Grape Therapy 2.0.. : )..

Alrighty!  This has been one of the best weekends that I've had in a long, long, long time.  I had a feeling that the wine harvests were going to be fun, but I had no idea just how much fun I was going to have!  Two days of picking grapes, and I'm tellin ya!  I hardly have any stress at all.

My weekend started at Ladoga Ridge Winery in Smithville, MO.  I had such a great time, even though I snipped my fingers three times with the pruning shears!  Yikes!  : )..  They had music playing from their outside speakers, and it was sooo nice and relaxing moving through the rows, collecting grape clusters and filling several buckets.

My weekend ended at Fence Stile Vineyard in Excelsior Springs, MO.  I avoided snipping my fingers (and everyone else's too) this time.  We had some rain that blew through early in the morning, but it stopped by the time we started, leaving us with a gorgeous, cool breeze while we were collecting the grapes.

We started our morning by helping to remove the bird netting, bending down to remove the plastic clips, and then lifting the netting over the tops of the rows of vines.  It was quite the workout.  We uncovered two long, full rows.  Once all of the vines were free, it was time to start snipping and filling buckets.

We made it through eight rows of grapes, but right at the end of the harvest, I was reaching for a grape cluster that was hidden behind some leaves.  It took me a couple seconds to realize what was happening, I heard a humming or buzzing sound and I thought I had hit part of an electric fence!  Lol.  Nope!  I got stung!  Yikes!  I had a small grape cluster in my hand, which went flying across the row while I was hopping around, shaking my other hand.  Ha!  It only hurt for a bit though and although it's a little sore when I try bending my finger, all of the fun I had this weekend was well worth that bee sting!

We ended both days with a lunch, and ended Sunday's harvest with a few bottles of delishus, delishus, delishus wine.  I went to Ladoga Ridge without my wine mob group, but they were present and accounted for at Fence Stile.  There were 30 volunteers picking grapes.  We picked over 5,000 pounds, which averages out to 172 pounds per person.  The grapes we picked will create about 112 cases of wine.  Not a bad days work.  Very therapeutic!  How can I be stressed with a weekend like that?  Umm.  I can't!  : )..

Here are some pics from Fence Stile's harvest.

 Da Seyval Grapes..

 One of da buckets I filled..

 Some of da grapes that were added to the big crates..

 Some of da stems that were leftover from the harvest..
There were a lot more stems, that's only part of the lot..

Da wine mob toast..

Buon cibo!  Buon vino!  Buon amici!

(Good food * Good wine * Good friends)

Next up?  Fence Stile's harvest August 26th..

Guess who is going to be there?  Our wine mob

and a couple other friends!

I can't wait!

If anyone has the chance to join a winery's
grape harvest?  I highly recommend it!  : )..

I'm adding this to DebbieDoo's Newbie party.
Great host!  Great site!  Great participants!
Great idea that she included Newbie grads and diy/crafts as well!