PICNIC

I’m looking for grapes. I want to do just one type of wine this year. Last year was just overkill, and I’m still suffering from that. Dozens of carboys, so many different decisions. If I can just have one wine to focus on; just as sometimes I wish I had only one cat, who could receive 5 times the love and attention! I checked out Utopia Vineyard yesterday. It’s on the very southern tip of Ribbon Ridge. Looks good. 500 foot elevation, nice slope with southern exposure, no irrigation, no fertilizers. It’s all Pinot Noir on about 12 acres. It’s run by Daniel Warnshuis, who worked in California wineries for 25 years but wanted to get away from the craziness.

I’ll try to look at a few others and then choose one. Harvest should be the end of this month.

I visited the Wealth Underground Farm today. Brooke and Nolan cooked me a huge lunch of fried rice, beans, plantains, spinach, guacamole, and guava juice and then we spent the afternoon tending to the field. I cut grass with a sickle, planted squash starts, and weeded in between the beds.

I bought a dozen eggs from Wes today at the PSU farmers market. You can see a few blue eggs, these are from Araucana chickens, and I wonder if the few blue eggs at the co-op are from the same breed. He has 800 chickens he tends at his uncles farm. They are all kept in 7 mobile coops, ranging in size from 5 by 7 to 8 by 16. Instead of wheels they sit on skis, and are towed around with a tractor. He doesn’t use fences, I was surprised at that. Apparently the chickens sometimes wander off and lay their eggs in the woods, sending Wes hunting for them.