Vineyard Night Life

Jogging down the vineyard row at 11 at night I keep hoping I don’t catch my toe on some dirt clod hidden in the dark and I wish that I spent a little more time at the gym so I wouldn’t feel like this light jog was about to kill me.  The closer I get to the beast rolling along over the top of the vineyard rows the easier it gets to see.  When I reach the ladder I grab onto to steps, swing up and enjoy the rush of warm air that blows from the tractor into my face.

I climbed to the top of the tractor and enjoy the contrast of the tractor’s warm air flowing up my legs and the Paso cold night air on my face; this would be relaxing if it didn’t feel like I was riding a jack-hammer.  I look out across the vineyard and its fellow grape planted neighbors at the eerie harvester lights floating across the dark.

Post-Harvest Grapes

Machine harvesting grapes actually takes two tractors. The most notable is the massive harvester, it carefully crawls through the vineyard, perfectly straddling the rows.  This beast has a high center where the tall vine rows to pass through the middle; reaching into the middle, are large paddles that beat the trunks of the vines causing the whole row to shake and the jack-hammer sensation from above.  As the vine quivers just the grapes, naked stems left behind, drop down to the conveyor belt. The belt then whisks the grapes up the machine, out the long arm and drops into the massive harvester’s partner.  The partner is a bin called a gondola (slightly different from the romantic boat rides of Venice), it travels alongside the harvester two rows over, pulled along in unison by the kind of tractor we most often see.

I ride the harvester and enjoy the vineyard’s new night life.  After a few rows of dancing a forced boogie, thanks to the shaking of the harvester, I climb back down and will my now jello-legs to walk back to the car.  The harvest party has just begun for the vineyard but I’m afraid it is bedtime for me.

Arm

Paso Wine Centre is a great place to taste a lot of wines for a reasonable price.  First, charge your card with money, then use that card in the wine machine to purchase 1 oz. pours ranging in price from about $1.25 to $3.00.  And, as if the selection and the ability to try so many different wines didn’t already wow me, I felt even better knowing that for each sip I purchased raised money for a good cause.  100% of profits from the Centre goes to their charity, Wine for Water.

Wine for Water is a non-profit dedicated to bring clean drinking water, sanitation, and hygiene education to people around the world.  A quick browse through their website taught me some alarming facts: 1 billion people don’t have daily access to clean and safe drinking water, and every day 6,000 people die from diseases caused by drinking unsafe water.  Wine for Water is dedicated to building wells in areas where they can change these startling facts by bringing clean water to people in need.  They have a great website that provides a lot more information about these problems and their mission to help people in need.

“Access to good food is a right, not a lifestyle.”

“We can’t keep balancing the economy on the backs of farmers. To make farmers economically viable we have to shorten the supply chain.”

Bain used to work in women’s prisons, and commented on the fact that many of those incarcerated were from rural areas where the farming systems had collapsed and the women suddenly found themselves with no job skills befitting an urban lifestyle. As a result, most of them were in jail for “poverty crimes,” i.e. petty theft, prostitution, passing bad checks, etc.

And lastly … “It takes a community to feed a community,” but communities don’t make themselves, so we – as individual consumers – need to buy locally, get involved in local/state/national political issues, and support organizations that champion sustainable causes.

P.S. the hot dogs were really good, especially on the local buns from Pure & Simple Bakery in Paso Robles!

Finally I could get to sleep, this new cool down method went swimmingly until it literally went SWIMmingly.  4:30 in the morning I woke up in a panic WHY IS MY BED SOAKING WET!? Well the Ziploc bag had not quite done its job.

The following night I improved my system by freezing water in Tupperware and then for extra leakage protection throwing it into a Ziploc bag.  A few dry nights later I have to say I think I have perfected the ice cold, rock hard version of a teddy bear.

My middle of the night over-heated panic attack got me wondering, how much energy we waste those few days a year when the temperatures soar?  After perusing the web for information I found just what I suspected, during hot summers is when we consume the most energy.  In fact, our AC units often use more electricity than any other appliance in the house, they can account for 60-70% of our electricity bills! For more shocking information about AC units I would suggest checking out  this site dedicated to Saving Electricity.

