A summer girl, I love my shorts, flip flops, daily intake of fresh tomatoes, and summer aperitivos. I cringe at the first signs of Fall, grey skies, dark mornings, closed-toed shoes and work! But the one thing that eases me into this new season is the infinite amount of Sagras (festivals) which take place in Piemonte starting now!
Last Saturday we took a few laps around Savigliano’s annual Festa Del Pane. In the years past, it was much more of a European/International event with bakers setting up stands from different countries. Well this year, I guess you could say due to the crisis, there was hardly any bread stands at all! I saw more honey, apples, and cheese than bread. There was one giant tent where they made bread in front of you and sold all kind of baked goodies like focaccia.
However, the beer and wine stands always seem to draw us in like magnets and we ended up spending the most time at Pausa Cafe for their IPA. Claudio and I love their beer and as I have already mentioned in previous posts, we appreciate their cause of helping inmates learn skills and crafts, by making these delicious brews. I know you can find them in Eataly too.
So we came home with one very expensive loaf of bread and a jar of melata del bosco which is a dense flavorful type of honey (taken from plants and leaves rather than flowers I think). Although I wasn’t so impressed with the bread festival I am ready for the next! What will it be? Snails, Wine, or chestnuts?
I'm quoting this from Diana Baur who nicely explains what "melata" is:melata is insect poop that's super sweet (after eating leaves and plants) and then eaten and redigested by bees into a honey.