Heritage Fruit and Veggie Fair

We live in the province of Aquitaine where there is an association dedicated to the preservation of the region's heirloom fruits and vegetables. With membership in the thousands, there is a preserve with nursery and greenhouses, lecture hall for courses, and an annual exhibition and sale. We spent last Saturday at the exhibition where you could learn about and possess almost any type of fruit or vegetable that grows well in our region.

There was a huge attendance and most people left with fruit trees to plant. We particularly enjoyed the exhibiton of produce and the vendors selling regional specialities such as tourtiere, an apple tart that I will post next.

The Olive Feast

Every other year our 2 olive trees bear enough fruit to harvest and process. We have no idea what type of olive trees we have. There is one which produces large green olives which would eventually turn dark, and one that bears small black olives. RXC harvests the them by hand and now that the trees are stripped he will prune them down to a very short height.

Olives are bitter and not edible until cured. We have processed the olives using a variety of techniques from a chemical soak in caustic soda for several hours, to simply soaking the raw olives in water which has to be changed daily over a 5-6 week period. Once the bitterness is removed they can be preserved in brine or our favorite method which is to pack them in olive oil with herbes and spices and keep them in the refrigerator.

This year we are simply soaking the olives in water and are just ending week one. A flavor test today proved that the olives are still extremely bitter and will need much more time in water. Normally we get enough olives to last us about a year.

Fall Colors

This year's display of fall colors has been incredible. After a dry summer, a cool fall without a freeze, and no rain at all until last week the leaves stayed on the vines and the trees long enough to give us a glorious show. It is interesting to see the different colors the vines turn depending on the variety of grape. The sweeping vineyard landscapes are stunning as is the vivid yellow outside our front door this morning.

Will the Real Pumpkin Please Stand Up

HAPPY HALLOWEEN!

Timberline Lodge

Having picked up a car in Portland, we had 3 days to tour the region before heading back to France. Based on recommendations from fellow paddlers, we decided to stay at Timberline Lodge at the south side of Mt. Hood. The Lodge is a historic monument, one of those gracious vacation retreats built by the WPA. The building materials were sourced locally and even the rugs and drapes we made on site. The rooms were lovely, the setting spectacular, and we had one of the best meals we have had in a long time at the restaurant. We decided to finish the fine meal with a whisky (they pride themselves on their selection) but much to the chagrin on the bar staff, they we out of the Lagavulin we ordered. To make up for that transgression, they gave us a degustation of 6 whiskies for free. Let me clarify 6 whiskies each for free. This was a great segue to our trip to Scotland.

Catch Up - Rogue River

We did so much travelling this year that I need to go back and recap some of our adventures. I already put up quite a few photos from our trip to Spain on Petillant at http://www.flickr.com/photos/petillant so I won't revisit that trip (at least not now). After Spain we went to the US to visit family and go rafting on the Rogue River in Oregon with friends. We flew into Portland and took a couple of days to get to the river, tasting wines along the way. The rafting trip was for 5 days in which our group of 9 played, floated, ate, and camped along the river which had mostly category 3 whitewater. It was a great trip with beautiful scenery and wonderful weather.

The adventure company that we used for the trip is called OARS http://www.oars.com/ and this is our second vacation with them. In 2007 our same group rafted on the Green River in Utah. That too was a great trip but the water in the Rogue was much more exciting. OARS supplies all the boats, gear, tents, and guides who do all the cooking and make sure everyone stays safe. The guides are knowledgable about the geology, flora, fauna, etc of the region so discussions on the rafts are very interesting.

After 5 days on the river we were ready to taste wines on the way back to the airport where we rented a car to spend another few days in the region. Stay tuned for my next post from Timberline Lodge.

Our House in Preggio, Italy

We are just back from 13 days in Umbria. We rented this house in the hills with friends and spent our time visiting a region of Italy little known to us. It had been 21 years since our last visit and much had changed. We flew from Bordeaux to Bologna on Ryan Air for only 7 euros! We had great food and wine. The weather was kind although there was fog most mornings. In the little town of Preggio there was a cafe which was a short walk uphill from the house and served a great morning cappuccino. All in all a good stay.