Now that is just …weird.

We have done a lot of crazy, fun, interesting, educational, yummy and amazing things with my tour guide, turned friend Heather Jarmin with Sapori e Saperi Tours.

But one day last summer was just….weird. We started with an amazing cup of coffee of course, and traveled to a small town outside of Lucca to spend the morning with a young small framed lady named Stefania. Stefania and her family live in an top level apartment but were in the middle of building a brand new house on a small lot right next door. As a Realtor I was sooooo excited-this was the first new construction home I had seen in 3 yrs in Italy. I was amazed when she led us into her new still unfinished home to find a bedroom filled with…SILK WORMS.

Yep-you got that right. Silk worms had literally filled 3 long tables in the new home’s bedroom. Stefania has taken an ancient old farming technique she learned from her Grandmother, and brought it back for all of us to enjoy and learn. Restoring this ancient tradition can only be accomplished by the most passionate.

Breeding and feeding silk worms for the production of the cocoons to be sold at market is dated back at early as the 1600’s in Lucca. The peasant farmers would sell these to factory owners. There were as many as ten factories located around Lucca and silk production was one of Lucca’s most precious resources up until WWII.

She invited us to go into the “living room” where an enormous pile of Mulberry limbs and leaves had been gathered by her children. Seems silk worms ONLY eat Mulberry leaves and they have to be dry-therefore if it rains she also has the task of drying the leaves…gee and I thought my kids were picky eaters! She feeds these little buggers up to 8 times a day for 20 days-she doesn’t sleep much during this important time and the worms grow to 9 times there original size. They also molt 4 times during this time growing new skin-yuck. She had nets under them to catch the waste from all that eating.

After the 20-30 days of eating they start “dancing”. The weaving and dancing of their head is actually them spinning their cocoons. The metamorphis is amazing I am sure. What is left are white or gold (if you are lucky) cocoons of silk. The filament is an entire long patient process as well. She allowed us to take some of these pods and boil in hat water and then using a special comb look for te beginning of the thread-it is actually just one long peice and you do not want to break it!!

Feeding these worms and listening to them crunch was just …weird… ina good way. We could not believe how fast they put the entire pile of leaves away! What a true education for my kid that day. Then Heather took us to a weaving mill to see how this lovely silk is made into thread, then into scarves, etc. We saw them weavers, looms, final product and even bought a lovely scarf for Grandma C!

What a special day…