The new vines are growing

Time is flying and  Easter is already gone. Here in Locoe the work carries on and in spite of having finished weeding on the vineyards, we now have started to tie the new vines to the bamboo canes in order to protect the new shoots from windy conditions and make sure the new vines are straight. The new shoots are very fragile at this stage of growth and protecting them is essential. This job takes place after the pruning. Other jobs at this point involve the collection of stones from the vineyards, especially in Dule where stones are in abundance.

Andrea with tractor and special hand made stone collector!

   

 the new shoots...

In Dule we are aware of an old settlement, possibly Roman  and we are finding hundreds of pieces of the historical testimony. There is not much information about it but our findings are of some interest.

Pottery findings

When  Easter approaches, here in Oliena we  get  ready preparing some special cakes and as relatives came back for the occasion we make sure we have these specialities and the bread ready. So we have made some, which implies a long day of preparation  and cooking involving quite a few people. This bread is a complex one as it is very thin and it is cooked twice in an oven fired with wood.

Aunty Cicita ( the expert hands) testing the bread. This part of the bread making requires a coordinated skill in loading the uncooked bread on the big flat wooden  " Pala", sliding it into the oven then using the small metal flat " Paletta" to work on the bread inside the oven, turning it, twisting it, till it becomes a balloon and then taken it out to be split into two pieces.

Splitting the bread and the bread ready after been toasted into the oven the second time round.

Another type of bread called " Paneddas". This one is smaller and soft.

We normally start working at 5 am as the fire needs started early in order to build up the heat inside the oven. Then it is time to prepare the dough which is processed by a mixer for around 45 minutes and when ready we cut the dough into small pieces of 130 grams approx. ( precision for the grams is due to the fact that the bread has to be same size and thickness once worked ) and lay them in a wooden rectangular container to start the raising process. When this part is finished we start the flattening of the bread to a circumference of around 40 cm. The bread is then laid into special square flat wooden supports, one by one separated by a special lining cloth and numbered from 1 to 6 or 8 depending on the amount of bread made. Every square contains 20 flatten bread which after cooking and splitting will became 40 pieces. The bread at this stage continue to rise. At this point bread is tested to see if it is ready to cook.

Easter cakes on the left. ( small one is sweet and big one savory. All made with fresh cheese) On the right our home made pasta on a rainy day.

Working for a roof water collector and picnic lunch time in Dule.

On the left a local...and a worthwhile walk collecting wild asparagus.

Spring brings to our land a wonder of wild flowers. The variety is incredibly vast and we should start collecting pictures and information for a record of a biodiversity richness.

The place becomes an open wild garden. This is due to the way agriculture is sustained and practice here. But this topic would need a separate entry.

       

Wild orchids, sweet peas  and meadow on the olive growth.

Spring?

Spring?

Having passed the vernal equinox and the clock change to Euro summer time, it's now April Fools' Day and yesterday the real harbingers of spring displayed themselves for the first time - Freesia bulbs that have held their buds out through frost and rain for the whole of March, now brighten my morning stagger to the kitchen next door.

Frosty mornings .... eventually yield spring flowers...

It's been a fortnight of steady outside work, with a couple of days' respite while it was raining, during which we cracked away at almonds by the fireside.  We have now nearly finished weeding the vineyards and Battistino has received the expert tuition of his brother Pietro on how to prune them so that they are trained to reach the wires and continue their lives in an 'espalier' form.  

Looks tedious? It was!

The old Sardinian vine-growing method was less technical, involving leaving the vine to grow low in its natural form.  The method they are using this time will enable more grapes to grow, exposed more evenly to the sun, and will hopefully be less arduous for those maintaining the vines, as they won't have to bend so low down!  Although they need pruning every year, this first year's pruning is the most important to ensure the vines achieve their appropriate structure.

One neighbouring grower has shared a bottle of his Vermentino wine, made from white grapes typical of the north of the island.  We had thought to be the first in the area to have planted a few lines of this grape.  But now we have a rival!  (The Cannonau is the red grape variety grown around here and the other vines are all of this type.)

Meanwhile, the day after the full moon, the19th March, was a deluge - we were set  to plant the first potatoes of the season as tradition dictates!  So that had to wait of course.  Covid was determined not to let Tonino come to give us a hand making the rows as straight as our neighbour Marcheddu's long potato furrows, but Battistino got his bit of string and twigs together and made a reasonable job of it.

Our lines of mixed vegetables are a bit less conventional in their geometry, but I'm sure they'll work.  The main difference between  planting here and in  Scotland is making allowance for irrigation of the plants by making deep channels between the rows, including spuds.  Not necessary right now, but it certainly will be by May.  So far we have put in four types of onions, three varieties of lettuce, cauliflower, pointy summer cabbage, rocket, spinach, beet and basil.  Oh, and it's forecast to snow here tomorrow.

