Sunday, May 10, 2009

Happy Harvesting

Our grape harvest was packed with beautiful fruit and lots of busy hands as we worked through the month of April to gather what the vines blessed us with this year. The weather was amazingly cooperative. The cool weather kept the acids in the berries lively and the extended absence of rain meant we could leave the fruit on the vine to allow for optimum flavour development. As each bit of fruit reached its perfect ripeness, we kept in mind the severe weather that was predicted at the end of the month. The Antipodean Astro Calendar suggested that the celestial events set to occur on April 27-28 (moons crossing with Mars, the Mars/Pluto square, moons perigee and moon reaching peak north) were indicators of severe weather and a higher chance of rain. Our last bit of fruit was picked on the 27th, while the rains rolled in as predicted on the 28th. Perfect timing!

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