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It is about the vineyard again.
We got our first frost on Friday, November 20.
We got a second frost on Sunday, and it froze again this morning.
My Pinot Noir grapes were the earliest to ripen, and the earliest for the leaves to turn color and drop. This is how they looked yesterday, next to rows of Cabernet Sauvignons. Pinot Noir is on the right.
This is the third year after planting, so we expected either no harvest or a small one. We picked the Pinot Noir grapes on October 6, and expected to pick the slower-ripening Malbec's ten days later. I had such high hopes. It was a crop so heavy that we needed to drop half of it to the ground a month before the intended harvest. I was proud.
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| September 2 photo |
But about three days before the day for picking, starlings found us and wiped out the Malbec crop. They ate them all. Pow!
Here they are yesterday in an oak tree next to the vineyard:
The photo doesn't tell the story. There are thousands -- maybe tens of thousands -- swooping around in murmurations. They swoop in, chatter a while, then swoop out. They are beautiful if they aren't destroying one's crop.
I will need to figure out some kind of netting to protect the two later varieties of grapes, the Cabernet Sauvignons and Malbecs. That is a problem for next year. Now I am trying to feel good about relaxing and letting nature take its course. I have drained the irrigation lines so they won't freeze. The weeds aren't growing. There are no herds of elk making trouble. I need to let go, chill out, and let the season do its work.
Plants have their own schedule. The Malbecs still have their leaves, but they have turned brown. The Cabernets are still green and growing. I took this photo yesterday:
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| Side by side, Cabernets on the left |
In my youth it was common to get a first frost in late September or the first week of October. Frosts devastate a melon field. A September or early October frost takes a lush field of green and turns it black. Vines wither immediately. Melons are exposed. It would look eerily like a field of skulls. For about two days following the frost, I could pick and sell the melons that had gotten ripe, but melons get the sugar and flavor that makes them delicious from a healthy living vine, so a frost is the sudden death event for a commercial harvest. I didn't want to sell an OK melon. I wanted to sell great melons.
Maybe it is just "weather." Maybe it is "climate." But this year is beyond all my experience in getting a frost this late. I planted melons in early May. The field came ripe in mid-August. A frost did not end the season; the field died slowly, of old age.
I am leaving the melon field untilled, at least for now. It is not an attractive field in this condition, but I did not see any interest in the crop by starlings, and the melons have seeds that other birds will like so I will leave them until I see starlings.
10 comments:
Mother nature in all its glory. We still have daisy plants growing, but no flowers here in Washington. Hard to know if humans will survive ourselves, but mother earth should for a couple of billions years and then it too will burn away. Death and change are inevitable for us all.
I don't want to tell you how to farm, and I like trees, but would it be beneficial to remove all the trees on your property so that the birds didn't have a place to roost so close to your vineyards? Right now, the birds get to "camp-out" right next to your crop.
Thanksgiving is the best holiday of the year. No worrying about bringing gifts or what you will get. Just bring a big appetite and your false teeth if you got’em. Eating with your family and friends at least once a year is good. No talking about politics or wishing Trump chokes on his drumstick. That’s off limits, at least for a day. The best part might be the turkey sandwiches that night. With lots of mayo.
So Happy Thanksgiving everyone and have a good sleep afterwards.
Is anyone going to comment that the National Guard soldiers attacked in DC were there illegally; that if they weren't part of a self-serving political theater farce they would have been celebrating the holiday with their families, instead of hospitalized and fighting for their lives? Anyone asking why the shooter wasn't on FBI radar?
Anyone?
You might try hiring a falconer or someone who can come in with birds of prey during the period of time the birds find your grapes to eat. I recently took a class on hawks and the instructor mentioned that some vineyards in California do exactly that to prevent birds from consuming ripe and ready to pick grapes. Apparently the birds now recognize the falconers truck when it arrives at the vineyard.
You are absolutely right. But the land has a history and it has neighbors. The tree in the photo is on my neighbor's land. The tree supplies him shade from the hot west sun in summer afternoons. He has every right to enjoy that tree. The tree is part of the larger farm that I have a piece of. I owned that tree an house for a while while I was consolidating and rearranging property lines. But I would not have cut the tree. My grandparents lived under and around that tree.
Your good observation though sends me on a revery of continuity. The tree in the photo predated my parents and grandparents. I helped plant conifers next to the grapes back when I was eight years old. It was a first job with my father. I got paid 50 cents an hour which went into my college fund, called by my parents the "Harvard Fund." There is a lot of history and i operate the farm as a work in progress. The phrase "path dependent" comes to mind. It is the way it is because of how it got there. I change things, but some things have a great deal of inertia. I change things sometimes, but I am slow to do it.
Don't forget to set your scale back 15 pounds so Friday is a good day too.
Peter, I think your truly a famer at heart. You love that little farm. Your writing seems to become more lyrical as you describe your triumphs and travails. Happy Thanksgiving!!
Fields lie still in winter’s rest,
Farmer’s hands, deservedly blessed.
Dreams of spring, silently wait,
For nature’s next dance with fate.
Fields died slowly, of old age.
Political wisdom, Gifted by a Sage.
The Earth takes another lap round the sun.
The land abides after our work is done.
To the one commenter, stick to the subject. If you wish to talk about something off topic, you are free to set up your own Substack or blog and do so.
As for the grapes, my wife and I love wine. We even started a wine club with our neighborhood friends.
I turned my wife of 50 years into a red wine drinker. We will occasionally drink whites and offer to our friends.
We watched the Oregon wine industry grow from a handful of wineries in the 70s to almost 400 wineries during our working years. We lived less than a half mile away from Cooper Mountain Vineyards, and enjoyed their wines and their rise in the industry.
While the US wineries typically focus on the varietals, we prefer the red blends. Similarly, the French and Italian wine industry is primarily blends that the various regions promoted. We enjoy our visits to wineries around the world to learn about the process.
I have a friend who was a coworker who decided to grow grapes for the various wineries. It is not an easy business as Peter describes the challenges he faces each year as pests take more than their fair share during the harvest. In France, the chateaus are required to grow their own grapes and crush them for their wines. No outside grapes permitted to use their chateau labeled wines.
Finally, let me discuss my thoughts on the price of wine. We do blind tastings during our wine club evenings. I learned that price alone does not determine the value of a wine. The winemaker does. I learned long ago that the difference between a $10 bottle and a $100 bottle was not due only to taste, but rather $90 and a lot of marketing.
Cheers!
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