Barreca Vineyards

Barreca Vineyards

From Vine to Wine since 1986

Posts filed under Family

A Death in the Family

A lot of things happen when someone close to you dies that bring life into focus.  One is that things you were worried about or in this case intended to write about, were not all that critical.  Another is that writing is pretty safe and controlled compared to getting choked up and wanting to cry. … (read more)

Spring Happens

I haven’t written a blog since the violets and buttercups were blooming. Now the tulips, fruit trees, dandelions, Quince, Locust, Frittilaria, Iris and Lupine have all bloomed. Is Spring officially over when a bear tears down your bird feeder (5/27/19)? There is a lot to catch up on and nobody needs a really long article… (read more)

Fall 2018

As you could expect, this is a very busy time of year at the vineyard.  So to shorten the blog to a minimum I will just put a link here for an article I wrote in the North Columbia Monthly for October – and have recreated here on this website.  It is called Dirt First and gives the basics of Regenerative Agriculture.  Then I will put in some pictures with captions.

Dried Fruit for the winter

Tomatoes coming on

Filberts from out trees

Hot Lips are still in bloom

Paste Tomatoes

Crab Apples

The Red Oak picture by Cheryl

Marechal Foch Grapes

The Rav4 broke a timing belt on the way to the Farmers Market

Siegerrebe Grapes in the crusher

Cheryl sold her 4 wheel drive Toyota to my daughter April. Maybe James will be able to drive it in 2030.

Lucie Kuhlmann primary fermentation

Friends picking a future French Rocks Red wine

Big Cat Face spider 

Siegerrebe Grapes at Downriver Orchard

Our VW Vanagon cracked ahead – out for the season

Kit and Sharon Shultz crushing grapes with Tom Distler

Amber and Tom helping out

A big Black Lab Cheryl rescued from the highway and found the owners for

Himrod Grapes

3 cords of wood delivered

Silent Fall

When a pendulum swings it pauses at either end and quickly passes through the middle. August is the middle. Things are changing quickly. We have gone from some of the hottest summer days on record to days of giant swings between the high and low temperatures. That part of our weather is actually good for… (read more)

The To-Do List

Usually I review diary entries from the last month to write this blog. I did that for June and it looked pretty boring. I also usually have a theme and had been thinking about “recycling” as the theme. That sounded like it could easily end up as another pedantic rant on sustainability from an old… (read more)

A Change of Seasons

It’s officially winter since the winter solstice has come and gone. You would think that things should slow down. Critters are hibernating or have gone south. The crops are in. It’s hard to get around. But NOOO! We have a holiday season that revolves around Christmas. (Very little mention of solstice, which basically is “the… (read more)

Smoke Check

Once again we are engulfed in smoke and have been for 3 days. It is our “new normal” for this time of year. The sun is an orange ball in a gray sky. The shadows seem to be blue. You can barely see across Lake Roosevelt. We wake up in the morning and check the… (read more)

Leaving a Legacy

This is the 4th of July and I am writing a blog for June. I’m not at a party or watching fireworks. That’s the way June was too. I started writing a May blog while in Seattle just before my father’s 95th birthday party. Sometimes quiet time is hard to come by. It’s the big… (read more)