Spanish wines and strawberry jam

Last week was a social whirlwind, so this week will be a homesteading one.  

Bodegas "Vaca Rojo." Yum. Just Yum.

We had two parties to attend this last week, the first being a full paella dinner with wine tasting, featuring Spanish varietal wines.  We all bought a wine, no one knowing much about Spanish wine beyond Tempranillo, all of us hoping for the best.  The results were amazing.  From Cava to Mencia to Monastrell, each wine was amazing, complex and delicious, capable of pairing with foods far beyond just Spanish dishes.  We will be buying more, especially since a couple of local wineries actually produce great wines from Spanish vines.

The second was the pick-up party at the winery, where we were again wined and dined and where I get to take off my "employee" hat and put on my "wine club member" one. Lots of friends, lots of wine and great food. 

So as you can imagine, between preparing for parties and working, not much got done on the homesteading front other than planting some lettuce transplants.  This week, I will be hitting the ground running.  I have horticultural vinegar to spray on weeds, chickens to attend to, strawberry jam to make and banana buckwheat pancakes to serve. I even have a container of shea butter so I can make some lotions, to soothe my hands, which have become a little dried out from digging in the dirt. 

I may even make some hot cross buns, because, well, hot cross buns. (They need no other reason.)

Sometimes being out and about actually inspires me to get back to this good and simple work I do here, proving the theory that we're better at whatever we're doing when we take a break and do other things for awhile.

I'm happy to be heading back to the kitchen, the chicken coop and the pasture, full of paella and wine, grateful for spring and the good life on the land we have here.

My inner homesteader's idea of a shopping spree