Can't Get Away from the Farm

Yesterday was so marvelous! It started with searching for the right picnic food at the farmer's market at the Bastille area. The vendors were hawking everything from electronics to rose bushes. We picked up some cheese (goat and cow), spectacular sausage, cherries, tomatoes, avocado and of course, bread.

We met our friends at the Champs d'Elysses with picnic blanket in hand. They came with two bottles of wine. We were set. Cheese, sausage, tomatoes, bread....yum. The white peaches were the best.

Then it was off to the farm in the street. They brought hundreds of plants from the country to the city so the people who can't get out to see farms can see here. It was a surreal event seeing grape vines with the Arc d'Triomphe in the background. Pines, wheat, sunflowers, and hops. All kinds of plants grown here.

Then there was the products made by the farmers. There was turrade. A concoction of cheese, truffles, and mashed potatoes....wow. Champagne, wine, beer, oysters and mustard. All different kinds of mustard. I bought a jar of dijon mustard with green peppercorns for 3 euros. What a bargain!

The crowds were staggering. There's a great picture in the NY Times that shows the event and the crowds. Great crowds. But the crowds were pleasant. Happy to be enjoying the event. And so were we.

Today we are off to eat some croissants and an expresso. Then we're off to the Munch art exhibit. He's the artist who did the work "The Scream". And for lunch bread, cheese and a lovely glass of the Cote du Rhone.

Remember enjoy and imbibe.

Paris in the Springtime

When first arriving in Paris, the weather was everything I expected. Gray, drizzle, cold. And then ouila! The weather is amazing. Days of blue sky in the high 60s. Perfect. Each day has been better than the other. Manifique!

Last night we went to a souffle restaurant. Started with a cheese souffle for an entree (appetizer), moved to a fish souffle for the plat (main course) and then finished with a chocolate souffle. Wow! The two other souffle eating folks ate asparagus and herb souffles. Sharing all round. We need one of these restaurants in Palisade. The souffles served in white, scalloped bowls were light and fluffy. Beautifully prepared. Yum.

Did all the tourist stuff so far. I never tire of the eiffel tower, the Louvre, musee d'Orsay or Notre Dame. There were thousands of tourist all enjoying the view with me. French buildings as far as the eye can see. Yesterday it was off to Versailles. I've been there before but never made it to Marie Atoinette's estate. The main palace is decadent with gold, mirrors, crystal and fabric for as far as the eye can see. They say each room has been remodeled at least ten times. But at her estate, it is pastoral. Vineyards, stables, an unconstructed pond. Two story brick houses with thatch roofs. Very calming. They say she wanted to live the life of a peasant. Of course, without the threat of starvation and hours of back breaking work.

Today Kenny comes and that will start the next leg of my trip. I hope to dive into more souffle-like restaurants, outdoor cafes, and cheap wine. Last night we had a 2008 Sancerre - Reserve that was quite quaffable

And remember....enjoy and imbibe.

Ah, Paris

I just got into Paris this morning and the weather is everything springtime in Paris claims to be. A pale sun, longinglyg basks the pale skin of the Parisian people. The breeze is cool with a tease of warmth. Yellow roses in public gardens and red geraniums in window sill pots ostentiously display their finery throughout the city. Raghu's apartment is in the 8th arrondisement. The 138 sq ft apartment is on the top floor. The 6th floor and no elevator. Whoa. The main window faces a courtyard where horses once were tethered. When I look out the window, it is unknown to me what decade, let alone what century I'm observing. I look out at hundreds of chimneys. Copper, Terra cotta, sheet metal, and clay. New and ancient. All different shapes and sizes for as far as the eye can see. All ceremoniously surrounding the nearby black roofed cupola with two glorious windows, and oxidized copper gutters. The filagre below the dome is fringed with leaves, grapes, and flowers. There is a large blank tan stucco wall just begging for a mural or at least the hand of some industrious graffitti artist. A marvelous setting for a grand wine tasting adventure.

Remember enjoy and imbibe.

