Posts Tagged ‘justine curgenven’

Today we had the privilege of helping Francesco’s family with their annual grape harvest. Paola, his mother, has a hectare of land full of grape vines, olive trees and apple trees. About 20 family and friends gathered to help pick the grapes, including Barry, Cheri, Turner, Roger & Sonja & me. The grapes were poured into a machine which separated the stalks, and the resulting juice and grapes were poured into 2 huge vats. They’ll sit there for 4 days, being stirred lovingly by Paola, then the liquid will be drained off and stored in stainless steel VATS. By January, the wine will be ready to drink. There are no additives in it and if it’s anything like this years wine, it will be delicious! In traditional style, once the work was done, we all sat down to a HUGE feast of delicious food, which Paola and others had been preparing for several days. oh, and some of this years wine, of course. It’s not hard to see why they have a siesta in Italy!

It was a fantastic end to a great stay in Sicily.