stand living without, and what sort of recipe or practice we would like to learn, if given the chance:

If you had the possibility to learn ANY KIND of recipe from a professional cook: which would be the recipe/food/preparation that you would like to learn to prepare it by yourself? (Can be anything, also bread, cheese, yogurt, or any kind of traditional dishes)?

I took some time to reply – plus, we were still doing the bikepacking trip in the Azores – and many things came to mind. I'd love to learn how to make some tofu, and have a better control of my fermentation theory and technique, but suddenly I realised that one of my favourite foods in the world is croquettes; it is definitely a staple in my childhood (they were immediately very unavailable from the moment my vegetarianism set itself), but also a very social food, which is usually present in many party contexts (suddenly, I also have some memories of a very specific anime from many years ago, Honey and Clover – might rewatch, just for the fuzzy feeling! – which heavily featured some croquettes on its first episode).

Shortly after the meeting, we had the chance to finally get to know Riccardo, the italian chef who's doing a week-long cooking workshop with us. His son and assistant, Tiago, had already been around the day before. They're both old friends of our hosts Nataša and Daniele.

He's a very affable person, which one would not necessarily guess from his big frame and firm handshake; in the first few moments with us, he established many possible meanings for being a professional. In no time, we were discussing how we didn't really have the resources to do proper pizza, and thus the dish we would do today was, instead... croquettes! This was hot enough of a topic to suddenly find ourselves on the matters of veganism, locally sourced food, nostalgia and random acts of giving. It was quite pleasant, and we went to the pantry shortly after, to have an idea of what resources we had available for lunch.

In between all of this, we might have setback a little with regard to the schedule. As we moved on to the other kitchen – which stays in an old renovated barn, and is really a charm of a place – there was a slight aura of chaos as much as general excitement: nine people set themselves to do croquettes, some vegetables, rice; and, during all, Riccardo was clumsily albeit earnestly juggling between Italian, German and English, all the while explaining the different reactions of the vegetables to salt in the process of grilling, among many other things. At some point, Daniele went into the field of the farm, and brought an assortment of fresh aromatic plants. A little pocket radio was set to an eighties nostalgia station.

By the time we had finished cooking, it was almost 4PM: a formidable skid of almost three hours. Understandably so, Daniele was a little frustrated (mostly due to, understandably too, some hunger) but I'd argue it was difficult to do any better: this was Paula's first day, and everybody was quite excited to be in this such challenging, thrilling new environment. All in all it was lots of fun, and the meal was hearty and pleasurable (although, on the other hand, the croquettes were quite heavy on the potatoes; and so we all sort of had a major carbohydrates crash).

Of course, all of the afternoon had to receive a major think-over, and we also had another separate meeting to take on, regarding our trip to Metlika on the next Monday – but that is another subject entirely. I managed to sneak in a little NSDR siesta, full with dreams, some light snoring and a brief foray into light sleep, and shortly after we were back at the dinner table. Riccardo called me to the side, referring to me as the recycling freak (I had asked earlier whether we would use the potato peels; shortly after, during the separating from some yolk from the egg, he promptly said he had plans for the leftovers); turns out he also had figured out something to do with the leftovers of the bread in which we covered the croquettes. Again, the meal was quite pleasant, and halfway we realised we have another cat in the farm: a much smaller one than Titi. Luka had noticed him crying, but its noises were more akin to a bird than cat. Daniele found it, and Nataša went to provide it some food shortly after. It seems like our farm family is growing.

on public writing to external eyes

It was simultaneously quite clear that this journaling of mine has been going in the wrong direction – again. This had already happened back in February, when I participated in a sustainability + agroecology Training Course in Le Mans. Many of the ideas that came to mind, and much of the training and knowledge that we received, it all came to a sort of dead end in my private notes. The notebook I incessantly scribbled at was at some point the object of attention of Catarina, who asked whether she could read it; and I was reluctant. Of course, all writing starts as a private endeavour; not many people will allow for prying eyes on their raw sentences and lines of thought. But it is quite important that, with time, these become public, and grow publicly as well. Thus I realise that although some of this is quite personal – this is, after all, my own experience – there is an act of courage and maturity in letting this stance go and let others join in on the fun. It will also solve on the issues I've been struggling with: there is no need to provide a (technical language incoming) front-end for the TiddlyWiki service, as it is already both the back-end and the front-end. A quick DuckDuckGo search yielded some solutions, and I might try this one tonight.