It has been a very busy harvest season, quite extended compared to the last 13 years. It has seemed unending...
...awaiting the harvest...
In the past we have sold both our red/purple grapes, St. Croix, Sabre Vois, and Foch and our Edelweiss (white) grapes to Weggy's Winery just outside of Richland Center. He contacted us earlier and said he did not need our Edelweiss as he still have much juice in vats, and his own reds were prolific so he wouldn't need those either. We decided to pick the reds and take them to the Amish Produce Auction, and for that we used the buckets. I contacted Wollersheim's Winnery, having heard they might need grapes, and in fact they did want our Edelweiss, (to be picked in the yellow trays). I spent about two weeks in contact with them in preparation for the harvest.
Edelweiss grapes looking good.
Purple grapes looking good.
So, off to the vineyard very early one Friday morning to harvest the St. Croix and get to the Amish Produce Auction before 11 a.m. Although we have worked the vineyard pretty much daily this summer, what we found devastated us.
This photo was actually taken today, so the damage is quite a bit worse than what we encountered, but I would say while we were harvesting about 1/4 of most bunches looked like this.
BIRD DAMAGE, the birds peck a hole in the grape which invites the ants to come along to the feast. Birds aplenty it seems, despite Scare Balloons and Owls set throughout the vineyard.
We harvested anyway, leaving the worst of the bunches hanging. We harvested 22, 5 gallon pails, which were intended for the Auction. When we got down to the barn to repack the grapes in peck boxes, we could not bring ourselves to do that. So we loaded the buckets in the pick-up and off Freddie went to give them away to the Amish. They grabbed them up, (although most offered to pay), and the pick-up was empty in just a couple of hours. We learned later that we could have taken them to auction labeled 'Bird Damage' and they would have easily sold. (A lesson learned.)
A few days later we had people come 'pick your own' and as the grapes were being used for either wine or juice it didn't so much matter about the damage. Our Sabre Vois were picked, and some of the Bluebells, which are a mighty delicious table grape.
The rest of the Bluebells we harvested and filled 35 peck boxes, all labeled, 'Bird Damage', as they looked like the St. Croix, and off the the Auction they went. As this was just yesterday, we do not yet know how they went????
On to the Edelweiss...Wollersheim was anticipating harvest in a day or two. I walked the four rows randomly collecting individual berries and tested the Brix (sugar content) of them yesterday late morning, they were at 15.5. Wollersheim wanted them at 17 brix. I emailed them, and the response was a day or two yet.
Freddie came home a few hours later and walked the Edelweiss rows, came down and reported to me that they looked devastated, too. He thought we could not take them to the winery. He insisted that I come look myself. And he was correct, first of all instead of the anticipated 400-600 #'s, we might, at most have, 250#'s of decent grapes, and with Wollersheim being about 1 1/2 hours from here, surely not worth the drive.
Although there were many bunches still intact, there were many, many that looked like this!
and this!
So we have contacted Mennonite friends who might want them, and if not, they will go to the Amish Auction as well.
We start working the vineyard in late March pruning 880 plus vines. Our labor continues throughout the spring and summer pretty much on a daily basis, and ends in September with the harvest. We planted the vineyard in 2001, and really never made any money at it, but I do believe that this season is far and away the winner of 'WORST HARVEST EVER'.
This could be depressing, but for some reason we are taking it in stride. What will we do differently in the future? That is yet to be decided.
We hope to be off for a much needed vacation in a few weeks.
