Looking at my photos I feel like I should start with a sentence 'It was a rainy day'. After such a dry summer we finally got some rain and it quickly became too much. How funny are we? First, we want rain because it is too dry, and when it rains we want some sunshine again. Never happy, right? Just kidding! I'm really happy that we got the rain as it means that I don't have to water the garden anymore. We're almost in November, and I still have so many plants to take care of. Many of our neighbours removed the plants already, but I don't want to remove them as long as they are still producing. Anyway, this wasn't supposed to be the topic for this post, so I'm going to get to the point.
One of the main topics in our lives over the last 10 years or so has been to properly integrate in Switzerland, so that we can call it our home. For a long time we only went out with our colleagues who were foreigners themselves, but if you want to live somewhere you should make some effort to get to know the locals. I'm introvert, and even though I love meeting people it costs me so much energy that I need some time to recover afterwards. It's not easy to get the locals to trust you, but once you get there it is so worth it. We gained a few friends who we love spending time with and who are ready to help us anytime.
One of these friends is a farmer, and she invited us recently to explore her property and show us what her family has been planting and how they take care of their fields. I never say no to learning something new about gardening, so we looked in our agendas and booked the slot. We didn't know what exactly to expect as we knew that they were selling their product, but we didn't know to what extend. We were surprised to see how large the fields are and how much work they have. I was thinking about struggling with my 1000 sqm, and here they were handling so much more! Of course they use machinery while we do everything by hand, and it's their main source of income while we do it to become more self-sustainable.
The fields are situated around Trasadingen and are surrounded by beautiful landscape. It must be a pleasure to work here even though I believe that they usually look down instead of up 馃槉
Trasadingen is a charming village located right at the border with Germany. You can actually walk from the village to the border in a few minutes. Part of this road is in Switzerland while another part is in Germany. She told us that during Covid there was a barrier on the road to stop people crossing the border, but everyone simply drove around it and ignored the rule. This is what you get when you live in a region split between two countries.
My husband even got to drive a tractor here! Not a small tractor that my uncle has, but a proper big one! I was sitting behind him as I'm not good with a manual gear and didn't want to try driving. It was a great, but scary experience as it is not easy as he was expecting. We had a lot of fun though!
They have an orchard with pears and apples. It wouldn't be so special perse, but they only got old varieties which these days you can't find so easily. The timing was perfect as the fruit was ripe already and we got so much that we will have enough for entire winter. Luckily we have some space in garage to store them.
Pears can be somehow sandy, but this one was so buttery. It was the best pear that I ever had!
We only ate what we found on the ground as the ones still hanging on the branches were not ripe enough. This variety has to be yellow and soft, and then it's perfect.
I don't even remember when was the last time I harvested apples. I was feeling like Alice in the Wonderland! There were so many fruits and I could pick whichever I wanted. Sounds crazy, I know, but these things make me happy 馃槉
Look at this tree! The daughter from our friend told me that this was her favourite variety, so I had to try it too. Quickly, it became my favourite too! They were so crisp and sweet like candies! I got a bag full of them.
How could I not take a bite?
We spent about an hour picking the applies from the ground as well as from the trees, and sorting them out, so that they don't mix and we can store them longer. It was really cold and even raining from time to time, but we loved the task and kept going. At some point we didn't have any more bags to fill, so we jumped back on the tractor and drove to her home where she prepared some delicious food for us.
The sky didn't disappoint us in the evening either. The clouds were changing all day and giving us something to look at. The road back in the tractor was bumpy and I managed to hurt my leg, but I was feeling so good that I didn't even pay attention. I only realized I hurt my leg when it was hurting so much at night that I couldn't sleep. It was a few weeks ago, and the bruise only disappeared a few days back.
This week, she contacted us again as apparently there are still many apples to harvest and take home, so I'm already thinking where to store them as the garage is full. I wish I had such problems to solve more often 馃槉
Thank you for reading and until next time!