4th of July 2024

10 July 2024. I am back home from our usual Independence Day celebration at La Casella. Thanks in part to incredible set-up work by the Rowe-Hendler crew in 2022 for the first edition, Alaina has turned this into a tuned and well attended event. 


We had about 50 people again. It seems like a good size for this party. We don't have fireworks, partly because I don't like them and mostly because we don't want to burn down Tuscany. But we do have a lot of food. 


We've moved the grill to a new spot next to the old pigsty, which is better sheltered and has good sun protection from the oaks. This year, our friend Valerio wrote me about a week before the party:


– David, you need some help grilling this year.

– I do?

– Yes. What time should I come?

– Oh! The party is at the 18s¹ for 19:30. Come at around 17?


Valerio is an expert. He knows more about everything Anghiari, about woodworking, about chestnuts, and about grilling than you can fit in the national library in Florence, which is the nation's largest. 


With the two of us at the grill and with two prep tables this year, we had:

2025 could be the year that I outgrow the small gas grill and move to something more substantial. Alaina and I recently re-discovered how good smoked barbecue can be at the famed Corkscrew in old Spring village outside Houston. Onions might be the best; good brisket is close. Many – maybe most – people in the U.S. have been recently influenced by Aaron Franklin and his lucid explanations in print and in video masterclasses about preparing brisket. 



¹I don't know why, but Italian times are plural. 'Alle otto' for 'at 8 o'clock'.

People made fast work of the meat in particular. I kept it coming till the table was gone.

 Also, we were surprised at how late people stay even on a school night. In 2025, the U.S. Independence Day is a Friday, so we are expecting that more kids will be able to come. 

We had quite a few sweets, including one peach pie that I made using an all-butter crust. It seemed quintessentially American, which might be why it was eaten but not completely. The real star of the dessert table: Alaina's excellent cookies du péage, which are the basic Toll House recipe, only using butter from Brittany and chocolate chips from Edwart

One food that disappeared completely: cheese. I had brought a half a brie de Meaux and a big piece of fourme d'Ambert from Paris, since these types of cheeses are unfamiliar in Tuscany. We also had young salted rounds from our neighbor Stefano's goat farm and creamery. And there were some other cheeses. I got none, because they were all eaten.


We learn more each year.  One lesson: if we have lots of beer, people will drink it. We were counselled 'if young people are coming, make sure also to have beer'. So we did. The regrettable side is that mediocre factory beer has been supplanting the mediocre — and worse — local wine for more than a century. The less regrettable side is that microbreweries are now dotted throughout Tuscany. Some are even using some chestnuts in brewing, which is probably as old a regional custom as winemaking, including La Luppolaia in nearby Caprese Michelangelo. 

Fortunately, we missed this year multiple bottles of homemade prosecco. It was described by reviewers as 'nose is mostly ammoniac, with hints of bitumen and acetone. There is no finish, as no one dare's taste it'. 

We did a fair amount of cleanup that evening, and we had more hands working so it took less time. We even slid the giant barn doors closed, with enough muscle. They might be opened once again next year — there is still one hinge on each side. 

I think we had a fun party.