March 29th, 2024
Gualfín, Calchaqui Valley, Argentina
Dear Reader,
Today is Good Friday, the day when Jesus was put on the cross at Calvary and died. It is a day of mourning for us Christians. We’ll climb the mountain of the Via Cruces, praying and meditating on all that Jesus suffered for our sins.
On Sunday, we’ll celebrate and feast Jesus’ resurrection from the dead.
I started listening to the New Testament this Lent, read by Johnny Cash, on my morning walks. I’d never read the Bible. Christian or not, it is a wonderful story, so engaging and moving that I find myself completely absorbed in it as I stride along, Ramona at my heels.
Cash’s unmistakable voice, a great favorite of my family, makes it all the more gripping.
Yesterday, Marta and I went out to the orchard and loaded up baskets of apples. Adrien brought large cardboard boxes for us to dump the golden, reddish fruits into. Many will be dried for the winter, and many more taken down to La Arcadia for Easter.
I taught Marta my baked apple recipe. They turned out beautifully.
This afternoon we’ll try an apple pie with a French crust.
We’ve had a visit from our wine consultant and his wife, their youngest son, 13, and two friends. As soon as they arrived, the boys rushed out to explore. Later I went for a walk and discovered them sitting on a huge round hay bale chatting away. It was fun to see them enjoying themselves so.
Speaking of wine, the cosecha is over, yielding just a little over 9,000 kilos of grapes, quite a bit less than the 17,000 kilos our consultant had hoped for. We’ve heard that all the grapes in the Valley suffered this year, in part from the late frost and in other part because of birds and insects which descended upon the vines this winter. Still, Adrien hosted the customary end of harvest asado, inviting the workers over for grilled meats and mashed potatoes.
Tomorrow we head back down to La Arcadia.
Stay tuned, and Good Friday to you.
Abrazos,
Mariah
P.S. Here’s my recipe for baked apples:
1. Peel the apples – we made ten, since we had company, but this recipe can be applied to any number of apples.
2. Whittle out the cores.
3. Place apples in a tray, not too tightly pushed together.
4. Sprinkle each apple with a spoonful of sugar and cinnamon.
5. Place a pat of butter inside each apple.
6. Drizzle balsamic vinegar reduction over the lot.
7. Place in oven – the one here is wood burning which slow cooked them for about an hour.
8. At last, we squeezed some lemon over the apples and let them cook for 15 more minutes.
9. When we took them out, they were a golden brown.
10. We let them cool, and served them after dinner with Marta’s tea made from wild herbs. A scoop of vanilla ice cream would be a perfect addition to this dessert, but it’s hard to transport!
New book available:
“Promise and Hope: Good News of God’s Anointed One”
THANKS, Mariah - for the beautiful Good Friday sentiments. I assume Bill Bonner is you Dad, correct ??? I have been reading Bill's delightfully-written (free) emails for several years now (this is my first "Journals from the Calchaqui Valley"). I have read enough to feel like I understand Bill's world-view quite well -- from his extensive historical, Biblical, and political history knowledge - to his obvious financial acumen. Bill writes that he has been "churched" since childhood, and that is clearly obvious from his general knowledge of the Judeo-Christian Scriptures. I call myself a Christian, since my earliest memories (retired engineer son of a Mennonite Pastor and later Bishop in the Shenandoah Valley of Virginia, 2 hours SW of DC along I-81) - at least MOST days. My biggest struggle is with FAITH, so on my "down" days, I often revert to Agnosticism (flip-a-coin as to the existence of God, at least in his/our "Image"). I am 65 years old, and I think Mr. Bonner would be a close friend if we had grown up together, despite our one decade age difference - we think a lot alike - both of us are post-WWII Baby-Boomers. God Bless, Ronald (Ron) Delp, Huntsville Alabama.