Colorful & Tasty

Woah! July came and went in a flash of guests, harvests, and new shelf staples. Art and I were interviewed by Kevin and Wendy for their YouTube channel. Big shout out to Secret Destinations with Kevin & Wendy. They create content with transparency of their expat journey and passion to help others planning to make their big bold move.

Garden and food forest were in peak harvest mode. The pears, tomatoes, peppers, watermelons, figs, and zucchini kicked into overdrive.

Our garden last year yielded a few quality tomatoes so not great for sauce. This year we've made three rounds of tomato sauce and still have plenty to harvest. Although our bean and eggplant harvest has been pitiful. We will take the win.

The pears were transformed into pear butter and apple + pear juice. We had a heavy apple branch snap from the tree. It was put to great use and several more bottles have been added to our pantry.

We have restocked the freezer with fresh pork and made one of our favorite add on to our morning eggs, fërgesë from the fatty remnants slow cooked with onions.

Chickens had a bit of a rough month. Every year when it heats up we tend to lose a few to a flu but this year it took out 10 hens, two roosters and several chicks. But we did have one surprise mama hen with six new chicks. It went broody and hid under a wild pomegranate tree for three weeks. We had to scramble to protect them as we still have a few too many predator birds flying over the property to leave them out. We are averaging only 2-4 eggs a day. We know it will be sparse until September when the weather cools back down a bit more.

The pomegranate orchard is surviving the warming temps as we've continued to water as often as possible. We've walked the lines and come to terms with the fact that last years frost damage to the mature trees that we cut down have limited our harvest for this year. Greatful we have a few trees that have produced and will give us a bit of juice.

The wild and domestic pomegranate trees inside the garden are doing very well this year and we'll have a lot to pick and squeeze.

Wild pomegranates

The vineyard is ripening every day. We have one variety that is fully ripe called mana e kuq. The others are in my favorite state of contrast between bright green to dark purple. This stage always reminds me of fruity pebbles cereal.

Ripening grapes

We are counting the days for the harvest of our cornelius cherries and sugar plums. The apples are not far behind.

Fig season has officially begun here at the homestead. Every morning we are out collecting the soft sweet nuggets before the birds take their share. We have a varieties that are late to ripen and so the bounty will continue for the next six weeks or more (depends on the weather).

The chestnuts, walnuts, hazelnuts and olive trees are doing well. We'll be watering a bit more in the next few weeks before we harvest.

The quince, persimmon, oranges, mandarins, and lemons are a few months away from ripening.

We started off the month with wonderful guests from Italy and they extended their stay at the Orchard Guard Tower for a few days to enjoy the peaceful fruits of our labor, followed by guests from Spain, then additional Italians, Austrian, German times two (one couple extended their stay by two additional days), and Dutch guests. They arrived strangers and left friends with a promise to return one day.

We had a few encounters with one of our favorite tropical colored birds called the European Bee-Eaters. They've been eating the pesty cicadas.

Visit Homestead Albania or stay a while in the OGT.