An unexpected task!!!!
This week the NCVs were promised a rather unusual day. It was to involve - wait for it.......
GRAPE PICKING!!!!!!
Yes, that's right. Grape picking.
And no - they were not being whisked off to a vineyard in France, or even the south of England. Instead they had to make their way to the top end of Nidderdale - an unlikely sounding spot for grape growing. It turns out that Moorhouse Farm is not a bad place at all for growing grapes to make into wine, despite it being, at an elevation of 1100 ft, the highest vineyard in England!
The vineyard is 1.5 acres in size and grows 5 varieties of both red and green grapes which will be made into sparkling rose. The crop was ready to pick and the grapes were being collected the following morning to be transported to Shropshire for pressing (so no need for the NCVs to take off their boots in order to tread the juicy fruits!)
So - let's cut the chat and look at the pictures of what went on. How many grapes were picked by close of play?
Estate manager Nick helped Liz
transport everyone high up
above the valley.
The transport was luxurious.
Amy put on her hood to stop the
rain coming through the hole in the roof.
The weather was not we had
expected. Provence like it
certainly was not!
Full waterproofs were the
order of the day.
On arrival everyone set off
to the work area clutching
buckets and secateurs.
Their destination was
behind a wire fence.
Over you go Ruth!
On the far side of the fence were
hundreds of bunches of green grapes.
These two NCVs were soon
neck deep in the vines, hunting
out the fruits of their labour.
Dawn sat down on the job.
Amy poses with a bunch to
send the pic to her family
in France.
When buckets were filled they
were carried down to be emptied
into the barrels for transporting.
Over the day dozens of containers
were filled.
Nick said that the harvest last year
(the first for this new vineyard) was
400kg. This year he thinks it will
be triple that!!!!
Everyone was relieved that lunch
was to be taken in a nice
dry shooting barn.
Wine was on offer for those that
wanted a tipple!
Cheers folks!
Well done on picking all the
grapes in our assigned area!
PS - View from the loo!
No comments:
Post a Comment