A leisurely pace

The grape harvest continues out back, but there is no apparent hurry. The weather continues to be dry and (relatively) warm. We've seen a lot of hand-harvesting this year, much more than I've seen out there in the thirteen years we've lived here.

A small bunch of grapes in an abandoned vineyard parcel. These will go to the wildlife.

One of the guys we've come to know over the years was out back when I walked Callie yesterday and we chatted briefly. He said that more and more growers are getting into organic production and hand-harvesting these days. It's the trend, although his employer is not following it. They still use chemical herbicides to keep weeds down in many of their parcels and rely mostly on mechanical harvesting.