So, here are a few words about food…

Autumn started in the northern hemisphere early last week and now wherever we walk we see ripe wild fruit, berries and nuts, and cultivated food crops are being harvested. Last weekend marked the start of the grape harvest, and people are busy picking, selling and storing their crops. As we walked out of Cacabelos a few days ago, we saw an old man wheeling his wheelbarrow full of pears and potatoes in to town, followed closely by another old man carrying a basket of walnuts. People have set up roadside and pathside fruit stalls and yesterday we followed signs for ‘frambuesas’ (raspberries) to the courtyard of a house that had a little table with punnets of raspberries and redcurrents and an honesty box. Those red berries were delicious!

What has really amazed us is how green the countryside is, so late in the season. At home it’s all turned brown by early autumn, but here everything is very lush and the grass is high.

We’ve spent the last week or so walking in the mountains, where the winters are long and cold. Huge stacks of neatly split firewood are being stored, food is being preserved and there seems to be more activity than usual in the little villages we walk through. Pimientos (red capsicums) are being char-grilled prior to canning, beans are drying and then being stripped from their pods, the last of the season’s tomatoes are being coaxed to ripen.