So, we did some gardening in the morning- your basic weeding, and checking for scavengers (bugs that is!). Because we don't use any pesticides or chemicals, we have to be vigilant when it comes to bugs! We are hoping that we have eradicated the potato beetles from the Tomatillo plants, but then yesterday we noticed that there were many tiny wholes on the eggplant leaves- the bugs are at in in full force, but we will win! Now, if only we could stop the ducks from poking their bills through the fence and going for the snow pea leaves and the tomato plants!

After loading up the farm stand, we were on our way to local vineyards to scope out the competition! Jay was quite envious of some of the trestles! We had a lovely time touring 3 wineries, it was a beautiful day!
Photos From: Miranda Vineyard

A short video (again with the videos!) of The Crush Day at The Grassy Knoll Farm. This is our first time crushing wine grapes. This historic weekend is the culmination of three years of classes, research, making many batches of wine from box kits to creating our own wine from fresh juice in the pail. Our first crushing. Now, on to the hard part...

Just picked up some new juice, Festa Juice Cabernet Sauvignon from Magnotta Winery Ontario, Canada. I can't wait to get into it this weekend and start the fermentation. We also have some Californian Chardonnay to bottle that just hit the 6 month mark. Looks like we are shaping up for a good weekend. 

It is day four the batches average temp is 62 deg. and I have been stirring twice a day. Fermentation is looking good and we are one third of the way threw the conversion to alcohol ( Specific Gravity 1.055 ). It is time for the yeast nutrients and as you can see in the last pic we have much happier yeast. The nutrients will help the yeast healthy and not die off before the finish the job. Nine days and we will rack the wine and get a good look at it.

July 1st, today I add some additional French Oak to the Wine. We keep a single bottle with a little french oak in it off the the side for topping off the main batch and testing. This helps determine if the batch would benefit from have additional oaking without disturbing or over oaking the main batch of wine. The wine is progressing very nicely but it will be November before we can even handle on a bottle date.    

 Lots of business to attend to this weekend, seeing that we are officially "The Grassy Knoll Farm"! We received our tax ID number, so per the government, we are official! And, off and running...
So, let's see. Hmm... we bottled some 2010 Shiraz, blended our Chardonnay, played with the chicks (they needed some extra attention- they are starting to freak out that our cat, Charlotte is watching them through the clear plastic container that is their home) and thinned our seedlings- some looked so wonderful that we replanted them for selling at the farm stand come May!

We also debated on moving the ducks to their summer home, but from the looks of the weather report, we are looking at a wintery mix of snow and rain all week long, so we decided to leave the ducks in the warm shed and deal with moving them in a few weeks. They are all dying for a bath, alas, it is still just too cold for them at night, so dusty, dirty and dry they must stay!