festivals

La Primavera: Swiss Italian Heritage Day

Our spring festival honours the Swiss Italian origin of this farm, and celebrates spring in the garden.

Saturday 16, Sunday 17, Saturday 23 October Fay Thompson's family history AND slide shows about Ticino and Lago Maggiore (traditional life, emigration, gardens and alpine flowers, mountain walks).

Sunday 24 October
The usual ingredients ... Relish the tastes of the new spring menu at La Trattoria. Lunch al fresco in the grotto (a shady eaterie)... barbecued Italian sausages luganighe, wood oven pizzochri and pizza slices. Taste an Italian-made wine, or sip lavender lemonade! Light joyful music will float your way. Children will show you how to dance the tarantella.

Feel our long Italian Italian-speaking presence in this district - visit the 1860s Italian farmhouse, wonder at the stone construction and the spacious proportions, hear Fay Thompson's family history, and in the cellar, watch Boyd Thompson's travel pix of Ticino (the district of lakes and mountains in southern Switzerland).

Stalls will include Red Beard Bakery's fresh sourdough bread and sfinci (sourdough doughnuts), pickled olives & olive oil, gorgeous chooks and fresh eggs, and hardy succulents for pots or garden.

But this year we have an amazing treat to mark our 10th La Primavera...a costumed re-enactment of the 1796 Battle of Arcole, where Napoleon led his troops across a bridge  at Arcole in the Adige Valley, to outflank the Austrian Army and cut its retreat.

(At this time the northern Italians and some Swiss Italians were supportive of Napoleon, hoping he would rid them of Austrian rule.)

 

Or to enjoy la primavera you can simply loll on the grass, watch the farm animals or walk in a beautiful garden, taking time to notice the fresh growth of spring or to hear the small birds bustling through the nesting season.

Bring a rug, relax and breathe in the indescribable freshness of spring country air.

10.30am-5pm Sunday 24 October 2010
(that gives you plenty of time to get ready for the Festa's evening lantern parade & fireworks).

Entry $5 adults, $2 school-age children