Maybe, maybe this weekend!

The grape harvest is taking forever.  Every other year we have begun and ended with only a few days between picking.  This year, however, we began by picking grapes for the La Gramiere rosé and waited.  A week later we began the grand picking---for three days--- and waited.  Four days later saw us picking more Syrah and now we are waiting.  Maybe this weekend we will complete the harvest.  Just maybe.  The grapes are very leisurely ripening and enjoying the warm Provencal sun.

As the foods we buy at the outdoor markets are freshly picked by the producer, they are ready to eat---now.    Sitting a pear on a shelf for a few days can result in mush.  Not exactly how we buy things from our grocery stores. This made it difficult for me to shop for the lunches.  I planned and we ate between the harvest what I had planned, so I began all over.

Twenty-five volunteers, friends, family, dogs, and a camera crew began the harvest at the beginning of last week.  The chill of the early morning greeted everyone as we began the careful picking of the organic grapes.

Peta Mathias, (petamathias.com ) New Zealand author,cooking, and travel personality met us with Jane and Jeff, her producer and camera, man to film the harvest of La Gramiere ( lagramiere.com ).  Peta was teaching a Provençal cooking class in the area and creating a series of shows for New Zealand TV. Amy was interviewed about her adventures in wine telling the story of how she and Matt got into vines and wines.  Traveling through the vineyard, they filmed us hard at work collecting the 2010 pre-wine or grapes!

Coffee time arrived with conversations, French muffins and new friends.  In her sun catching hat, Joan, Matt's mom, and Linda, our neighbor enjoy the morning break.

Ronny who is in communications work on St. Barts discusses Jeff's new HD camera, fascinated by its lightness.

Lunch time brought us all to the table for an Albania feast of dolmas wrapped in brined La Gramiere grape leaves and a fresh beet salad.  Two young girls, Julianne and Alysa, were staying with Amy to learn the intricacies of wine.  Alisa, with her mother's input, created the dolmas from a family recipe.  Yum!

Joining us for lunch, walking through the vineyards and enjoying the conversation was our neighbors eighty-nine year old mother.  All ages gather as on a following day we had a four month old who cried when I looked at him.

 

What fun we have in the vineyards!  And oh, what a good sleeping pill it is.

Bisous,

Cindy