Miro Kotiga grew up in San Bartolo, a cluster of hamlets to the east of Motovun. He is in his fifties now. As we were gabbing a few minutes ago, he chanced upon a bit of ancient farming wisdom. “When I was a kid,” he told me with a wink and a smile, “I always wanted all the potatoes to be planted in the same field.” I was not sure what he was talking about. “But we had to plant it in three fields at least,” he continued. “Ha,” I caught on, “this was to make sure that the risk of any sort of trouble was spread around as wide as possible!” “Yup,” he nodded, “and hail was the worst trouble when I was growing up.” Delighted, I slapped his shoulder. “The same was done with beans and everything else,” he added with a happy grin. Three fields at least. How many bits of ancient farming wisdom are there yet to discover, though?