Farm Rule #1--Do Not Panic! And What's Happening in the Kitchen?

It's lovely in the mornings when we awake to fog, but after 2 weeks of morning fog lasting well into the 10 and 11 o'clock hours...it causes concern. And famously, the 100+ degree Paso Robles heat suddenly arrives and leaves us all lethargic and slow and shocked! that's it's SO DANG HOT! But never mind us, what about our 7,000 grapevines that are dry-farmed (no irrigation)??!!

We experienced some panic yesterday...to the point where Phillip put in two calls to people who's opinions we rely on and considered calling a "vineyard management company" for some additional advice. We were seeing what appeared to be botrytis or some other form of grape rot in the Syrah. (Which both occur with fog...but what we researched in books didn't confirm our thoughts.) Phillip observed that over 1 day, this "malady" was affecting previously healthy and thriving vines--and it was rapidly spreading and we were seriously thinking we could lose our entire Syrah crop for the year. We were going to have an "emergency pick" just to get the grapes out of the vineyard and then figure what to do with them (make a late-harvest wine? Lay them on straw? etc...), but after taking the numbers, these grapes weren't showing high sugar levels to even consider picking. Emergency plan cancelled, but we were prepared to pick them Sunday and Monday, on fruit days.

Oh, what a good night's sleep and cool temperatures do! Early, early this morning as Phillip was on bird patrol (keep those winged wonders out!) he noticed that the Syrah grapes were plump and healthy, nothing like what he saw yesterday (in the 108 degree afternoon blazing heat). And again, the old rule of thumb struck him: don't panic, have faith. Yesterday, our vines were showing the results of this major heat and the liquids were draining down. But after a cool evening, the energy was back and the grapes were plump and full. Yes, we have 2 more days of this extreme heat (some people ask if we have the option to turn on the water...no, when we say we're "dry-farmed", we really mean it), but this weekend we have respite with temperatures dropping 30 degrees in our daytime highs.

Our moral of the story: don't panic. About once a year, our vineyard teaches us this--have faith in our vines and our natural way of farming and wait to see the final outcome. It may be an interesting reflection in our wine!

And in the kitchen? The canning pot is boiling! We have graciously been given peaches and apples, so we have chutneys, marmalades, and butters stocked full in the pantry. I have an old, tattered book that I refer to for all of my food preserving (talk about panic...the other day I couldn't find it and I was sent in a whirlwind looking everywhere for it!) and I follow an excellent blog for more recipes and canning expertise. At right you see Refrigerator Sun Pickles--wow! How fun! I've been eyeing the tomatoes, those too shall soon be in the shelves of the pantry. Summer is a fantastic time of year!

Teas, teas and more teas! Veraison! 501 to aid Ripening

Mid-July brought us 4 days of over 100 degree days accompanied with warmish nights (what we consider warm, 60+). Also, we had been fighting powdery mildew pretty hard with organic sprays on a daily basis. It seemed to Phillip the plants needed some relief, on the 3rd day of the heat-spike we made a tea from our plants, trees and herbs growing on the property: ground oak bark (a healer), horsetail (a fungus controller) and stinging nettle (an iron balancer). Pre-stirring we added some drops of valerian (always a soother). After stirring with the sunrise for an hour, we hand sprayed all vineyards with backpacks on foot.






The next day, we applied what we consider the second half of the tea: purchased dried dandelion, our estate chamomile and yarrow flowers, again with some drops of valerian just pre-stirring. To this we added preps of all the same flowers, literally a few grams of each. All of the flowers are considered to have healing qualities, soothing applications--we, humans, take them for the same reasons.

It was time for everything in the vineyards to take a deep breath and relax a little so that once the heat abated, the vines could continue growing and ripening the grapes.

(Picture at left: our copper stirring machine emptying the tea into the water tank from which we fill our backpacks)








July 20th we spotted veraison (the onset of ripening) on Tempranillo--remember Tempranillo resembles "early" in Spanish, and it is so true with this varietal, it is always the first to show it's red berries. Three days later, nearly a third of the vineyard had turned--it happens that quickly!

To aid this sun-driven-grape-ripening process we stirred 501 (horn silica, a light attractor) pre-dawn for an hour: 1 gram of silica with 3 gallons of water per acre. We also applied this to the leaves of the vine with backpacks as the sun rose.






And in the winery? We racked off the 2009 reds on a descending moon--fruit day. Everything is tasting quite fantastic and vibrant, even though there is still a tiny bit of malolactic fermentation still going on. Using the natural time frame of how quickly the grapes want to work is always going to give us different schedules each year. Last year, Phillip had racked and blended the wines by May. This year it looks like a couple of weeks ago--maybe before harvest...after harvest? What will be, will be.


Stay tuned...there is a honey harvest on the horizon!