Four or five times a year we sit down and write what's on our mind, from the first snowline to the Sunday loaf out of the wood-fired oven.
Annelies Imboden-Truffer
Just before seven this morning a thin layer of snow lay on the stones outside our front door. It had disappeared by midday, but the air has changed. It smells of wood smoke from down in the valley.
Walter, our mountain guide, reckons the first proper winter day will arrive in about two weeks. The soapstone stove is being lit tonight. If you're coming in mid-November, expect snowshoes.
Annelies Imboden-Truffer
Valaisan rye bread is made from three flours: rye, wheat and a small amount of barley, with sourdough, water and salt. We use flour from the mill at Naters; I've been keeping the sourdough since 1998. That's all there is.
The dough rests for twelve hours. On Sunday at six in the morning the loaves go into the wood-fired oven, still warm from the embers of the night before. By half past seven the bread is done. By eight the whole house smells of it. No one is reinventing anything here.
Annelies Imboden-Truffer
Edelweiss flowers between mid-July and mid-August, by preference on chalky schist in the sun. About three hours' walk from us, on the high traverse towards Bettmeralp, there is a slope where it returns every year.
Please don't bring scissors or a bag. Edelweiss is protected in Valais; we prefer to see it where it is and return the following year. Walter will show you the path if you ask him.
