Out in the Vineyards

(John, a Peace Corps trainee in town, working the pumpkin)

A few weekends back my counterpart asked me if I would come to his village and help him work the vineyards. So we took off on Friday after work and headed to the village called Melinkio (or something close to that). My counterpart, his sister, mother, aunt, grandmother, and I got started working that same Friday until eight in the evening. I learned how to make wine from start to finish.

First we picked grapes. The next day we pulled off the grapes from the bunches and dropped them in a huge wooden vat after running them through this mulching type tool that sits atop the vat. The grapes were all different kinds. So it was pretty much a bouquet wine. Once the vat was full we added sugar to it. Now it was pretty much grape juice and we were able to pour some of it out of the vat and drink it. We also emptied some of the juice out and reserved it to make white wine, which is a little more complicated and the process takes longer.

Everyday the grandma will mix the juice up with a big tool. Two weeks later the red wine is done. There is a spout at the bottom of the vat and that's how you empty the wine into bottles. There is also a filter (a bunch of branches) to keep the solid parts out. My counterpart will take the leftover solids and make Rakia (Bulgarian whiskey) out of it. The white wine should be done by new years.

My counterpart gave me a bunch of stuff from the garden for helping him out. I told him Halloween was coming up and he gave me a pumkin to carve. Later in the week, some of the Peace Corps trainees in town, came over, cooked and helped carve the pumpkin. I made them a pumpkin/carrot/apple cake. I just made it up, but it turned out really good.

I placed the pumpkin on my balcony where people could see it. Some have already asked me about it. Halloween isn't celebrated here, but they've heard of it from movies and stuff. I'll need to figure out how to make pumpkin pie for them and see how they like it.