Ahh....water.

It's officially growing season! The Colorado river is flowing through the veins of the Vinelands. The land is turning from a brown, desolate landscape to a vibrant spring green. The vines are thirsty. Time to water.

But before watering, we need to mow, weedwhack, and hand weed. It's always something. Thank goodness that weed killing chemical I talked about earlier did the trick. Instead of the weeds fighting with the budding vines, their brown fronds are protecting the buds from the cold of night. Nice. All except for two rows. Who knows why I missed those rows? Doing goofy stuff like that makes me think of the movie line from "When Harry Met Sally", "I want what she's having?" Must be some good sh*!. Geez.

Mowing is pretty straight forward except I've got to be careful not to fall into the water creases. I fall into the creases on either side of the grape and I get sucked into the hole making the tractor push into the precious vine. I can get close, but not too close. When that happens, my adrenaline shoots up and I'm in panic mode. Save the vine! Save the vine!

Now I'm weedwhacking those two rows I missed for..... whatever reason. Still don't know. Then manually weeding 95 plants because if I get too close with the weedwhacker, I accidentally chop off three years of my life, the vine. I did give one vine an early demise. Breaks my heart. Okay, now on to the easy part.

Watering. Kenny and I move each of the 25' aluminum pipes in place. I hold them in place for the proper water gate location while Kenny pushes the pipe into the upstream pipe. Then we go open the irrigation gate off of the Colorado river, open our irrigation gate, and adjust the water level in our water vault. Next we walk the first three sections of pipe and open those gates. Giving the vines the life giving liquor needed for everyone's happiness. Then I go back up to the vault and adjust the level ....close gates....open gates...adjust the level.....again. Over and over. Meanwhile keeping an eye on the rows, making sure the water in one crease isn't being deverted to an adjacent row. From the standpoint of exercise, its great.

Walk, walk, walk. Bend, bend, bend. I can hear my personal trainer (if I had one) now "Walk the row, back and forth. Come on, put some heart into it. Now bend down and up, down and up. Really bend! Open those gates, close those gates. Hup to it! Put some effort into it." All this exercise for free.

Now half the vineyard is watered. The vine buds are literally popping open as the water reaches them. They are so happy. The air smells of water soaking into the earth. It's smells like life. Somehow comforting and hopeful.

I believe Spanish Sangria is what calls tonight. Tastes good and it's good for you too. Ole.

Remember enjoy and imbibe.

Let it snow, let it snow, let it sn.....oh no!

Yesterday the weather was beautiful. A little windy, but to be expected this time of year. For the past two weeks or so, the weather's been hovering around 70 during the day and 40s at night. Perfect. The vines are starting to bud out. Exciting.

Today is not so perfect. We woke up a layer of melting snow. Snow! Not good. It's snowing, sleeting right now. I think sleet is worse because not only does it freeze the bud, it blugeons it to death from the heavens.

The snow is never any good this time of year but the cold temperature makes it worse. The snow keeps the air relatively warm but if it stops and night comes (and it always comes), we'll have a freeze on our hands. Then we'll wake up to limp, mushy, lifeless buds. And we'll have to start all over.

The orchards folks do have those windmills in their fields just for such an event. Maybe they'll get them going next door to us and we'll benefit from them heating the air with the fans. This one in the photo automatically starts so we may hear it tonight. It always startles me. The sound of the blades through the air sounds like the opening scene from Apocalypse Now.

We'll see. Patience is a virtue? Patience is a virtue. Patience is a virtue. Keep repeating.

I think this calls for something a little stronger. A nice 20-year Taylor Fladgate tawny port is just what the doctor ordered and of course pieces of Lindt dark chocolate. Yum.

Remember.....imbibe and enjoy.

No Thruway

The constant "beep, beep, beep" has been the familiar sound this week on the vineyard homestead. Bulldozers, backhoes, and big hydraulic excavators are disrupting our relatively idyllic vineyard lifestyle.

