It is quiet and peaceful here, and we slept VERY well! Elsa made birchermuesli for breakfast. This is her usual breakfast when she's working in the vineyard, and it gives her energy to work all morning. It is a nutritional breakfast "invented" by a Dr. Bircher. It is made from a mixture like granola with raisins and other dried fruits. You then add bananas and grated apples (grated on a board called a bircherboard.) Elsa adds a small amount of lukewarm milk. It is delicious.
At mid-morning we walked to Elsa's vineyard and learned more about vine management.
Jurg (Georg) was going through his vineyards with a machine that cuts off the leaves that shade the grapes, because sun ripening makes the grapes sweeter. Elsa prefers to do this job by hand. They remove the leaves from the east sun side, but leave most of the leaves on the other side for now because of the threat of hail.
The grapes are trained between four double rows of fence line holding up the grapes. The growth above the top row is cut off with a machine, because that growth sucks the energy from the grapes. Elsa has a hectare of grape vines. One of the fields needed to have stray growth pushed up between the top fence lines, because the cutting machine is expected tomorrow. Verle and I helped push these up on 21 short rows.
It was a lovely, cool morning and it was enjoyable to do this job. It didn't take very long with the three of us working, although we were much slower than Elsa!
When we got back, Elsa brought two outdoor lounge chaises into the shade, and brought us some of her juice made from syrup and water and some of her cinnamon roll bread. We relaxed, looked at the mountains, and looked at some of her photographs. What luxury!
When Betti came back from Lanquart, she brought an ice cream cake and we all enjoyed it together. She said it was to thank us for working in the vineyard! We decided it could be Elsa and Verle's birthday cake, because she was 75 on May 7 and Verle was 73 on May 6th!
Verle watched news in English on Elsa's TV and I took a nap. Elsa made a wonderful supper of grilled sausages, a fancy pasta, lettuce salad, herbed tomato slices and green beans with basil from her freezer. Yum!
We asked Elsa to play the accordion for us again. Then we took another walk in the late dusk to see her other vineyard. The mountains are gorgeous -- what a wonderful spot to vacation in, and how we continue to enjoy and appreciate Elsa!
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