Meet Irma Fé
On the road between Cerretino and Sorano is Il Vecchio Fienile, an agriturismo and farm campsite. It is here that Irma Fé lives, and recently she shared with us her childhood food memories and experiences.
As a child, Irma grew up on a farm near Pitigliano. Her family were sharecroppers and kept cows and other small animals. Her maternal grandmother came from Abruzzo, while her paternal grandmother was from Cerreto, a small village near Sorano. When she was young, there were five children on the farm: her, her sister, and three cousins. In her first year at school, she walked four kilometres each day. Her father owned an Ape, a small three-wheeled vehicle with an open cargo area, but he rarely had the time to take her, as he was constantly working.
At first, she walked to school with a cousin. They set off together and, further along the route, would meet other children; by the time they reached school, there were around fifteen of them. In her final year, she walked alone, as her cousins were older, and they had stopped going to school. She recalls that, when it rained, she would often return home soaking wet. Her mother worked constantly in the fields and was rarely at home, so Irma often stayed with her grandmother.
One of Irma’s most vivid memories is the scent of mint and cinnamon, which reminds her of the tortelli (stuffed pasta) her grandmother made in the spring.
During that season, when the cows produced more milk, they could make a little ricotta and cheese. The tortelli were a rare delicacy, eaten only a couple of times a year, unlike today when they are always available. Traditionally, they were sweet, filled with ricotta, cinnamon, sugar, and a hint of mint, and served either with meat sauce or fried and dusted with sugar as a dessert.
Irma began preparing savory tortelli only as an adult, when she and her husband Luciano opened the agriturismo Il Vecchio Fienile. For the guests, she used ricotta, cinnamon, and spinach, instead of sugar, as they were accustomed to the savory version.
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Irma Fe in her garden
Her grandmother also made a favourite dish of hers: timballo with crepes. This involved layering thin crepes with meatballs, cheese, tomato sauce, milk, and eggs, then baking the layers together.
Once a week, they made bread. Like many rural households, they had a "mesa," a wooden chest where flour and sourdough were kept and refreshed daily. When the dough was ready, it was placed in long, low wooden boxes to rise. Linen cloths, slightly wider than the boxes and twice as long, were used to separate the loaves: one loaf was placed, the cloth pulled over, then another loaf, and so on, with a final cloth covering all the bread. The boxes were placed on two chairs in front of the wood stove to rise, a process that lasted all day. In the morning, her mother would prepare the sourdough, and by the afternoon, the bread was ready for baking.
“In the countryside, we had more than one breakfast because lunch was not until around two,” Irma recalls. “In the morning, we had fresh milk from the cows. Later, around ten o’clock, after tending to the animals and before heading to the fields, we would have a hearty breakfast.” She also remembers eating vegetables, such as beans with zucchini or zucchini in tomato sauce.
In her family, her mother or her aunt did most of the cooking. Irma began cooking only after her marriage but had always helped around the house. Growing up on a large farm meant there was always much work: they sowed sorghum and maize, and at harvest time, they made bundles, which were important food for the animals. Before the ears of corn sprouted, they would cut the plants and make the bundles.
Life wasn’t easy during her childhood: the house gained running water in 1974 and electricity in 1984, the year before Irma married. Before that, drinking water was fetched from a fountain which was on the nearby farm, while in winter, rainwater from a well was used for both the house and the animals. In spring and summer, animals were taken to the Fiora River. By the age of five or six, Irma was already taking two cows to the river each morning, where they stayed all day while her parents worked in the fields nearby.
The house she lives in now belonged to her husband’s grandfather. It was one of the farms of Montorio, which had formerly been a large estate of over a thousand hectares. The oldest part of the property is more than 200 years old. With land reform, the latifundia were divided, and families received land according to the number of children. Life on the farm was communal: her husband’s father had six siblings, and they lived together with other families. Orphaned children were often taken in and raised as part of the household. For example, Luigina, who had lost her parents to the Spanish flu, was raised there until adulthood. Another orphaned nephew lived with them for many years.
Everyone on the farm contributed to the work. Her father-in-law had both meat and dairy cows, but when he fell ill, they had to sell them, as Irma could not manage them alone while her husband worked at Montorio’s game-breeding reserve, which included ducks, mallards, and pheasants.
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The entrance to Vecchio Fienile, home and workplace of Irma and her family
Irma has a strong connection to traditional Tuscan cuisine and produces most foods herself. At the agriturismo, she and her daughter Sabrina prepare handmade pasta, sauces, preserves, and cookies, using ingredients they grow and meat from their own animals. She enjoys both meat and fish, and has always been involved in animal husbandry. Today, alongside ducks and hens, they also have rabbits and cows. They now also have cows, which are tended by her son. They used to keep pigs for family consumption, cooking potatoes in winter and providing flour and grass in summer. It was demanding work. Currently, they have only a pet male pig, owned by Irma’s daughter, which only goes out when the sun is shining. They previously had a game farm and even used an incubator for raising chicks. After marrying Luciano Crociani, Irma and her husband initially lived with his parents before transforming the old stable into their own home. Irma has always worked hard. After his passing, her children encouraged closing the restaurant so she could focus on the farm and have some personal time. She still cooks for the agriturismo guests and campers, but now, for the first time, she can attend a dance class or join her family at local festivals, enjoying leisure time alongside her work.
IIrma with her son, daughter, and dog