La vendimia

We've been in Villacañas at the vendimia picking grapes. This was my fifth year and as glamorous as it sounds, it has never been a walk in the clouds. It's hard work!

My fiance's family has vineyards and, in addition to pruning twice a year and other tasks, we have to go to the grape harvest. They usually go about 15 days in September and October although I usually only last about 4 days. I don't know where his parents get the energy to keep going.

We get up at 7 am, have breakfast and are out in the vineyard by 7:30 am. We pick, pick, pick all day long stopping for a snack, "cigarette break," lunch and nap, snack and another "cigarette" break before stopping around 8:30 pm.

We've always eaten a stew or rice dish cooked in a pot over burning vines out in the middle of the vineyard. We've always napped in the shade of the vines or tractor on the ground. On the rocks and soil together with the flies and heat. This year his parents had mercy on us and let us go back to the house to have lunch and take our nap! What a HUGE difference that made!

The family has been trellising the vines and by next year we hope to have finished most of their land. Then the grapes could be picked by machine. That would mean this year could possibly be my last vendimia. Honestly though, I don't think I'm going to miss it much. We'll always still have to go out to prune the vines twice a year.