From the Fields - Taylor Serres

By Taylor Serres, Sonoma and Mendocino counties farmer and rancher 

In Sonoma County, with the winegrapes, we had some good rainfall earlier in the year, so there’s lots of early growth. We had an extended bloom period, which caused some more-than-normal shatter in the grape clusters where not every berry develops. The two big heat spells we had in June weren’t great, but with daily, frequent watering, we were able to get through it with little damage.

As far as the yields in grape production, we think the crop will be a little bit less this year. We expect to start harvest at the end of September to beginning of October. We have gone through berry set and are waiting for veraison, or the color change from green to red. It’s a waiting game. We are opening up canopies, getting some more sunlight in the canopy for that color development. We just haven’t quite had the heat that we need.

For blueberries, which are in Mendocino County, we are officially done with harvest. We finished the last week of July, which was later than normal. Usually, our season starts the second to third week of June, but this year we started the fourth week of June, and we finished roughly the same time as last year. We got hit with heat, which shortened our season.

Total production for blueberries was a little bit less, and that was due to the late rains in May that knocked off some of the blossoms for the berries. While there was not necessarily a lot of fruit, the quality was really good, so we’re happy with the harvest.

We have an organic cattle operation in Mendocino that my brother and I run. We were able to ship our cattle and get a really nice return. It was our first year converting to organic, so all the cows are bred and out in the fields and living their happy-cow life.