Gardening in Easton and Lisbon!

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Hana and I had a lot of fun gardening today! We found the monster of all weeds while we were going along! What an eye sore! This lovely walk-way has vinca growing along it (that Hana transplanted there last year), bordered by decorative gout weed. The gout weed had taken over from one side and grass from the other. We exposed the vinca and all order has been restored where the chaos dwelled.

There will be more actual garden pictures after we finish up next visit!Here, I was in an herb garden at the Thyme To Heal Shoppe. There's a cricket on my thumb! We are apprenticing with Melony, who owns the shoppe. When we were done in her garden we gave her daughters a fiber lesson and they taught us how to make bath salts! Yum!
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Good-byes

For my last day in Italy, Nik, India, Joe, and I went to the Vinschgaue Valley where the De Rachewiltz family owns a ruin and cottage in Tschengels. We visited historic towns and ruins, ate baguettes and gelato, and then Petra and Miche joined us for pizza that evening. We all spent the night in the cottage and had a wonderful farewell and thank you breakfast the next morning. It was such a wonderful way to spend my last few days in Italy!Here are Joe, Nik, and India! Thanks guys! I love the geraniums!
A river and waterfall!Tschengels ruin:
Petra, India, Nik, Miche, Joe: India, Nik, Me, Miche (checking out the Polaroid camera!)As we left for pizza...There was an old photo album in the cottage with pictures of the old farmer that had owned this ruin and cottage before Sizzo bought it. Many pictures were of meals around this table. It reminded my so much of my Oma and Opa's (grandma and grandpa) photo albums. They bought a run down barn and house in New York state and have an album of the parties and fixin' up they did to it. Being in Italy with the De Rachelwiltz family I really felt like part of their family. They made me feel so welcome and being in the cottage, with so much history was an honor that I cannot describe. It can only be felt.


Nik made us all crepes, Tirol style with jelly and nutella. We also head real European bread, hard boiled eggs, and tea. It was wonderful to spend my last few hours in such good company. Thanks you so much everyone! I look forward to a visit back soon!

Biological Gemuse

Have you ever thought about the phrase "organic vegetable"? Its pretty funny that they use the word "organic" to describe a form of regulation. Well, in Europe, the synonym for "organic" is "biological" or bio. The following pictures are of an inspirational bio farm in Dorf Tirol. There is an incredible amount of production on this small piece of land, in the middle of town - and its all chemical-free. It should be a model for other small farmers. The owner of the farm, Franz, has a small market on Tuesdays and Saturdays. He produces vegetables and fruit. Franz and his family also raise chickens, goats, and have a miniature horse! Brunnenburg purchased their heritage breed chicks from Franz last week.

Monoculture agriculture in this part of the country, is common-place. Apples and grapes are grown in rows with nothing else. Franz grows apples with vegetables in between! Here are squash and corn between, he also grows potatoes and peppers in other rows between apples.

Here, Joe poses for me to show the scale of the greenhouse. The greenhouse is so neat! There are strings for the vines to climb up to about 7 feet to take advantage of vertical space. There were tomato and a variety of squash vines that will fill this greenhouse. They are only wrapped around the string and they climb away!


Here is a beautiful currant bush that is part of Franz's fruit production. He also has cherries, strawberries, raspberries, and blueberries! What a wonderful field trip to Franz's farm!

Hike up to the Lakes!

Yesterday friends of Brigitte and Sizzo came to stay at the Castle. One of the visiting family, Ian, and I went hiking up to the glacial lakes! Here are some pictures!

Below is our first lake that we found! It was very misty that day. When Ian took a picture of me in front of the lake it immediately misted over!!There really is a lake behind me! We mused that the Lock-ness must live in the lakes :)While we stood in front of the first lake, we heard the music of the goats coming along through the mist. They seemed to apparate from no where - it was beautiful. The cows and goats that are kept on the Alm all have bells - the goats have smaller bells, so higher pitched and the cows lower.

The goats were beautiful! Please listen to their "music" on the movie below!

Here were the lovely Grauvieh that rested below their farm. The cows were called Alma and Biggi. Ian and I pet Alma and she enjoyed the scratch!
This is Lang See - the longest lake at the top of our hike. We could have gone farther, but it was scheduled to rain shortly. The mist came and went as if we were at Avalon - I got this picture snapped just before it misted over again. We were literally in the clouds!
And more mist...beautiful!
Here is the view of the first two lakes on our hike down from Grun See and Lang See. The Grun See (green lake) was really green! It reminded me most of the water in the Keys - green and changing color with depth!
Here is the farm on the Alm that Marion and I visited two weeks ago. We stopped here for fresh milk and speck knodel suppe - or ham dumpling soup. Its a special meal that is served here and it is amazing!!
There are no pictures past this point because as soon as we left this beautiful farm house it began to drizzle. Then it began to rain. And then the hail came. We raced down and were soaked by the bottom! There was an amazing thunder and lightening storm while we were hiking down and one could watch the clouds rise from the valley as the pressure changed! It was absolutely fantastic! What a wonderful hike!! Gotta love those Grauvieh and fresh milk!

