From the Fields - Taylor Serres

We have cabernet sauvignon, cabernet franc, merlot, zinfandel and other red winegrape varieties. We have gone through fruit set. We’ve finished all our suckering. We are starting to leaf pull. We’ve had a moderate season as far as weather goes. The grapes look good.

The market is a little precarious with the oversupply of grapes. We are optimistic about it. We have almost everything under contract, but there is still some fruit available.

We are slightly worried about the Point Fire that just broke out. We hope it won’t have too much of an impact. It was very smoky here in Sonoma Valley on Sunday. We are probably a good 30 to 40 miles from the fire. We don’t know yet if there will be an impact on the grapes. We’re thankful not to be in evacuation proximity, but we think of our neighbors who are impacted by smoke and evacuations. With a fire of this magnitude this early in the season, we’re hoping this will be the first and last of it.

Our blueberries are in Laytonville in Mendocino County. We’re going to start harvesting this week. That will keep us busy for the next month or so. Talking to other growers, everyone is saying they’ve had a bumper crop. I think it’s going to be a lighter crop for us. We haven’t had the heat we need to get the berries to size up.

We tend to come in after the Watsonville and Salinas area and before Washington and Oregon. That market window is beneficial for us. I spoke with a wholesaler who said blueberry production elsewhere in California has come to a close for this season.

We also have cattle in Laytonville. We’ve had a very good grass year. Being organic, we incur extra costs, but it seems to work out in the end. We sold our steers and heifers last week, and prices seem to be strong.