Skerlj

On Saturday, we hopped in the station wagon and drove to the Skerlj Tourist Farm in Tomaj, a tiny village near the Italian border.  Tomaj sits on a steep hillside in the middle of wine country, surrounded by rolling hills filled with grape vines and cherry and apple trees.  Single-lane streets curve up and down between old stone buildings and walls, and obviously weren't intended for cars with two rearview mirrors (a lot of fun for an amateur stick-shift driver).  And, for the three-hundred people who live in Tomaj, there are two Catholic churches and a third in the next village over for good measure.

The fact that we were able to get ourselves to the farm is a minor miracle.  In addition to the narrow, winding, hilly streets, Tomaj is so remote that none of the streets are labeled on Google Maps.  So, all we knew is that we needed to look for a street after a bend in the road.  If Chantelle hadn’t seen a small weathered sign pointing us in the right direction, we might still be driving…

The farm is run by a married couple with their three daughters and has been in the Skerlj family for 400 years.  In fact, their meat and wine cellars are in a building that was constructed in 1630.  Fifteen years ago, they decided to renovate the farm and build guest rooms (my impression is that this became a rising trend here as a means for family farms to get away from supplying grocery chains).

It wasn’t as hands-on as we expected, but we had a great time.  They are true craftspeople, and it was fascinating to see everything they do.  They raise pigs, chickens, and rabbits (which the kiddos thought were very cool, although Sy was worried the pigs were going to take his sunglasses), maintain a vineyard and cherry and apple orchards, keep honey bees (in the “big green bee truck”), and grow vegetables.  Everything they serve originates on the farm and they make themselves:  cured meats, wine, liqueurs, honey, apple juice, and meals from their kitchen, and it is all really good.  We are not sure where they find the time, especially since they maintain guest rooms as well.  Apparently, they just don’t sleep…they were there until after midnight Saturday and had breakfast ready to go at 8am on Sunday morning.

On top of all of this, it is an absolutely gorgeous setting.  We spent the afternoon Saturday walking through the village and out into the vineyards and the evening watching the stars pop out in a perfectly clear sky (after the kiddos were “asleep” of course).  We decided it would have been quite a bit more romantic sans kiddos, but we also suppose we could apply that to just about every occasion.

PS - Chantelle would like everyone to know that the bottle she is holding has apple juice in it.  Also, you need to click on the "big green bee truck" picture and enlarge it to get a feel for the activity...we were standing thirty yards away and the hum was intense.  Chantelle also realized after she took the picture of the purple flowers that the bush was "buzzing" and decided she should step away...