Wow, that was a great harvest year for us at Aeolus Vineyards. We had the largest harvest on our records. Some of those records are thin but 17.5 tons of grapes total is a great year!!!
Of course with all the crazy spring weather in 2022, ice, snow, rain etc we were worried about the overall crop and if we had too much damage. Well we were proved wrong , probably helped by Mother Nature with the significant rain that continued through April and May then cool weather into June. This delayed the overall bloom and subsequent harvest but gave the plants lots of time to recover from the severe cold snap.
Since we could not do much to the vineyard but wait and watch it all grow, we tried to keep busy. Multiple hikes scattered through our working days and a quick week off allowed us to surprise our friends during a cruise to Alaska.
We had a wonderful surprise and met Khaki and Chip Lano in Bend where they were doing a tour for Chip’s birthday. We then met them for dinner on Saturday night and literally closed down the city that evening. Not even sure how the 2 of them were still up considering the 30 mile bike ride the day before, hiking Misery Ridge at Monkey Face then staying out all hours with us. WHAT A BLAST!!!!!!
Finally harvest came starting in September. COVID delayed the harvest a little for our buyers, but the fruit was gorgeous and HUGE!!! And of course we had help from Danette’s dad, Bill.
My colleague David Panossian shared some of his harvest with us, Rhubarb and fresh tomatoes that we promptly made these two beautiful and wonderful pies. Rhubarb is my new favorite for sure.
