A Day on the Vines

So prior to my brief US sejour, I spent a fabulous afternoon in a tiny village an hour or so away from Semur, visiting the family of some friends here (the parents of the host mom of two of the assistants--her name is Odile).  They live in an old agricultural village, have fields, several gardens, animals, and a tiny vineyard.  We were invited to help with their recolt, which is done by hand in a long afternoon because the vineyard is so small.  This was one of my favorite days so far in France because the weather was gorgeous and it gave me a chance to get back outside, in the sun, and working in a garden.  Hopefully this day was just the start of my Burgundy wine-o education :)





We went up and down the steep rows, filling up buckets, emptying them in large barrels, and refilling them, all the while munching on fresh grapes right off the vine.  After a tough few hours in the sun, we stopped and drank fresh grape juice and ate soft cheese and cookies.  So French.  It was perfect.

After returning to the farmhouse with the loot of grapes, the men started separating the fruit from the woody bits, and the other assistants and I followed Odile to check out the four massive gardens here parents (in their 80s!) still work.  If only the people from Ndiomdy could see these gardens!  Every household had at least one and most weren't even fenced in because animals such as goats, sheep, and cows are penned in and not allowed to run rampant (novel concept for the Senegalese!).  The largest garden was still full of carrots, varieties of cabbage, winter lettuce, spinach, and so many different types of leafy vegetables that I had to keep asking about.  We drained two of the gardens of any of the ripe varieties of squash we could find, from zuccini to pumpkin-like orange globes to miniature flying saucers, butternuts, spaghetti squash, random gourds, and even a few renegade cucumbers.

 Just one part of one of the many gardens, one of our more than 6 full barrels of squash, and me, excited to be outside, in a garden, and wearing flipflops again.

  



We finished the day with homemade pumpkin soup, the first of many episodes of squash soup this fall :)