Producing Portugal

Chourizo smoker: we smelled of campfire for the
remaining 10 days after 30 seconds of exposure

Slow Food seems to attract a particular type of regional leader, or at least the ones we meet.  All men, they are gregarious, passionate, proud and energetic.  They also lean towards impatience, overly-ambitious scheduling, occasional inappropriate commentary or behaviour, and at times, condescension.  We may be a large, often unruly group, but we are not children. 

Sometimes I wonder if they realize that for us it's not necessarily quantity of experiences and visits, but quality.  Every one of us has a particular angle to explore on producer visits, especially if we're writing a paper.  Their frustration with our detailed questions, exhaustion on overly-packed days and sheer inability to stuff our faces for the third time that day is bewildering. 

That said, we are enormously grateful for the time they give up for us, their varied contacts and the experiences we have had.  It's quite simple: without them, we wouldn't have the breadth of knowledge about their regions.  And to be fair, our two most exhausting visits to Puglia and Portugal were also our most amazing in terms of really understanding and delving into an area.  I have a deep affection for these two regions largely in part to the experiences we were given by the local leaders.

The producer visits in Portugal were frustrating because they were often much too short, but the opportunity to compare both small and large scale productions as well as family projects was invaluable.

Making Serpa cheese

Stored bitter table olives

Cardoon is typically used as rennet in cheese-making

Olive Oil production

Making chourizo

This was a small tasting before lunch...

The 3 Musketeers: representatives of a community who make wine in
400+ year old Roman amphorae (massive clay urns)

Small scale honey production