Updates and two recipes to cozy up, from a cold Italian autumn!
This newsletter will not have the usual three-part structure because… yes, you can guess… a lot is going on, but not everything is related to this newsletter. For the second time in a row, the deadline caught me entirely by surprise.
So, I’m sharing updates from us and the da spalla world in no logical order.
This is Chuck Herin, trying Daniela’s Violoncello da Spalla at Cremona Mondomusica two months ago. Chuck is the genius behind Pegheds, the original geared pegs. They are much better than all the other brands because all their inner gears are made with metal, so they are designed to last, while the head of the peg is wood (you can also have it of the same wood and design as your pegs), so it perfectly blends in. Thanks to this meeting with Chuck, we will have original Pegheds on our modern Violoncello da Spalla, on trebles side, because those steel modern strings are hard to tune without fine tuners!
Almost all the Warchal C strings are on their way! We shipped out 22 strings last week. We still miss 3 addresses and, unfortunately, one payment. There’s a guy who pledged and said that he will not want his strings, so to offer them to someone else… well, at the end he didn’t save the budget for the project. We were on a long call last week, and he said he will send us the money at the end of December, so we will hopefully ship the related strings just after Xmas holidays.
We're having a great time in the workshop! Daniela is busy carving the scrolls for her next two spallas and also getting ready for an exciting new project: a bass gamba viol! Meanwhile, Alessandro has crafted this stunning fingerboard for his Gasparo baroque tenor viola. It's all coming together beautifully!
As we gear up for our presentation next year, we revisited two interviews that we found to be incredibly compelling. Given that these were published at the outset of this newsletter, they may be unfamiliar to many of our readers. Therefore, we are excited to share them once more!
Chasing originals
Giving life to original instruments
It’s cold here in Italy! Very cold! We can now say we have four seasons in a day: this morning there was a wind storm, 4 degrees below zero and ice falling from the sky. After 10 minutes, 10 degrees above zero and full sun! So it’s time to stay cozy, use our wood stove and cook.
Here the two winter recipes that we prefer, and that Daniela prepared right before writing this newsletter:
Red cabbage soup:
This is a simple chop-and-cook vegetable soup. Daniela’s dad used to start it with some good sausages together with the onions and olive oil, but also the simple vegetarian version is very tasty. It has to cook for hours, better if on the stove, and it gets better on the next day. Remember to add salt and pepper! Pro tip: add 3 leaves of sage, it will get more intriguing!
Artichokes and potatoes:
This requires a bit more time to clean the artichokes, but it is very simple as well: just chop and put in a pan with the olive oil onions, artichokes and potatoes. Add a bit of water, and after 15 minutes add salt and pepper. Let it cook slowly for 40 minutes. Even this gets better the next day… but rarely arrives there!
While we were waiting for dinner to be ready, we decided to have a little aperitivo to celebrate a commission that Daniela received for a cartoon! It's for a lovely family that runs a distillery right here in the village, and they make the vermut we had on the table. Normally, we’re big fans of China Martini, but we also like to switch it up with some “Schwarzmut”. We paired it all with delicious salame, olives, and some tasty streichwurst on mini-schüttelbrot. It turned out to be a wonderfully balanced half-Italian and half-German aperitivo! 😂 Cheers!
Featured video of the week
Alberto Vitolo plays a Alessandro Visintini Violoncello da Spalla
