Wednesday, February 6, 2013

a whole new


  new year.  new vision.  new mode.  new skin.  new shoes.  we have a lot of new going on these days, maybe not new from the ground up, but a shifting, updating, finetuning sensibility that hits us every so often, kind of like a seven-year itch.  it's time to do a change up, sit up, primp up.  so we've started with our blog.  the original name of our blog fuoricitta--an Italian word meaning something that was occurring outside the city, literally outside + the city, but that was still connected to urban roots was both fitting and appealing for these first six years of the blog.  we are definitely outside + the city, doing outside the city kind of things, like farming, and growing wine.  but we also like the city, we like the innovation, style, and energy that the city offers.

outside the city, we do things outside, and we do these things on a small farm in the Chateauguay, this husbanded wilderness about twenty minutes from the nearest big town that's really a village.  but we also do things inside.  like run a restaurant.  set tables.  cook meals.  curate a winelist.  wash dishes.  polish glasses.   we do things in that big town that is really a village.  we like how outside + inside speak to each other, dovetail, correspond.  the things we do outside find their way inside.

but now, we find that there are other elements feeding the farm and the restaurant, and we've gone back to an original inspiration while moving forward in our endeavors.  fuoricitta has given way to a new title: hunger and love.  the phrase hunger and love was the subtitle to our first book together: In Late Winter We Ate Pears, a collection of recipes fashioned around a collection of essays.  the subtitle came from the book itself, "so, this is a book about the food we've eaten in Italy, about a risotto made with saffron and parmigiano, about a biscotto made with anise and almonds and taken with a small glass of sweet wine.  about leaving home, about finding a place to stay, this is a book born out of desire or parts of desire: hunger and love."

this blog is still about all those things, but also about how that hunger and love has led us on a journey both unexpected and anticipated.  a farm has become folded into the restaurant.  a vineyard and winery has been folded into the farm.  long, elegant meals in a field under an apple tree, or in a barn, or on a stone terrace have become an extension of the osteria.  the desire to create an atmosphere conducive to conviviality and style have been woven into how we think about generosity and feeding people; in short, how we set the table.

the table is a landscape we farm just like any other and creates a bond between the vessel out of which we spoon the soup to the root in the soil; from the recipe on the plate or the libation in the glass.  all these things inspire: the rough-hewn wood of the table itself, the old china found in a resale shop, a roll of vintage wallpaper tucked away in a coat closet, an old coffee can full of blooms, a smooth cotton textile that we created ourselves.

so welcome to the first forays into a new era.  raise your glass and stay awhile.

--deirdre and caleb

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