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Each of tiie lugs will end up holding 25 to 30 | By Cheryl G. Kellertt • Special to the Rappahannock News • Why would 600 to 800 people per year sign Op to be one of a chosen few to get up before dawn on a Saturday and drive out to the countryside to do volunteer work?
It’s called the volunteer harvester program at Gray Ghost Vineyards in Amissville and Tbm Sawyer has nothing on them.
Harvest actually begins at Gray Ghost ^Vineyards the evening prior when A1 Kellert places yellow plastic bins called lugs beneath She rows of plump clusters of grapes. > pounds of grapes. £. At 3 a.m. the following morning, A1 and Cheryl, co-owners and wine makers, put on the •offee and begin breakfast preparation. ; The eager harvesters begin arriving at 6 a.m. to partake of the lavish breakfast buffet of pastries, bagels, croissants, donuts, orange juice, assorted fresh fruit, candy bars, coffee 'and tea. • When the volunteers’ eyes are finally open mid stomachs satiated, A1 gives instructions on how to pick the grapes in order to get them off the vine quickly while the grapes are still cool.
Amy Payette, Director of Marketing and A1 and Cheiyl’s daughter, issues them picking shears and cotton gloves.
Then the pickers are assigned two per row.
A1 encourages them to change partners if the one they rode with to the vineyard is too “cranky” that early in the morning. '* The actual harvesting begins at sunrise which is usually about 7 a.m. this time of year. Z Usually the first block of fruit is picked in an hour or so.
After a brief 15-minute coffee break the rest
rthe fruit for that day is harvested.
The harvesters turn in their shears for an
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