This weekend is the 20th annual "De ferme en ferme" (From farm to farm) weekend when many of the local orchards, vineyards, and farms are open to the public free of charge.
Jed and I began our day of discovery by going to an almond orchard with Dom and her family. We learned about the harvesting of almonds and the production of candy and were rewarded for our attentiveness with delicious samples throughout the tour.
Almond trees
When it's harvest time, this contraption fans out around the base of the tree and then shakes it until all of the almonds fall into this sort of "upside down umbrella."
Posing with a sack of cocoa beans in the gift shop.
Montélimar is a busy place! When we left the orchard, Jed and I stopped by the pottery market at the park.
We arrived just in time for the apéro celebrating the opening of the market---Youpi! I had a rosé, and Jed had a lovely 2012 OJ.
We watched a couple of demonstrations.
And Jed got to make a clay turtle! Unfortunately, his creation fell apart on the way home for lunch so now we just have a big hunk of clay, but he had fun making it.
After lunch, Jed, Néo, Dom, and I headed out in the direction of Dieulefit to visit two more farms. At the Ferme du Clos de L'Orme, we saw a sheep herding exercise and tasted goat meat and bought pâté. Dom said that living out in the country like this would be torture for a city girl like herself so I just had to get her picture with the sheep!
What Jed and Néo enjoyed the most was jumping off of the bales of hay in one of the barns.
The highlight of the Ferme de Pracoutel for the boys was riding horses. For me and Dom, it was the Picodon (goat cheese) tasting.
This was Jed's first time ever on a horse. He's always been too scared of the height, but since he's ridden a camel, this was no big deal.
Néo looked very comfortable from the beginning.
The end of a fun day!
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