On Jul 24, 2011, at 9:18 AM, David Ritchie wrote: > The mountain people who make Etivaz cheese proved wonderfully generous. They > offered us all things sweet and rich and fat. High above Chateau d'Oex--try > pronouncing that--where M.C. Escher spent time, the day begins with sugar'd > cereal and cream so thick it has to be spooned. It's like eating meringues > for breakfast. > > They make coffee, but the traditional drink is very sweet tea, flavored with > herbs and cooked over an open fire. I've no idea what their dental bills are > like, but they're not fat people; when you work from dawn to dusk, your body > makes little attempt to store calories. > > I gave her a painting, my usual clumsy work. The wife told me of an artist > who would knock on the door of the chalet to buy cheese, cream, eggs. One > day she asked to see what he'd done. Because what she saw didn't look like a > photograph, she naively asked whether the painting was naive. The artist took > umbrage. Probably wasn't Escher. I said she could call my work anything she > wished. > > Making cheese over a wood fire at an elevation where you sometimes get a > dusting of snow in July, the people have views...also views. "Woods," the > father said, "must be managed like women; if you aren't careful, they go > wild." > > All five daughters married before they reached twenty five. It is the son > who will inherit. > > Before breakfast every day there was a reading. On Bastille Day the theme > was, "Liberty, Equality, Fraternity." While these are fine notions, God is > many times more important. > > A visiting Canadian described how GPS has changed the way they do everything > on his farm, and how cows are kept inside all day because otherwise the milk > "tastes grassy." Swiss cows still exit the byre with bells around their > necks, chickens roam the meadow, but the poor pigs are kept in a dark hut > their whole lives through. > > They make great sausage. > > Scientists somehow measured flavors in versions of the cheese made at the > lower elevations, at the middle elevations and those elevations reached only > in high summer. As cows move up the hill and their diet comes to include > flowers and new kinds of plant, flavors multiply exponentially. If you were > you buy straight from the caves therefore, you might specify a cheese made in > July or August. > > To see this all in person, just call. They've all got cells. > > David Ritchie, > Portland, > Oregon------------------------------------------------------------------ > To change your Lit-Ideas settings (subscribe/unsub, vacation on/off, > digest on/off), visit www.andreas.com/faq-lit-ideas.html ------------------------------------------------------------------ To change your Lit-Ideas settings (subscribe/unsub, vacation on/off, digest on/off), visit www.andreas.com/faq-lit-ideas.html