a perfect fall day

Make that two perfect fall days. I've been waiting for the day of our grape harvest, and Saturday was finally that day. We had to wait until after the first frost, and it had to be a Saturday so the boys would be home from school to help.

{To back up, we haven't been able to harvest grapes for four years! The last time we were living in France, our neighbors pushed the grape vine off of our shared fence. Apparently it was really bothering them, but they never mentioned it. I thought it would be a bonus for them, since there were lovely grapes hanging over on their side... Timm built me a little arbor for the grapes to climb on instead, and it's taken this long for the grapes to re-establish.}

When I told Max and Lucas we would be picking grapes, Lucas asked why we had to, and when I told him I was going to make juice, he suggested we just buy some grape juice at the store. Max stepped in to reassure him that our juice was going to be infinitely superior to what we could buy at the store. At least I've taught him something.

It was the most beautiful day -- sunny, cloudless sky, just enough nip in the air to wear long sleeves -- and the sweet fragrance of Concord grapes permeated the whole backyard. Armed with the biggest bowls we could find, we each staked out a location. I positioned myself underneath the arbor, under a canopy of vines, and I was instantly transported. For that brief time, I could have believed myself to be in Southern France or Italy, so idyllic were the surroundings.

our own private Tuscany

Here's the best part: the boys were getting just as excited about it as I was! We were on a quest to find the biggest, most beautiful bunch of grapes, and to pluck it without allowing it to break apart, casting our violet pearls to the swine below (that would be Jack, running around like a drunken fool, gobbling up whatever treasure slipped through our fingers). In fact, at one point so many grapes were falling all around us that I had to break into a rendition of "It's Raining Grapes", sung to the tune of "It's Raining Men", what else? But I digress...

As I cradled a particularly beautiful bunch in my hands, the only word that came to mind was: picturesque. And then I remembered a friend of Jessie's in high school, who said picturesque as "picture-squee". Seriously. This sent me into fits of giggles, and when I shared it with Max and Lucas, they adopted it most enthusiastically. Thereafter, everyone searched for the most picture-squee bunch possible, and our conversation sounded like this:

"Oh, Mom, now THIS is picture-squee."

"You think THAT is picture-squee? Well check out this bunch!"

"Ooh, that is picture-squee... I'm coming over to your section."

and all I could think was how did I end up here, in the middle of this perfect day, having so much fun with my children who were seeming so very grown up?

a bountiful harvest

My neighbor Heidi, who has the steam juicer, was out of town, so the juicing had to be put on hold. We had 6 enormous, overflowing bowls of grapes in the kitchen and the whole house smelled most deliciously of grapes. (I know Jill is probably counting her blessings that she didn't stop by during the grape smell infestation, but to me it was ambrosial.)

The end result was that Monday ended up being another perfect fall day, because I made juice all day long, with the windows open and some good music going on iTunes. I even went outside with a step-stool to pick the grapes above of the arbor that I couldn't reach. If only the boys had been there, because those sun-soaked grapes on top were the most picture-squee ones yet. They were enormously plump, almost unreal. Again, I marveled that I was just out in our backyard -- our very dog-thrashed, currently ugly backyard! -- because the little corner that I occupied felt, looked, and smelled like a little bit of paradise.

This year's harvest yielded record results, 25 quarts of juice, beating out our previous record of 21 quarts. It's hard to say who was more excited about that, me or Max. Click here to see all of the photos.

record-breaking results!