Saturday the 26th of September found us finally harvesting the last of the grapes!!! It was an extremely late harvest this year, due mostly to the late spring and the fact that all growing things were 3 weeks behind this season. We, here in this bowl-like valley, were lucky that we had not awakened to a frost before Saturday. The last of the grapes to harvest were the St. Croix and a few Frontenac. The weather forecast was for clouds and rain, but it turned out to be a beautiful day to be in the vineyard.
Freddie, that's him on the left, begins the harvest. We have never harvested before when the leaves were dying and falling off the vines. A really unusual year.
Here I am using the latest in harvest tools, a grape fork. What a great invention it was, making harvest much easier on the hands.
Not too long ago while I was in the library Peggy Pasker overheard me telling a friend that we were going to start harvesting. She came over to me and asked, harvesting what?? When I said grapes, she asked if she and her husband Chuck could help us harvest as they had always wanted to harvest. Wollersheim winery, here in Wisconsin and where they had inquired, has a long waiting list of people who want to hep harvest. So, as the weekend of the last harvest approached, I called Peggy and asked if she truly wanted to help, and they did.
We made pretty quick work of harvesting about 8 rows. I think it took the four of us about three hours to complete the harvest. After a leisurely lunch, off to the Winery.
The grapes delivered!! That's Weggie, Marion Weglertz, owner of Oak Ridge Vineyards, and Weggie's Winery, just outside of Richland Center. Next to us is the container holding our 410 pounds of St. Croix.
The feeling is great to be done for the season! Some day we hope to make a bit of a profit at this endeavor...it has yet to happen.
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