"My general view is that people who meddle with politics usually meet a miserable end, and indeed they deserve to. I never bother with what is going on at the capital; I only worry about sending off to it the fruits of the garden that I cultivate."
From Candide, by Voltaire
I will continue to grow melons. I enjoy planting, weeding, and harvesting them. I am adding a new crop, grapes.
I have eight acres that are hard to farm in the traditional alfalfa/grain rotation, so I am converting that land into a vineyard. Today I share photographs of that process, which is underway right now.
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| The Plan |
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| Cleaning the sources of water. |
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| Maintaining the drainage ditch where the pump will be placed |
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| Putting in the underground lines for the drip irrigation system |
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| Long lateral lines to connect to the central pump |
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| Valves, so that each one-acre block can be watered independently |
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| Preparing the pump site |
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| Wiring the pump and filter |
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| Laying out the lines |
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| Acquiring the end-posts that hold up the trellis wires |
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| Installed posts in uniform line. 15-degree angle against the tension of the wire |
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| One drip-line riser for each row of grapes |
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| Update security system |
To come: Mid-posts every 18 feet along each row to hold up the trellis wires. Install the trellis wires. Plant in May. Then tend the vineyard, keep it weeded, pruned, trained, and watered for four years. First real harvest is in the fifth year.
Expected variety: Cabernet Sauvignon grapes. They bloom two weeks later than some other varieties, and my vineyard is a cold site for frost. Cold, therefore dense, air settles off the Table Rocks and drifts along the ground past my farm toward the Rogue River at the edge of the farm. The vineyard risks frost damage to young buds, so a late-blooming variety is better.
The vineyard is planted in cooperation with Valley View Vineyards, one of Oregon's first vineyards and wineries, founded in 1972.
7 comments:
Your Dad would be pleased with these developments, making the land productive. It’s what farmers strive to do.
Very impressive! Good luck with your new venture, although it looks like it involves more hard work than luck.
It seems unusual for someone who has been sober for years to participate in the alcohol production industry. Seems like playing with fire. Am I wrong?
Playing with fire. Not wrong. I avoided growing grapes for the decade after the farm became fully mine. I did not want to be in the "wine world" where people talked about it, tasted it, made a fuss over it.
I am in the grape farm business, not the wine business, but I take the point. I am growing grapes because it is a crop that I can grow here and it keeps the land productive. My big temptation involves having the farm be real. Productive. Not a museum of sentiment. Farmable land should be farmed. That is what sucked me in.
At this point I have concluded that I am more tempted by carbs than I am alcohol.
Hi everyone, my name is Michael and I’m a carboholic. 😀
Are you doing all of that work yourself? Are you operating the ditch digger?
Peter, my warmista buddies would tell you to grow Tempranillo, Zinfandel, or Syrah, in anticipation of global warming. I have seen these doing well in the hot, dry, Antelope Valley, when I had relatives in Llano. Be the first on your block! :)
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