Watermelon Update

So I have watered and waited and this is what I have got (below). It's not exactly what you see in the shops and it shows the hard reality of trying to grow something especially when there are so many dry days here. There are also many pests to ward off such as rats and slugs. You can see the bite marks from something that was trying to destroy this piece of fruit but it failed. The other watermelons that survived were much smaller than this one. I had to pick them as the plants have already dried up.

I should add that my excitement at even growing one this big faded when I cut open the watermelon in the picture. It was not good as it was too dry.

At least there's consolation in the goodies below which we have also picked today. It makes up for the disappointment of yet another watermeloness year. 

The Treasures of the Land

Look at this little beauty! I am hoping that finally this year nature will give me a watermelon. Last year didn't work out due to the intense dryness of the summer but this year there is a chance. It's hot this year as well but there is rain on a weekly basis at least. Nature can be kind or just as cruel. Today I picked seven tomatoes and was so happy to finally see red tomatoes on our plants but when I looked at the bottom I saw that four of them were diseased and inedible. What causes this, I don't know but it affected some of our harvest last year as well. 

Sometimes this happens. You put a lot of work into growing something and if slugs don't eat them, something else possibly will or else it simply won't pollinate like one of our pumpkins last year. It produced many flowers, crawled about five metres, looked nice but ultimately produced nothing to eat. 

There's still a long way to go for this little one but it looks promising and it's not the only watermelon we have ...

When In Slovakia

It's been a while since I've posted anything here about anything at all but today feels like the right time to do it.

So, when it comes to the production of wine, the outcome has been pretty decent. I'm not suggesting for one second that this wine is pure or would be considered by wine connoisseurs to be anything worthy or fame or recognition, but for us it's a really pleasing result to what was a hell of a lot of hard work.

The white wine is generally not transparent. Only one demijohn contains clear liquid and the other two are cloudy for some reason. Perhaps it's because we didn't 'rack' them. This was a new word for me but basically it means siphoning from one container to another while trying to avoid getting tipsy in the process. Sucking from the pipe is necessary to get the liquid moving and sometimes it takes a few attempts and a few mouthfuls of wine as well.

One of the wines that we took was a bit smelly. It had a smelly egg smell but tasted fine. Supposedly it happens when there isn't enough aeration or it can be from having too much sulphur in the wine.

The red came out pretty well and is the most satisfactory one as it involved more work and there's something very majestic about seeing this juice of the gods flowing from bottle to glass.

The general feedback we've had has been pretty good which has also been very pleasing as we are certainly not objective at all.

The experience has been a very good one and while the grape vines are still asleep, I'm looking forward to the time when they burst into life and so will begin
another season of battling with the natural elements in order to give them the chance to produce this special fruit.