Although the weather is blowing warm and cold, the plant and animal life is progressing steadily.  I've spotted various familiar birds (bluetits, great tits, long-tailed tits, goldfinches) darting around the almond and wild pear blossom and pecking at the early fruit blossoms(plum, pear, peach) in the orchard.  There is also the lovely Sardinian Warbler who hasn't wanted to pose for a photo yet.  Then there is a regular visiting kestrel who comes into conflict daily with the crows.  At night we are hearing the lonesome hoot of the Scops owl, interrupting  the toad-croaking symphony.  

Our equipment can be very basic....there's  the very lo-tech-high-calorie-burn work, like carrying seemingly endless armfuls of olive and almond tree prunings from not-so-nearby slopes and Batti's daily wood-chopping for the fire.  Then there's the weeding and hoeing of the vines etc, for which we use a 'zappa' which has a spady side and a large pronged attachment, for clawing out the weeds.  To dig deeper, make furrows for the spuds and veg, there's another style of manual cultivator.  Then there is also a rake (amazingly, very similar to those found in UK!).  Footwear at any time of year involves boots, but also wellies, and beach flipflops for indoors.  Anything else is inadequate to the terrain!

Medium-tech wheelbarrow is used for wood, here we have the prunings from some of the vines.  Oh, and an essential pair of working gloves and secuteurs.  More higher-tech equipment next time!
.

In the course of my daily circuit of the surrounding lanes I get to see the changes taking place on a wider scale.  At this time of year the shepherds move their flocks of shaggy, long-legged sheep, bells clinking around their necks from field to field.  The sheep crop the new green growth, accompanied by a motley crew of dogs, barking, growling menacingly or rolling over on the road to be tickled.  The shepherds drive battered pick-up trucks or 1990's Fiat Pandas, anything that will cope with the potholes and hold a couple of milk churns.  There are new lambs in some flocks too, though it's mainly cheese that is produced.  Maybe in 2022 the demand for lambs will be back to normal if families are allowed to gather again for their traditional Easter roast.

 Cow! For a change.... mostly sheep, with the odd goat around here.

The hedgerows and drystone walls still provide a steady supply of wild asparagus, which we can now (fanfare) enjoy with our own hens' eggs.  Graziano has given us a couple of his hens and they seem to be living the life of Riley in their corner under the Chessa bush to one side of the entrance.  Battistino has  re-used the remains of his previous henhouse (see earlier diary entry!) with revised architecture.  Main advantage: it's portable!  So when they run out of grass maybe we will move them to another spot.

A few days ago Battistino spent a night in Oliena with the family so that he could get up at 5 a.m. to help in the bread-making.  This is a probably unique Sardinian process requiring co-ordinated teamwork and a number of  patient, skilled and/or enthusiastic workers.  I have also been involved in the past, but I seem to lack all of the required talents..... so I left it to Battistino. In the next blog entry he will explain the process himself in detail.  

Nice to have a weekend Covid-free brother for lunch!

    Carasau bread

We are back...hope you are too

Visiting Christopher before departing

                                                        new vineyard in locoe land
                                                               

                                         

                                                    working on a new vineyard in dule land

                                                              burning olives cuttings

                                                    cooking wild weeds and wild asparagus

                                                                             Lunch time

                                                     cheese. a present form our neighbour

more presents

                                                          planting peas and broad beans

                                                        vermentino vineyard and the house

                                                         Old vines kept as wood for the fire

It's so strange to be back - after 20 months of pandemic restrictions preventing our return by either one or both countries.  And yet, the countryside is the same, the succession of vegetation and associated cultivation tasks are the same.  But it is with an enhanced appreciation of the sufficiency of the land to supply our needs - physical and mental - that we have returned in 2022.

Last spring the family undertook a big replanting project on the vineyards, which we are sorry to say we had to pass on, being unable to be here. The old vines had to be uprooted, vineyards confines secured, rocks and stones laboriously collected and encased in cages surrounding the fields.  Metal posts and wires had to be hammered in lines and bamboo cut to make stakes onto which the vines were tied.

 Now it is time to give these new vines the best start they can get in their 40-odd year life, so we set about weeding and de-stoning the young vines, prior to spreading a bit of fertilizer to keep them happy at the outset.  No sooner had we finished this task (today) than bingo! it starts to rain, and continues to do so all day.  How's that for timing?  This isn't Scotland.  It hasn't rained here since October.  

