Douro Valley Oranges

Douro Valley Oranges

Is still to soon for the harvest season but the Douro Valley oranges are changing their  color.

Saddest phase of Douro Valley

That’s a beautiful beginning that is coming in opposition to the saddest phase of our valley.

The vineyards are losing the colorful tons of reds and yellows and changing to the browns  that foreshadow the falling of leaves.

But the winter is not here yet

The deciduous trees still have the autumnal tons but the vineyards, the major culture in the Douro valley, is showing signs of tiredness. It was an hard year for her. One year full of rain, even when it wasn’t predictable, and struggle against the fungus their worse enemy.

The rotation of warm temperatures and rain were the yeast for the fungus attack and forced the farmers to an even bigger effort in the vineyard. Treatment after treatment.

The Douro men seems always conformed

It’s century after century of struggle against the elements. They know that the continuous complaint against the powdery mildew and mildew don’t solve anything. The solution is to prevent them. So they fight with all the ways they know. Weekly after the rains they prepare the fungicides and went to the vineyards to try to save their way of living.

Oranges trees vitality

Is in this frame that the orange trees show their vitality. Here and there we could see a pale color mixed with the original green.

That’s the hope that is going to born here about the Christmas time.

I always think in the oranges as the beginning fruit. They mark the new year, challenging the wild winter. They always dare to the sweet and warm orange in the middle of cold and martial gray of December.