Grape picking.

Well its that time of year again, wow how time passes when you're having fun ... yesterday, Rik cleaned out the barrels (the ones that are empty ) and the vat and crushing equipment and organised all the big drums we collect the grapes into ready to make the wine.
Sadly this year wont be the bumper crop of last Sept, but with our grapes and a friends few vines we should manage a couple of hundred litres. We still have maybe a 150 litres left from last year too so we'll not go thirsty...
We've had a suprise visit from an old friend of Riks and some other bikers from the uk , we had a lovely meal and very entertaining evening last night, so good to see old friends and hopefully make some new ones too. It also gave us the chance to talk bikes with people who understand us, which is one of the very few things we miss sometimes.

Theweather has picked up again, 30 degrees today, but nice and cool in the evenings and early mornings so we can get plenty done about the place.
Wood is still a priority, but we have to take time out for wine making too... another few weeks and we'll be picking olives, Ive still a few litres of oil left from last years bumper crop, and hope for enough to see us through another year. Such hard work though... well worth the effort, when you see that green gold come flowing out....
We use a very old tradional Lagar, that uses the old fashioned pressing mats and equipment, it takes a long time, from putting our olives in the crushing vat, to our oil coming out the other end, maybe around 5 hours... but we will go with some friends this year when they take theirs, and the Lagar has an outside kitchen/eating area with huge BBQ and oven, with tables and we'll all take our own food and fish and bread and wine and make a day of it. Everyone who goes there does the same, it turns into quite a day, with everyone sharing food and wine.... wonderful! Its just the kind of thing we came here for... community spirit, friendship.... and joy of life..

The garden is almost done, a few peppers will continue till the frosts, the cherry toms are doing well, and the aubergines still going like mad. The squashes are mainly all in and curing in the sun in the spare room balcony now.
Rik worked hard and rototilled me a small patch and fenced it off completely so we could replant cabbages, (40) leeks (30) and a packet of turnips and some Greleiros , a type of turnip greens used for soup. plus some oinion seeds as a trial... so we'll see how that goes, so far its proved to be rabbit proof.... fingers crossed!!!