Harvest
The end of the summer is near. The light is now warmer, the shadows lengthen and the first leaves change color. It is very dusty and dry, we have had no serious rain for months now. Fruit is becoming heavy in the trees and bushes. Soon we see crates being piled up in the orchards. It can’t be long now, before the harvest of fruit begins!
Ciganos
Every year around this time there are small camping sites appearing in the grasslands along the roads. The Ciganos have arrived: Gypsies, but a more respectful name would be Roma. With some sticks and cloth they create their tents. Their vans are cramped with bedding, children and innumerous lots of stuff. They camp outside the village, bivouac along the country road for a couple of days and are disappeared as fast as they arrived. One day we see them walk into the orchards, young and old people, children, with kitchen stairs, buckets, and mugs for a drink of water. Pears are the subject of these weeks. This is how the Ciganos make a little money for their livelihood.
Pera Rocha
In this area of Portugal, Pera Rocha is king. It is also known as a stone pear. The crates are filled and dragged to the side of the land. Piled up on small trucks the full crates from all these small farmers are sent to one of the many Cooperativas das Frutas. There they keep them cool and forward them to buyers and factories where they are used to create other food. They use them in the local restaurants to created their delicious deserts. We obtain them from our neighbors, lots and lots, so we stay on a very healthy diet.
Pumpkins, grapes, apples, plums, tomatoes
Suddenly it seems as if everything has to be collected at once from the land. Ever so often we are stuck behind a hugely loaded truck or tractor, crawling slowly on the narrowly winding roads. We see fields, cooperation sites, barns, so full of pumpkins that it seems impossible to become hungry this winter.
Our lovely neighbors bring us all kinds of tomatoes, we must taste everything (yes, please!) and we have almost too much to eat ourselves.
And next, the grapes have to be picked from the endless vineyards. There are many kinds of grapes, that each have their perfect time for picking. Sometimes we see small machinery crawling along the neat lines of grapes. In other fields you see small groups of people doing the work. So much activity, to gather their income from nature.
Yum. Beautiful photos.