Kiwi Sheep Farming in Umbria!

This month's story is a tale of a New Zealander becoming enchanted with Italy, its land, its people and lifestyle. Chance meetings brought a huge change to Mac, who has embraced the life of an Umbrian farmer.  A fantastic tale.  Read on....

Yes, you may laugh, as most friends and visitors do - I abandoned New Zealand to become a sheep farmer in Italy.

Certainly it was nothing I had planned or intended to do - it was totally by chance that I met the man who is now my father-in-law while strolling through a very beautiful olive grove on the rolling slopes of Montefalco, the wine capital of Umbria. He was grazing the family flock of milking sheep under the olive trees and, he being a very sociable bloke as most Italians are, we got chatting. He told me that in the spring they walk the sheep from his farm in Montefalco to his family’s ancestral lands in the nearby Appenine mountains.

I enquired if I could come along and he replied that all I needed to do was to front up at his house on the 10^th of June at three in the morning. I was there well before three, waited in the pitch dark until he came out of the house, jumped into his jeep and drove off.  Shortly after his daughter, Francesca, came out and said "Let’s go!" and together we walked the flock and a large pack of dogs across the valley and high up into the Appenine mountains. We’re now married with two kids.
 
Francesca’s family have been farmers here in Umbria for generations unknown. They make pecorino cheese and ricotta with the milk from the sheep. Farming sheep, however, is actually only a small part of what entails being a farmer, we also make extra virgin olive oil from our 3,000 olive trees, hunt for truffles and make wine. All trades that I have learnt since being here, but might confess feel perfectly comfortable with now.

Being a farmer here also means great people, fantastic food and wine and magnificent views in every direction. Being a New Zealander, I’m well used to stunning scenery and beautiful landscapes, but there is something quite special about Umbria, with its rolling hills covered in grape vines and olive trees, the picturesque ancient hilltop towns and castles, the amazing Appenine mountains with flower-covered meadows, centuries-old beech forests and snow-capped peaks in the winter time. Every season has its pleasures, too: a cool breeze in the heat of the Summer, the Autumn moon and colours, snow flakes falling in winter and the way everything just blossoms in the Spring, but to name a few.
 
We divide our year between the mountains and the lowlands. From October to May we’re in Montefalco, which is a particularly beautiful medieval town, perched atop a hill overlooking the Spoleto valley. The farm is but a stone’s throw from the ancient stone walls, and the sheep graze the many vineyards and olive groves as well as a number of fields which we sow for pasture.

Winter is milking season, we still hand milk the sheep. The milking facilities are a few pieces of wood slapped together which the sheep pass through, a v-shaped piece of juniper wood attached to a rope which you throw over their neck to stop them going forward, a small 300 year old wooden stool which you get used too after about six months - if you ever do - and a bucket. Oddly enough this system produces almost pure milk and the best cheese.

October is olive picking season, and we make some great olive oil. The majority we sell but for our extended family of 10, we use around 300 litres a year. I personally have become an extra virgin aficionado and have taken over entirely the family groves. The oil from this area is well known as being one of the finest and most healthy, being unusually high in polyphenols. They say the olive oil and the wine are what keep people healthy over here. Most farmers of my father-in-law’s generation rarely drank water when they were at work, but instead about 5 litres of wine a day. No doubt it was considerably lighter than the wine of today.
 
In the early Spring we still make the trek with 500 sheep, 4 donkeys, a horse and a goat or two up to the ancestral lands in the Appenines. There’s a small town up there, called Pettino, where my father-in-law was born.

I’m definitely the new blood up there, it’s taken the people a while to get used to me, but I’m part of the furniture now and our two children – both bright blond – are the pride of the village.

It’s a very traditional life in Pettino, rush hour is our flock of sheep and the neighbour’s cows heading back to the barn for the night. At night you can hear the wolves howling – believe it or not there is a flourishing wolf population in the Umbrian Appenines. We have a shepherd with the sheep at all times, as well as a pack of dogs, an Italian breed called Pastori Abruzzese-Maremmano, whose only role in life is to protect sheep from wolves. Un-trainable, they have this uncanny instinct to look after sheep.
 
The surrounding forests are also packed with truffles and Francesca has a number of cousins who are expert truffle hunters. I go out with one of them almost every day during the season and even have a dog or two of my own. It’s quite an amazing profession and a great thing to experience. We stroll the woods and high pastures in search of the prized black truffles. There’s some really stunning countryside to be seen, and my mother-in-law makes the most delicious home-made tagliatelle with a freshly-dug truffle sauce upon our return.
 
It’s such a unique and pleasurable experience, in fact, that we have people coming from all over the world to go truffle hunting with us. We call it the ‘Wild Foods Gastronomical Adventure.’ We stroll the countryside hunting for truffles and visit some really picturesque spots. Then, back at the farmhouse my mother-in-law teaches you how to make pasta by hand as well as a number of other traditional dishes. With the family and friends at the table, you try truffle frittata, wild-boar stew, stuffed guinea fowl, or any number of other local delicacies as well as loads of great Montefalco wine. It really is an authentic and amazing day that I might say really sums up life in Umbria.
 
 For more information visit our website montefalcomob.com