Wild Ride

Most of the vineyards around here are harvested with "grape picking machines" I put this in quotes, because the grapes aren't really picked, they are wrenched and battered off the vines, along with everything else that happens to be in there, lots of leaves, vines etc.  Seeing a vineyard after it has been harvested is like seeing it after a hurricane has passed through. Poor vines!  Most of the leaves are gone, the stems are left  looking like the boars have come through and eaten every last grape.  It's something that I would never want to do, but it's a way of life around here, costs of labor are high and it's more economical to use machines, especially for the cooperatives.  The other day our neighbors were machine- harvesting the vineyard across the street from our house, so I went to check it out.  I even got a ride in the end! Pretty amazing.  The steel rods move up and down to beat the grapes off the stems, they then fall onto conveyor belts that bring them to large bins on each side of the machine. Someone sits on top and pulls out the branches that are broken off the vines so that they don't get stuck and cause the machine to jam... Just thought you might like to see it!