Grape Growing Goodness

Good God it was hot today.

So what better way to beat the heat than crawling between rows and rows of grape vines trying to get a good shot from the harvesting at a local vineyard. It was a fairly large farm, with narrow rows that stretched far into the distance. Rather than walk all the way out of the vineyard each time I wanted to switch rows, I found myself ducking through gaps in the grapes and trying to keep my camera equipment from getting tangle in all the vines. I rarely succeeded.

I was kind of surprised that the grapes went directly from the vine into the plastic containers you see in the store. Although now that I think about it, my mom used to tell me about how when she worked as a migrant worker as a child, they would always put the ugly or bruised strawberries at the bottom or middle of the packages so you couldn't seem them in the grocery aisle.

Despite the heat and the hard labor, I so want to do this some day. Not here in the U.S., but In Australia. They have these migrant tours where you work as a farm laborer for the summer, traveling across the continent picking fruit. You work all day, make poor wages and most likely live in cramped housing provided by the farm owners. It sounds fantastic. My mom can't imagine why on earth I would want to voluntarily do something that she was forced to do with her family as a child. Did I mention it's in Australia?