Below I’ve listed a few tips for keeping your house cool during these scorching days, I would love to see your suggestions.  For more tips you may want check out the U.S. Department of Energy, California Energy Commission’s Consumer Energy Center , and Helium’s article on How to reduce energy consumption during the summer.

• Sleeping with frozen water, in a tupper ware, in a ziplock bag
• Being conscious about opening your windows at night to let in the cool air and then closing them during the hot day
• Use fans to keep the air circulating, air movement can help you feel cooler than you actually are
• Shade your windows with blinds, towels, planted trees, whatever gets the trick done

Then there are the adopted summer squash plants.  My former neighbor had a small veggie garden of his own with a nice Zucchini and Crookneck.  Last month he moved out and abandoned the garden.  I contemplated taking on the weighty responsibilities of another garden:  It will have to be watered (it does not have the nice drip irrigation system that my garden does).  It will have to be weeded (sprinklers water more weeds hence the nice drip irrigation system in my garden).  Do I really need more squash?  YES! (What a glutton).

Needless to say I am inundated with Black Beauty Zucchini, Yellow Crooknecks, Cocozelle, Round (these really spread out so you find green round squash, in with the potatoes, spread out five feet from their own plant ) and Caserta.  Now, in addition to my double duty gardening tasks, I need to spend time perusing cookbooks and the internet for squash recipes (there is such a thing as Mexican Ratatouille), freezing (this involves partially cooking, moving squash to an ice bath, drying, and then you get to the freezing part) and of course sharing with friends!

Squash is really a very rewarding plant to grow.  It requires very few inputs and produces copiously.  Mine have even managed to evade the gophers, which have been into just about everything else.  So, next year I look forward to doing it all over again.  Maybe I will up the stakes and grow nine.  Send me your squash recipes!

Normally it wouldn’t make sense that I pay car payments but I still have to bum a ride from mommy.  But this weekend I am learning a valuable lesson: I may use my car more than I really need to.  I only live 8 blocks from where I work but every morning I find myself pulling my car into a downtown parking space. 

Despite my close relationship with my car, I now find myself stuck, carless for the weekend. This weekend I have plans to travel down to San Diego with my boyfriend to visit his family.  He is traveling down two days before me, so we decided that he should take my car (because I can’t share the return drive if we take his stick shift truck) and I would take the train to meet up with him later.  The only glitch in this plan is that it has left me without a car for two whole days.

Now,  as I cruise South on Amtrak, heading towards San Diego and  my beloved car, I must admit that I have learned some valuable lessons:  maybe I should try walking or even biking more, especially because I live at such a great location, only blocks from downtown and work.  Also, Amtrak is great!  For anyone considering a trip I would strongly suggest looking into your Amtrak options, the trains are clean and comfortable, and it was is wonderful to not have the stress of combating Southern California traffic.

In March, 2009, a brilliantly simple idea called The 3/50 Project posed that each one of us could help in “saving the brick and mortars our nation is built on.” It suggests that you think of three local businesses you want to see stick around, and then commit to spending $50 a month total among them. (However, it’s not an all or nothing game – if you only commit to $10, you’re still helping, and you don’t need to totally swear off chains or big box stores.)

As the website explains, “Maybe that means rethinking where you currently invest your money, opting to pick up that birthday card or pair of jeans in a locally owned business instead of the big box you’ve been going to. Or maybe it means eating out once a month because you realize slamming the brakes on all spending stalls economic recovery. It’s just that simple. … Just as there are things in a locally owned store that you can’t find in a big box, there are also things in a big box you can’t find in a locally owned store. We simply need to think about where our dollars are best invested, consider the greater amount of revenue local businesses return to the community, then purchase accordingly. Otherwise, local economies suffer irreparable harm.”
The 3/50 Project also notes that for every $100 spent in the local economy, 68 of those dollars remain in the community, versus only $43 if spent at a national chain, and $0 if spent online.
Think globally, $pend locally?