Nuts and Grapes

It's the season for picking nuts and harvesting grapes!

We did both activities last Sunday.

At first, we wanted to walk but IC balked on the idea and persuaded her papa to drive to the garden in mountain. It's a good decision as we realized that despite the sun shining, it was windy and real cold up there! Brrrrr
We stuffed ourselves with grapes, I agree that they taste better freshly picked! While my husband proceeded to fill our baskets. We always bring enough for a three-day consumption at home as it wont really last a long time even if placed immediately in the ref. And most of the times, one of the baskets would go to the kindergarten as snacks for the kids and their teachers. We do have enough grapes to share, at least that was true for the last years.
After our grape 'attack', the kids were eager to stroll around the area to visit the well known 'nutty' area. IC found a lot of treasures, while MC was a little hesitant first as most of the walnuts were still in their shells and she dislikes handling them. MC's a bit, hmm, maarte (picky). So what did MC do to pass the time while we collect walnuts? She decided to take matters into her hands and throw sticks on the walnut trees to let the already ripe nuts fall. In just one area, we already got a basketful! Now you know what our salad at home would be made of? Greens and grapes and walnuts with vinaigrette sauce, hmmm :D

We were not so lucky with the hazelnuts as they were still not ready. We found lots of them on the ground because it was windy, but they were not yet ripe. Here is IC trying to crack open a hazelnut by stamping and squeezing under her shoes. No success, though.

We also collected enough chestnuts, the not edible variety, for our Halloween decor.

This weekend, we plan to pick more apples and check out the hazelnuts.