Hunkering down for the winter

The tomatoes, peppers, and eggplant have frozen. The lettuces and fennel are covered. All the harlequin bugs are dead. It's official- summer's over. As sad as it is, we knew it was coming. We're starting to sell out of many of our winter crops, and for this we are grateful. It's the time of year when we get to all the things we've let go for the rest of the year: building a high tunnel, painting the garage doors, organizing all the tools.

We're starting to clean out around the fields to prepare them for next year's crops. Many of our fields have become overgrown with honeysuckle, smilex, and lagustrum. We'll be bush-hogging what's left of the crop residue next week and then plowing the field to let it lay fallow over the winter. We'll be going over to Branchill farms and picking up several loads of manure to spread over the fields for the winter.

As the farm goes to sleep, we're scaling down our operation. We're closing out store on HWY 29 to re-open in the Spring. We'll be selling vegetables at 4758 Poplar Tent Rd on Saturdays from 9-12 at least until January. We'll also be selling vegetables by special order (call 704-782-2117 or email thefarmatdovervineyards@gmail.com). Let me know if there's anything you're wanting. We'll pick it fresh and have it waiting for you.

An update on the wine: it's tasting great! We're really proud of our first vintage. The whites are almost ready to bottle. We racked them off the gross lees and then proceeded to shake the wines a bit to stir up the fine lees. We'll be racking again sometime this week. We're sending samples off to the ASU enology lab the week after. We'll see the changes they recommend, but I'm pretty sure we've lucked out for the first year. I hope it's because of skill, but it might just be beginner's luck.

It's been a great season, our first season being open to the public. We've learned a lot and have a lot of ways to improve our operation for next year. We hope you'll continue to spread the word about our farm and come back to the store next year to see the improvements.