Picking of the grapes

September 22nd 2012

Francesco and his wife (Concerta), son Fabio(5) and daughter Allisia(8) are friends of Maria Pia and live down the road a bit on a farm with grapes.  Concerta's mom, Maria (72) lives with them and is from Sardinia.  Francesco's parents live next door to them.
So I went to help with the grape harvest.  They have about 1200 vines.  Several friends and family showed up early to help.  It was easy enough to use clippers and cut each bunch off the vine and put them in a blue colored plastic bin.  Each bin ends up weighing about 75 lbs. (35 Kilo).  Then when there were about 20 or so bins filled, I got to drive the tractor while Francesco and Jonathan lifted and emptied each bin into the trailer and brought back to the house for emptying into a larger trailer and driven to Solopaca to be made into wine.
Meanwhile back at the house the moms made lunch for everyone.  And by 1 p.m. we were very ready to take a much needed break and to eat.  We did get served espresso and an unsweetened little baked good from Concerta after about the first hour picking.  The name of this very popular crunchy bread is TARALLI.  It's shaped into a circle and tastea like nothing more than bread.  Nice.
The first trip with grapes to Solopaca weighed in at about 3200Kilos or about 7000 lbs. of grapes.
We all sat down at one long table in Francesco's parents house and were served pasta with tuna and black olives in sauce.  After looking around I thought that this was all we were having for lunch . Jonathan ate his normal DOUBLE helping also thinking that this was lunch.  Then they brought out the casserole dishes of eggplant and peppers, broccoli rabe and fried peppers and baskets of bread (and wine of course).  And then they took my bowl and filled it with fried potatoes and sausages.  By the time I was done all I wanted to do was take a nap.  It was all very tasty but way too much food for one meal.  I laid down in the grass for about 20 minutes before heading back to cut more grapes.  By the time we were all finished, I couldn't wait to get back on my bike, ride home, take a much needed shower and get a second wind.
But before finishing with the grapes, shortly after we started back after lunch, Francesco's uncle, Michael, started singing!  I thought "This day just can't get any better!".  He and I were partners in picking so he was right next to me singing in Italian with a voice that should be recorded.  His singing made my aching back not matter so much.
And then to top it all off, Francesco announced that he was taking me and Jonathan out for pizza for supper.  We went to another amazing town of Cerrato.  Must go back in daylight hours.  Really beautiful even in the dark.  The pizza was made (of course) in a wood fired oven off to the side as part of the dining room.  Place was packed.  Pizza was awesome!
All together we picked about 7000 lbs. of grapes
Another wonderful day of hard work, charming people and delicious food.
Porcini festival in the town of Cusano all next week.  Must find a way to get there.