When Dave decided to pursue a career in winemaking, I had never even heard of the term “harvest widow”. I didn’t know that I had signed up to a lifetime of single parenting 2-3 months every year. Two years ago, I was in Corvallis with our two girls and pregnant with Lucas while Dave did a six month vineyard and cellar internship – which meant 2-3 months should’ve been nothing last year living in wine country, but it was still super isolating and a rough emotional winter. I made a decision that this year would be different. I slowly found out over the course of a year that there were a multitude of harvest widows through Dave’s social circle and decided this year I would attempt to surround myself with a village of ladies who get the harvest widow life. So, here it is – freezer meal swap and first harvest widow brunch of the season and I am feeling so lucky to be finding community here in McMinnville.
Dave was hired on as an enologist at Duck Pond Cellars in June and is in the thick of harvest 2019. They will be processing around 2000 tons of grapes this year which is mind blowing as some wineries only process 200 tons of grapes a year. The fruit that is currently coming in is from Southern Oregon and soon the Willamette Valley grapes will be ready and things will really start picking up.
