UNA SCAMPAGNATA
scampare + campagna =
una scampagnata =
to take a walk in the country

"scampare" = to escape "campagna" = countryside

8 Marzo 2004
Fattoria di Celle (Celle Farm)
Santomato, IT

Villa di Celle (Celle Villa) -->
A casa (to home) -->
Montale (a town) -->

Each March, village women throughout Tuscany take to the hills with straw baskets in their hands. What are they looking for? "Insalata di campo" (wild salad).

<-- DARIA
She was born 67 years ago, in a village only 3 km from here. Her grandmother taught Daria how to hunt for wild salad. Years later, when she became the cook at Villa di Celle, foreign guests would often be served insalata di campo. When they wondered what it was, she said, my grandmother's recipe.

Who will know about such things after we're gone? she asks. I don't have an answer.

Salad cannot be picked where sheep graze, because "la febbre maltese" (the Maltese fever) can be passed to humans.

Many medicinal plants can be found here. They treat everything from nervous disorders (la crescione) to menstrual cramps (la rombisce) and even heartache (calendula).

<-- il coltello (the knife)
(to dig the salad out of the ground)

<-- It will take over an hour to pick and other to wash the dirt and bugs out of this salad. (That's slow food.)

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