Sippin’ Cider After a brief dip down to overnight lows in the teens and twenties, the weather has been mild for a couple of weeks. (Of course, that is changing rapidly as I start to write about it.) The beauty of having high temperatures near 40º is that the whole outdoors is the same temperature… (read more)
Lots of things happened in the world in December and January. But around here it was mostly about the cats. We already had a wonderful little gray cat, Gray-C. She was inside when on December 8th we all heard a cat meowing at the front door. Cheryl went out to check it out and the… (read more)
This is not an ordinary blog post. I recently became aware of some other vineyards that use regenerative agriculture techniques. I am providing this link to Hopewell Vineyard near Salem, Oregon Although there are many good reasons to check out this vineyard, what put it over the top for me was a link from that… (read more)
It’s nice to have some confirmation that your wines are good from a wine expert. Recently I was pleased to learn that Ronald Irvine has tasted Barreca Vineyards varieties Léon Millot and Baco Noir. Before I elaborate on what he had to say let’s introduce Ron. Prior to purchasing the Vashon Winery nearly 20 years… (read more)
All the leaves are brown and the sky is gray… (California Dreamin, the Mamas and the Papas) Four days after Halloween daylight savings time ends. It gets dark around 4 PM. On the bright side there is daylight at 7 AM. What really closes in is the realization that although winter might not be officially… (read more)
One of the advantages of growing a winery out of a backyard vineyard is that you tend to have a variety of plants and wines. The disadvantage of course is that you may not have a tremendous amount of any one wine. These past few years neighbors have stepped in to add to both the… (read more)
It has been 41 days since we got back from Hawaii and today was warmer than any day we spent there. So Spring has Sprung. We even ate asparagus fresh out of the garden today and Cheryl is setting up feeders for hummingbirds. The local deer have gone from mangy and rangy to sleek and… (read more)
We survived the moons of January and the moon is full again now at the end of February. Luckily we can see it at night so far but tomorrow will bring another two days of big snow. I would like to think of winter as a time to kick back a little indoors and catch… (read more)
I get along with a little help from my friends (and family). Making it through grape harvest is relaxing, fun, challenging, frustrating and tedious all at the same time. Luckily this year I had help at crucial times harvesting grapes and people seemed to have fun helping out. So far this year we have harvested… (read more)
Is drying pears more important than sharing stories with people? Not exactly a fair question most would agree, but one I have been wrestling with since pears from our tree are ripening quickly and will soon be rotting if we don’t get them dried or preserved. So getting time to sit down and write my… (read more)