This week at a glance -

Sunday: Llama Show in Italy?

Nik, India, and I went to an International Llama show in OberBozen! It was a really fun, laid back show at a llama farm! There were lots of cute crias running around. It was so fun to see llamas in Italy! Apparently there are over 400 llamas in South Tirol! Crazy!
This dynamic trio (a horse, dog, and llama) did tricks in the ring to cool music!
Crias!
Neat coloration...

Wednesday: New Tiroler Hut (Tirolean Hat)

Brigitte took me into Merano and bought me this wonderful Tirolean Mountain Farmer hat! Its supposed to keep rain off for over 4 hours! It is made from sheep's wool that is felted tightly so water cannot leak through it! Its the best present ever!

All Week!: Viticulture!

We've got so much done this week! We have worked in Weberacker and the Goldenraut. We weeded and put in the support poles for over 600 vines - check it out!



Below is one of the new young vines in Weberacker. I was weeding around each vine to allow the maximum amount of sunlight to get to those baby leaves! The grass has grown in quickly, but the vines are growing quickly as well!



Here are the rows with their new vegetation.The picture below shows how we keep the support posts next to the vines. There are wire clips you can purchase to clip them onto the wires the run along the spalier. This post will keep the vine upright and enable it to keep more grapes off the ground than it could hold by itself. These vines will not produce grapes this season, and will produce the most grapes after about three years.

India, Nik, and I work wonderfully together. I set the iron posts while Nik pounded them in behind me. India then clipped them in. The three of us finished it over a period of two days.
The following pictures are from the Goldenraut.

The next two pictures show the longest vines at the top of the spalier. When they got so long it makes it difficult to harvest grapes and uneven amounts of sunlight get to all the leaves.So India went along and tied (with the "clicker") the vines up vertical to the main trunk.Then Nik went along with the clippers to prune the tops. Its obvious Nik has a lot of fun in the vineyard. He dances and chants while he's working (or does that mean he's crazy?)Here is the finished product: beautiful! Its important to have at least 110 to 130 centimeters of leaf/vine growth per grape cluster. After these have been cut, they will stimulate new growth. This new growth that grows out and up will give the grapes the best concentrated sugar compared to other parts of the vine. Its an important growth stage for the vine and the grapes.Then we went through and "de-leaved" the north side of the grapes. To do this its important to leave the stems and only take the leaves as to not stimulate new growth. Its done on the north side so that the maturing grapes don't get too much sunlight, but dry out more quickly after a rain. A word on pruning:
Nik told me more about pruning today. After harvesting the grapes, all the vines are cut back except one, which will be tied to the wire in place of the brown one seen below. In the autumn, each green vine will grow a woody bark to overwinter. At that point it is time to start pruning. In the case of the vine below, Nik said that he would most likely keep the lower right stem and cut the others. He said to always leave one bud extra aside from the stem you are keeping.
All Week: mowing in the pear orchard!

I got to use a mega-super-duty weedwhacker! The motor and gas tank ride on my back on straps like a back-pack and I hold the other end. When caring for an orchard or vineyard the usual goal is to have a monoculture - to promote the life and ultimate production of one crop. (In my opinion Brunnenburg is a huge polyculture of monocultures...but that's another story). I've decided that this has given me excellent training to be a goat later in life. I can barely walk on or climb up this orchard and I got to weed whack it! It was thrilling! I only wish I would be able to taste the pears or the schnapps before going home (which is impossible because I'm coming home in 10 days...). Enjoy these beautiful pictures!

The sun shone through the clouds onto the pear orchard while I was there today to silhouette the castle.I mowed another pear orchard today that is on the other side of Brunnenburg. I am scheduled to a lot of mowing the next few days. I'm glad that I can take over mowing for Nik - he hurt his knee and is difficult for him.

My Daily Travels to Work

I look forward to a lot of things each day. One of my favorite parts of the day are the walk to and from work. To get to the outer reaches of the grounds where some of the vineyards lie, I may walk along the stone steps that connect past the castle. There are lots of stones here, so they are used in many ways. Stone walls hold back the earth that the vines are grown in and edge lots of other places. Here are the steps through the Schlossacker that takes me past the castle wall.
This is my favorite part of the walk - if one took a wrong step you would go off the edge instead of up to the next tier! Ha!Closer to the castle there are walls of fruit trees - apricots.The apricots have just been ripening...Here is the view through the apricot trees.
And along the castle wall, to home.What a lovely journey.