Tuesday, April 24, 2012

The bees are back -- and the vines are growing quickly!


Everyone is so excited -- we got our bee hives back!  We lost both hives a few months ago to this shocking disease, CCD or Colony Collapse Disorder. Have you heard about it? It seems that the Neonicotinoid pesticides are doing away with a large amount of the bee population. And even though our vineyard is organic, since the bees travel up to 3 km they can bring it back from nearby conventional vineyards.  It's a horrible situation!


Meanwhile, with the recent warm weather following the rains, the vines are growing by leaps and bounds.       And the vineyards look beautiful!  Very uniform and manicured, thanks to the great work of our vineyard team. If things go well from here to harvest, we could have an excellent crop.  Hah!  Wish we had a crystal ball ...



The cover crops are in full bloom and looking gorgeous. We have different crops planted throughout the vineyards, selected to best suit each parcel. Pretty soon we will mow them or till them into the soil, depending on the needs of each block. But for now, we love to run amid the beautiful flowers!



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