Each first Sunday of the month in Pienza the local farmers sell the organic products, mostly pecorino sheep milk cheese and olive oil. The open market is in Piazza Galetti all day long is the best way to purchase directly from producers and know about the organic system in the area.You can taste the cheese: fresh, middle aged (red skin) and the long aged riserva (black skin), have a olive oil tasting bruschetta (please spell brusketta) made with fine organic extra virgin olive oil. This is the great food you can enjoy when you come to Pienza for a bike tour with Cicloposse. The pecorino di Pienza (o cacio) tells a fine story of encounters and cultural mixes. For some time now it has been acknowledged international fame. Finding the great earthenware boilers demonstrated to archaeologists that this cheese was also produced in prehistoric times.
In the 1960’s the abandonment of many smallholdings and the arrival of dozens of Sardinian shepherds with their flocks led to a partial transformation of the produce. Today you can buy Pienza pecorino throughout Italy. What makes it unmistakable – today as many centuries ago – is the presence on the pastureland of a unique and perfumed mixture of herbs that includes summer savory, wild thyme and wormwood.