Apparently, there's a problem. Our road is closed. There's nothing wrong with our road. Our road, 38 3/8 Road, is a potholed, dusty gravel farm road. The potholes are fine. It keeps the locals from driving more than 25 mph in the front of the house. The dust is bearable. Ask me again in August. And the gravel hasn't broken my windshield yet. Except for the goofy address, all's good. The address by the way is how many miles we are from the Utah border. Some may celebrate, some may dread. So anyway...

About three months ago, our neighbor with the young peach orchard was having some problem with flooding. We had a similar problem with flooding when we first moved here six years ago. It seems flooding would be the norm.

Legend has it that before the vineyards, this area was initially a swamp. We believe this to be so because the Colorado river is just a couple of stone's throws away from us. Starting in 1905, the Palisade Irrigation District (PID) started constructing large dirt-walled irrigation canals above the area to water Orchard Mesa. And that lent itself to a lot of water seepage. So the land was way cheap (pretty much unliveable) until a smart fella started building subterranean water channels in the area. The water would then runoff into the underground channels as opposed to stagnating at ground level. This idea really caught on and now the entire Vineland area has underground piping that moves the ground water back to the Colorado river.

Well that infrastructure was built a long time ago. And now it's time to replace it again. We've been told that basically the Palisade Drainage District (PDD) is broke and can't do anything to fix the leaking, corroded, crushed underground piping. That the affected landowner has to pay. Crazy, huh? That's because landowners in the area are only required to pay $5 per acre per year. That must of been the rate turning FDR's administraction. It doesn't seem like they've EVER raised their prices. Thus, each landowner takes on the staggering cost of repairing a broken system that will affect everyone downstream and upstream as well.

Thus, at 38 3/8 Rd we have a f*!+ing mess. Mess aside, it is amazing to think there's this huge spiderweb-like subterranean piping system under our feet that keeps us afloat. I just hope OUR subterranean piping system doesn't go the same way as this fiasco. That flooding we had six years ago was in the center of the vineyard.

Well, the excavators have gone home and the beeping has stopped. Time for a delicious local Grande River Vineyards Syrah. Not too spicy, heavier than a Merlot, but not quite a Cab Sav. You can drink this wine with or without food, but I bet this is going to go really well with the pork loin Kenny's making.

Remember.....imbibe and enjoy.

Get me Outta Here!

I can hear them yelling out, "Hey I'm ready to come out! Do you hear me? Help! Let me outta here!" All said like a class of kindergarteners let loose at the opening day at Disneyworld.

This is when I love this area most. There's still a coolness in the breeze, but the sun is the summer sun. The sky is the most beautiful cobalt blue. When you look up, you get lost in the "blueness". Gorgeous.

Here in the Vinelands, the cherry trees are in full bloom. The aroma is exquisite. Not quite jasmine, but a hint of jasmine with a bit of rose. And the blossoms are unmistakable. A blue white, delicate flower with an extremely pale, purple center, and green and orange tendrils exploding from the center. The beauty demands you stare at its wonder. And with the orderliness of the pruning, the trees hint of a Japanese garden. It is a very zen picture.

The peach trees are also in bloom with their bright pink flowers shivering in the breeze. Their centers are as demanding as the cherry trees. Their bright pink centers draw you to their posture like a bee to nectar. In the distance, the blossoms look like dusty rose clouds rising up from supportive brown branches, not like flowers at all. Only when you are within their heady aroma can you see the full splendor of a temptress.

I take comfort in knowing that all those blossoms are for another purpose besides their obvious beauty. If they make it through the frost, they'll become lucious fruit. The cherries come first and then there's peaches from June until August. Yum.

The grapes are not so showy. There's no true flower with the vines. Maybe that's because the grapes are so tempting to the bees by their sheer nature, that no accoutrements are required. Naked blossoming. Hmmm.

And now I believe it's time for a nice 2007 pinot gris from the Lurton bodega in Valle de Uco Argentina. Valle de Uco is a splendid wide open valley right against the Andes' mountains. A beautiful area. A must see.

Remember, enjoy and imbibe.