Live from Croatia

I realize as I look at this that much has happened here since our last post.  Most notably the Great Memorial Day Chicken Massacre.  Maybe we'll go back or perhaps we'll just go forward from the present.

View from olive grove at  Domigoy and Sanya's house

We've been traveling in the former Yugoslavia, in an effort to understand what happens when war intrudes in life.  Students were supposed to learn about justice and reconciliation, but when we got to this land, our first contact was interested in everything except his extremely personal experiences with the wars of 1992-95.  He had found his peace in living well in a Croatian family home on a map from 1000 years ago, and working an organic vineyard and making wine.  Domigoy and Sanya's place was the epitomy of grace and peace, with good food on top of it.  

So here's what I learned.  Avoid wine with sulfites added.  Domigoy explained that the chemicals used on vineyards are so toxic that they have to "peel the grapes before they use them".  But the tannin in the peels is what makes the wine, so mass producers add other things instead to make it happen.  Needless to say we came back with 2 bottles of their vino sans chemical additives, and a bottle of myrtle grappa "for the stomach".  This post tells a little more about the sulfite issue--that being said, sticking with organic and local products is always a great idea.  We would never buy grapes grown with toxic chemicals.  Similarly we should also avoid the wines made that way.