Pruning has begun!

The timeline has been set and the pruning schedule for 2011 has been put into motion. It's me and my lightweight Japanese pruners against the thousands of cuts to be made to the thousands of vines. My callouses are growing back, my hand is starting to automatically mold into the shape of my pruners, and I see grapevines on high cordon wire systems every time I close my eyes now.

It's a race against the clock. It's a gamble with the weather and a whistle and a prayer that what I've learned over the past few years of pruning pays off this year. The vines are tied up just right, which is a good start to the pruning season. Now all I have to do is start at one end of the 10 or so acres in productive, hardy vines and prune until I get to the other side and then race back over and do it all again.

Step one - prune fruiting wood back into what buds I'd like to produce.
Step two - as the little blossoms emerge, prune back clusters to make sure each plant can support a good crop
Step three - arrange the fruiting crop for maximum sunlight, airflow, and productivity to get the finest quality grapes and avoid diseases and pests with healthy plants.

And that's just the spring training system. Summer is a whole different set of steps.

I'm about halfway through step one. It's probably the most taxing to do as wrestling old grapevines out that have knotted themselves together means making many cuts and pulling and then cutting again and pulling until the vine looks manageable again and ready for a productive season. Move to next grapevine and repeat.
I'm quite addicted to listening to Edward Sharpe and the Magnetic Zeros while tackling this task for it's upbeat nature and there's nothing like a good singalong and a slight dance in your step to keep things rolling.

These few beautiful March days have really catapulted my mood into a soaring hopefulness. It's just warm enough to enjoy the sun and the smell of the mud. The grass is just starting to blush a bit of green, very cautiously as it slowly emerges, not too quick as the threat of a few more winter storms still lingers in the air.

Still not open yet. Still working on the renovation. The wine is shaping up very beautifully. The cider is doing something amazing. I hope we're open in the next few months. Until then, I'll be outside happily pruning.