MICHIL'S NEWSLETTER
Out of mind but filled with joy
Martin, Bernadette, and Rafael live on a mountain farm next to Marebbe, surrounded by the heady scent of larches, mountains, and fields. The farm enjoys a view of the Sasso Putia and the entrance to Val Badia. They don’t own many cows – five in total – sturdy specimens used to the harsh mountain life. They’re not your traditional dairy cows, either – between 25 and 30 litres a day, if that – and they only graze hay and grass. Wheat, rye, barley and maize. A blast from the past, especially when you think of all the chemical-rich rubbish which is sold in this day and age. And the cows… have horns! Others prefer to cut or burn them away, but not these three people. Martin’s cows are truly a sight to behold: they’re happy and their milk is out of this world!
Martin is only one around in the area who makes butter, to boot. All you need is a small bite of his product to see that this butter doesn’t mess around. Take its colour: a deep, intense yellow which makes you want to reach out and touch the one Bernadette is preparing. Its texture is something unique, unyielding and hard yet also smooth and soft. Its scent? Oh, it will remind you of the surrounding mountains, and its flavour is, as we said, truly out of this world. A natural product, requiring no magic formulae or chemical compounds: a product which can lead us back to a better world we should strive to and, once there, protect.
The mother, father, and son trio produce around five kilograms of butter every day, and sell them to whoever yearns for high-quality products, made without taking any shortcuts. And that, luckily enough, includes us. And as you are our guests, that makes you lucky, too, because you’ll rarely get to taste a butter like this anywhere else in the world. The firs time we visited then, we got to taste their butter and Bernadette added some delicious, mouth-watering bread to the mix, while Rafael cut us a piece of Speck, made by his cousin who owns a few pigs. That’s all that’s needed to have a good time, and we could wax lyrical about their Speck too – but let’s leave that for another day. The trio also have some chicken, fed just like their cows. And their eggs… well, you can imagine just how good they taste right now, right?
Simone Cantafio