In the meantime, a touch of the dreaded Covid has been circulating in the family, so we have been working alone here in Locoe for nearly two weeks.  Cut off from family but certainly not ignored by neighbours on the land - one of whom called by several times on his daily visit to his plot to give us freshly baked bread, home-made wine, and cheese from his town.  Yet another called by bearing wine, and a third came round to invite us to join him for a macaroni lunch!

As our source of lazy food brought by our brother from Oliena has temporarily dried up, we have been enjoying experiments in 'weed cuisine' - and with some success!  Wild asparagus has featured almost daily, and a variety of wide-lobed leafy wild radish makes a great substitute for spinach or beet, as well as being a product of our daily vine-weeding work.  Having arrived in the nick of time to rescue a few rows of fennel, celery and lettuce from being finished off by the frost, we now have an increasingly varied source of salad.  Brother Toni's home-made salami has been fried or roasted, brother Graziano's hens' eggs have been fried, frittataed, omeletted and, tonight, baked in the ashes of the fire.  This afternoon, due to the persistent rainfall, I had the opportunity to tackle the (now 18 month-old) sackful of dried lentil plants, stripping them from their dusty stalks........into another sack.  I am not sure what the next stage is, nor when I will have the will to tackle it!  I'm just glad there is still half a packet of supermarket lentils in the cupboard.  Battistino spent the afternoon cracking almonds.....unfortunately, there have been almost no almonds on the trees for the past two years, so these are from a reserve stock - though not past their crack-by date!

So far we have added a few rows to the succession of peas and broad beans started off by Toni at the start of the year.  Got them propped up and watered...... in time for the rain!

More next time and hope you are all well.

 

Oliena mountain in the early morning.

 October 2020

 Back in September we decided to book our trip back to Sardinia and having obtained vouchers from Easyjet following a previously abandoned journey in May, we planned to book a short visit for October. Soon after we booked the flights, the governor of Sardinia decided that anyone arriving to the island should undergo a Coronavirus test before arrival, and should show negative to the virus.

 It was impossible to have a test done here by the normal authorities; and it was also not feasible for us to do a private test at a cost of £150+ within 72 hours of departure as well as get the result. So, we decided to cancel the trip. The day after we cancelled, however, the High Court in Italy overturned the governor’s decision, but it seemed there was still a test to be done upon arrival in Italy. 

 Not knowing what to do we decided that I would re-book the trip just for myself and just see what transpired. Organising all the documentation that was required for travel was a bit tiresome, but in the end I managed to land in Sardinia arriving on Saturday 10th. On the following Monday I had to travel to the village where my brother lives and get a fast test done just to make sure I was fine. Test was negative and everyone was relieved. In the afternoon I was taken to Locoe where I was going to stay until my return to Scotland.

the last time we harvest the grapes.

      The weather was good with a temperature still above 24 degrees. The harvest of the grapes was already finished and the grapes had been crushed and pressed producing 650 litres of must which is still fermenting in the barrels. As planned, the old vines had been removed from the ground soon after the harvest was completed. Or to be precise, the top part of the plant was cut off with a chain saw. The remains of the plants will be uprooted with heavy machinery possibly at the end of November after the harvesting of the olives.

no more vines.

    So the first part of the process of planting the new vines had already started before my arrival. My job there consisted of looking after the many vegetables still growing such as tomatoes, courgettes, aubergines and cabbages. There was little need for watering so, having more time at my disposal, I started to clear the suckers that grow at the base of the olive trees. This was in preparation of the harvest in November.

some vegetables still growing well.

      It took me 5 days and everything that was cut was burned straight away after we had obtained permission from the forestry rangers. In theory, we could not burn anything till the end of October but as the temperature cooled down and after a couple of rainy days it was ok and safe to burn the cuttings in a controlled manner. The water in the river returned after a very hot and dry summer. 

One day was dedicated to start cutting bamboo from the river in order to make support sticks for the new vines. This decision was taken after  my brother priced the metal supports and the prices given for it was over 1800 euros. So we decided to make the supports ourselves and save that money for a better use. Bamboo is now growing well and is very abundant. Olives this year seem to be of good quality and harvest should be better than the previous year. I will not be there for it though. As for the new vines, the soil will be analysed to see if there is any deficiency in nutients needed for the new vines. If this is the case then the new plants will not be planted until spring 2022, but if results are good then it will next spring.

old vines to be use as fire fuel.

   Before I left the land we planted some oak trees (25) on the river side. This area of the land was flooded years back. We decided to leave this part of the land uncultivated but we will try to establish some woodland which will be beneficial to wildlife and improve the biodiversity in the area. More trees

will be planted in the future.

Planting the oak trees

Drying Gojii berries

work on the land in preparation for the new vines