View From The Ridge » Vineyard

Harvest 2009

Linda — Sat, 24 Oct 2009 17:54:52 +0000

A feeling of familiarity washed over me this year at harvest time. Now in our fifth harvest, everyone knows the rhythm and routine of the activities. The guys are in the vineyard first as I rise early to brew coffee and wake the kids. We all head out through a layer of early morning fog to greet the tractor and bins just starting to be filled with fruit. The kids join in with the picking crew and I start my routine of dumping bins. I check on all the workers, find the fullest picking bin, and exchange it for an empty so the crew can keep picking without interruption. This also provides Bret with an even flow of fruit to sort and check. Moving through the vineyard, carefully gathering and switching full bins for empties, one by one I lift and dump the fruit.

This year my son’s friend and my niece joined in the fun. My niece tried out all the various jobs, but settled on working the large bins with Bret for quality control. My daughter, son and his friend stayed on picking duty, and I continued my workout of dumping the little harvesting bins into the big ones. Our good friend and vineyard photographer captured our harvest through photos which is always appreciated and The local press came to film. My parents joined in as the harvest was finishing up.

I am thankful for another harvest and for the people who make it happen. Our harvest team encompasses an age range of 10 to 94. Being goal oriented, I love when all the fruit is delivered and there is a sense of completion to the growing season, but of course the work is never really done. Next week we will remove the netting and start to put the vineyard to bed for the winter.

Battle the Birds

Linda — Sun, 30 Aug 2009 06:27:31 +0000

It was time to net the vineyard to protect our fruit from the birds, cue creepy Alfred Hitchcock music. Being successful at farming means controlling unwanted access to your crop.

You don’t want to work all year just to have someone or something (wildlife) sneak in when you aren’t looking and take it all. The net which is rolled out from big spools creates a barrier between these non paying customers and our grapes.

Bottle it up!

Linda — Fri, 05 Jun 2009 23:09:23 +0000

Tomorrow we head up to San Francisco for bottling day. Life on a vineyard brings many ups and downs throughout the year. The life cycle of farming does not come without risks. There are frosts to worry about in early spring and new shoots to train. Once the vines are producing fruit you have to contend with all the critters that also want to eat grapes. With the beginning of fall we are all waiting and watching for the anticipated harvest. We check the grapes and check the sugars waiting for the perfect balance of sugars and ripeness to pick the fruit.

Wine making has some similar cycles that start with harvest /crush and finally ends with bottling. One of my favorite days is the day our wine travels from the barrel to the bottle. We at SRV refer to it as “Bottling Day”. We will taste the wine, inspect the process and savour every moment as we watch all our hard work get bottled up!

I am playing Photo Story Friday.

Hosted by Cecily and MamaGeek

Bud Break

Linda — Fri, 17 Apr 2009 22:15:26 +0000

Bud break at Sunset Ridge

Bud break in the vineyard is an exciting but nerve-racking time. We hope and pray for no frost, which can damage our little buds. Some low temps were here the last two nights, but so far no visible damage. Today it is warming up and we are hoping the threat of frost is behind us. Such is the life of the farmer, so dependent on weather!