Curd with Sprigs of Fig

Located in Italy’s arid boot heel, Altamura has a food and wine culture that, in some cases, remains relatively unchanged through the centuries. Here, Antonio demonstrates a little-known technique to turn sheep’s milk into ricotta using only the sap from young fig branches.

This is a short film in a series which examines traditional food practices as knowledge culture. I frame these practices as culturally rhetorical acts—as valuable meaning-making practices that connect people to place. As these foods and ways of life are slowly disappearing, so are the ways of knowing that these practices embody—in this case, Antonio’s deep knowledge and intimate relationship with the land.