Last night’s rain fall: 1.0 inches. Rain!! We got 1.4 inches of rain in the last two days, an inch last night, a short dry season. In our Mediterranean climate we usually have 6-7 dry months. This year we recorded 2.5 inches in June, the last rain bringing 0.6 inches on June 29. That makes 3… Read more »
One of two bins of grape pumice (seeds and skins) from the crush Friday. Starting the Compost Pile, Grape Pumice After harvest there is that brief period of relief and rest (one day!)— and then there is ever so much to do before winter! This week we started… Read more »
Grape Harvest Complete: Clean-Up Crew Enters The harvest went on forever! Tired men who had also been picking all night, left early; others arrived. But by 4 pm, September 30, we finally had the truck loaded. It was a good-enough harvest, and we thank the many living things that helped make it that way! … Read more »
Goats watching pickers in vines (small white specks!) Harvest Crisis!! Donald says that this always happens: a crisis in harvest! You need to get the grapes out quickly: the winemaker wants them up by noon. Ramon gets a call at 5:00 am from the foreman of the crew…. Read more »
The Chicks of ’66
“Chicks” of ’66 Graduating Class We were the largest baby boomer class to go through our school, around 60 in our high school graduating class, and most of us had been together since first grade. Many of our fathers farmed as we began first grade; very few did by the time we were… Read more »
Harvest! Very warm last night, the crickets still singing at 3:30 am! But the harvest began at dawn with a ton and a half for a small Biodynamic winemaker, Eric Hays of Chateau Davell Boutique Winery of Camino, California. Eric Hays and family Tomorrow is the big day of harvest of the rest of the… Read more »
Countdown Every two or three days we check the brix on the grapes. Yesterday they were “23” on both samples. Harvest will be within the week.
Petunia and Boey awaiting walk. Home After a Week Away Home after a week away: The carrots finally sprouted, the cauliflower doubled in size, and the goats danced sideways down the road on the morning walk. The grapes brix: 20, some, 22: not time yet, but across… Read more »
Harms chardonnay grapes awaiting harvest. Picking Countdown I have seen only one set of picking lights this year, and that was in the Carneros as we were on our way home from San Francisco one evening last week. Usually by now we are awakened in the night… Read more »
Line Up Someone’s eating the grapes! Who could it be? Line up of possible grape-eating culprits: Could it be the goats??? Oh, surely not Dasher! Or Mr. Coyote. Grape skins have been found in his scat. She looks innocent, but any rose (or grape!) grower knows the truth! Then there is Leo who… Read more »
© 2024 Patricia Damery.
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