Julian's
July Vineyard Report
We can wear sandals now and kick up big dust clouds when we walk through the vineyard rows down to the creek. There is a family of baby ducks now and a family of quail bobbing around with their five chicks.
All the vines are full of leaves and grapes. Dad will take some of the leaf stems and send them to a place that grinds them up to find out if all the right nutrients are in the vines. If there are some nutrients missing, he’ll go to the farm supply store to buy some. Next year we’ll mix them into the ground so the vines will be even healthier.
All the little grapes start out green. Some will turn really dark and some will turn yellowish. They don’t have much sugar in them now, but every day the grapes grow sweeter and sweeter. Dad said verasion is a French word for when the grapes start to get soft and turn different colors. The whole family takes a lot of walks thought the vineyard because the days are really long now. I check the traps to see how many sharp shooters there are. Dad looks for vines that aren’t strong or for grapes with mildew or colors that are signs of Pierce’s Disease. He’ll put a tag on the sick vines and come back and pull them out. He’ll plant news ones later.
I like it when it’s hot out now, but so does the mildew. We want to sleep outside all the time. But we’re too sleepy to get out of our sleeping bags and go inside when Dad has to get out on the tractor early in the morning.
Come back each month for a Julian's Vineyard
Report.
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