Grape Harvest Over, Two to Go!

Do you want to take my picture? he asks.           We finished the grape harvest this week, just as showers came and the earth was as muggy as the Midwest. There is a certain joy and sigh of relief when the truck is loaded with a season’s labor and it is… Read more »

End of Crystallization Period Today, and Morning Meditators.

A hawk’s glimpse of Heaven on Earth.   End of Crystallization Period Today, and Morning Meditators. Sunny Morning. You can feel spring pushing. Ramon finished tying the canes the day before yesterday, six weeks to the day that he began pruning. He says the buds are developing little hairs and preparing to open. Meanwhile a… Read more »

Winter Work

Winter Work Our vineyard has huge caterpillars at work these days: our winter project to protect the rose geranium and lavender plantings during frosty nights. There are certain places the cold air accumulates, freezing the frost vulnerable rose geranium and some lavender, and it is in these places we stretch agribon over wire supports, which… Read more »

Pond Clean-up

Pond Clean-up Left unchecked, this plant would completely take over the pond.   The period after harvest has also allowed time to clean out the small irrigation pond, which colonised by a type of Ludwigia or water primrose, a non-native, invasive weed from South America. First we must drain out enough water by irrigating the vineyard and… Read more »