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Pretty Pictures

A collection of 346 posts

A fertile beginning to 2013

The vineyard is still safely dormant, but our flock is growing. It's lambing season, and we've turned our sheep barn into a nursery. In the manner of new parents everywhere, I'll share a few baby photos because I can't help but think

Photo of the Day: Paso Robles Winter Sunset

This has been a winter of weather blocks. We had a very wet December and a very dry (and cold) January. So far, February looks like more of the same, without much precipitation in the long-term forecast. But despite the dry weather, we've had a couple of days

Photo of the Day: Donkeys on Guard

Some photos are too good not to share. As regular followers of the blog know, we have two donkeys that help guard our mixed flock of sheep and alpacas from coyotes, bobcats, mountain lions and other predators that might threaten the smaller animals. Donkeys will bond with other species in

Making Olive Oil In-House For the First Time

Our last harvest of the year is olives, which we typically pick in late November or early December. In an ideal year, we might get some frosts before the olives are ripe, but we won't get any hard freezes, because if the olives freeze then they rot and

Photo essay: the vineyard's new green winter coat

It's beautiful out here this weekend. Last weekend's rain has passed through, and a week of sunny weather has meant that the cover crop and the natural grasses have exploded out of the ground. I can't ever remember as fast a transformation in the

What a difference two weeks makes

Two weeks ago, I posted a series of autumn foliage pics, one of which is below: I walked back past that spot yesterday, on an ultimately fruitless quest to take some good sunset pictures. I was stunned by how much more fall-like the vineyard felt after two weeks that included

Harvest 2012: The End of the Beginning

By Chelsea Franchi And so it appears, just like that, harvest is over and it is time for a season-end wrap up. While I wish I could tell you there was a wonderful celebration as the last cluster was ceremoniously placed in the last tank, I can't. Because

Autumn Foliage, Paso Robles Style

I grew up with Vermont's riot of foliage and foliage-watchers each October. California's trees may not burst into flame colors each autumn, but there is about a two-week window, at the end of harvest and before frost, when the grapevines do. Different varieties show different signatures,

Harvest continues under ideal conditions, with high quality and above-average yields

The first half of October is typically our busiest stretch of harvest, and 2012 was no exception. Between October 1st and 15th, we brought in 107 tons off of our estate and another 60 tons of purchased fruit for the Patelin de Tablas line. That's something like 30%

Harvest photo of the day: Ripening Mourvedre

By the onset of October, the vines are starting to show signs of stress. This is not typically a bad thing; this stress triggers an internal mechanism that pushes a plant to ripen its fruit so it can reproduce. And the outward signs can be beautiful, including fall-like colors on