Category: Blog
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Anna in Italy: Day 4
Today we drove into Arezzo, the capital city of the Arezzo province in Tuscany. This town was built in the mountains by the Etruscan civilization around the 6th century BCE. It was conquered by the Romans around 311 BCE, and became a home for retired Roman soldiers. Our first stop was at the Arezzo Archaeological…
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Anna in Italy: Days 2 and 3
Most places are closed in Italy on Sundays, so yesterday was mostly a rest day. We took some time to explore our resort, find the nearest train station, and wander around the closest town. Today we took a guided tour to Cortona and Assisi. Cortona is towards the top of a mountain, and was where…
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Anna in Italy: Day 1
I arrived in Italy mid-afternoon on May 26th with my parents, but we were too tired to do much besides walk around a bit and find pizza. Yesterday was our first full day in the country, and we took a Segway tour of Florence to give us a chance to see as much of the…
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Colby Jack Cheese
Colby Jack is a semi-hard cheese with a marbled look that is created by combining curds from Colby and Monterey Jack cheeses. I think the most challenging part of this cheese is running two cheeses in parallel and hoping that they both finish at the same time. If you decide to make this cheese, I…
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An Experiment in Cider Pressing
I learned how to work a cider press at a hard cider workshop I attended on Sunday. Fresh pressed apple cider is really good, and I found myself researching fruit presses to see if I could press apples at home on a small-scale. Unfortunately, presses designed for making just a cup or two of juice…
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Asiago Pepato (Part 2)
I was asked to make a few cheeses for a wedding coming up in October. Here is the first cheese, an Asiago Pepato. I started with a two gallon batch for practice, and to work out any bugs in my process. Then I scaled up the recipe to make a 4 gallon batch.…
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Anna’s Hawaiian Vacation: Conclusion
As I publish this, we’re sitting in the Maui airport waiting for our flight home. This was a fairly eventful trip! We went ziplining, snorkeling, attended a luau, watched the sunset from a volcano, and even toured a pineapple plantation. We also went to a different beach every day. But there was still plenty that…
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Anna’s Hawaiian Vacation: Day 7
We started today with a tour of the Maui Gold Pineapple plantation. We got to see pineapples at varying stages of development, including fields that had just been planted a few months ago. Fairly early into the tour we stopped for a pineapple sampling, and our tour guide used his machete to pick, peel, and…
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Anna’s Hawaiian Vacation: Day 6
Another morning spent at the beach, only this time we brought snorkel gear that we rented. We spent half our time there snorkeling before heading back for lunch. After lunch we drove to the Haleakalā Volcano, home of both the Haleakalā Observatory and the Haleakalā silversword. We reached the summit about 20 minutes before sunset,…
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Anna’s Hawaiian Vacation: Day 5
We started today with a Segway tour of Lahaina. After a short tutorial on how to ride a Segway, our tour guide took us all over the town! Our first stop was at the Lahaina Jodo Mission, a Buddhist temple home to one of the largest Buddha statues outside of Asia. …