First Week of Grape Picking

On Monday 9th February Adam and I left the house at 6am to meet the other workers outside the Community Fire Service station in Watervale which was only a 5 minute drive away.



Our first grape picking experience would take place at a Vineyard owned by Fosters. The vines were low but it wasn’t too hot. By 9.30am our backs were hurting from all the bending over and I was looking forward to my break. We would have a 15 minute break at 10am, a 30 minute lunch break at 1pm and usually another 5 minute break at 3pm, however today we finished at 2pm and boy was I glad we didn’t have to carry on until 3.30pm (normal finishing time).



My body was aching and I desperately wanted a shower. However as we had finished early we decided to quickly go to Clare and rent a dvd called 21. Then on the way home we popped into the Tourist Information Centre which was conveniently located next to the Clare Caravan Park. The lady there told us about a big event called Party on the Green which was a 3 day musical festival. This year the main acts were The Angels and Jimmy Barns, who I had never heard of but apparently were famous throughout Australia. We considered buying tickets but at $100 each for bands we hadn’t heard of we didn’t bother. The other thing suggested to us was to cycle the Riesling Trail. The trail follows various routes of the former railway between Auburn and Clare and you see can see views of vineyards, mixed farms and natural bush lands. Other attractions in the Clare valley region included Martindale Hall, the different wineries, Spring Gully Lookout, Bookstop and Beans (a book shop) so we made a list of what we wanted to do in our spare time. That evening we had dinner, watched the dvd and went straight to bed, ready for another early start.
The following day we found out we would be grape thinning at a vineyard called Jim Barry’s. Which basically involved cutting off bunches of grapes to allow other bunches to develop further. It felt like such a waste to have to cut and drop all the bunches to the ground but as they had had such a dry, hot summer it needed to be done to ensure there were enough decent bunches to make good quality wine. I found this work very easy and quick. The wines were nice and high and the grapes were easy to cut off, I was secretly hoping we would get more of this sort of work.




The rest of the week was a mixture of thinning and picking at Fosters, Jim Barry’s again and Leasingham. We had long days sometimes not finishing until 4 or 4.30 but as long as the conversation was flowing in the vineyard the days felt as though they went quicker. Another thing we noticed and it must be a psychological thing is that the shorter the rows the quicker the time went-strange!
Friday night was Bingo night, so off we went. We got introduced to a couple of people and soon made friends with people on our table. We found out that they usually carried on until 11pm, however Adam and I only stayed for the first half, leaving at 9.30pm as we were practically falling asleep from tiredness. I definitely felt as though I was the oldie then!
We had tried our 3G internet stick again but there was definitely no signal where we were. We had looked into possibly getting a Telstra internet stick as we were told we would be able to get a signal and therefore connect but the price of it was very expensive and we decided to continue using the free wifi at the library instead (they had air con which was even better). On the way to the library we spotted a sign saying Clare Farmer’s Market.

So we stopped to have a look around. It’s nothing like our Wellsbourne Market but it was very quaint with about 20 stalls selling things from home made olive oil, to books, to food, free range eggs and of course wine. After having a quick look around we carried onto the library. After a couple of hours at the library Adam stopped functioning as he needed food (typical male) and so we went to have lunch at the Middle Pub. We were told they served good food at a reasonable price and I must say I was very impressed. Adam and I filled our bowls with the complimentary salad bar and then waited for our $10 meals (£5 each). I had the Sunday roast and the lamb was just beautiful, so juicy and tender and Adam had the chicken strips with chips

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After finishing off our lunch Adam suggested we go for a drive. Fortunately I had already put a 10ltr case of water in the boot (we had read that you should always carry approx 3ltrs of water per person in case you break down and may not able to get help straight away) so off we went. We started driving south (towards Adelaide) and having looked at a map agreed to visit a place called Gawler Town. On the way there we passed several little villages which were the blink and you miss it type. After an hour of driving and endless fields we arrived at Gawler. It was a small place and the main road seemed to be where most of the businesses were situated. However we spotted a Big W. So off we went. It was so lovely to walk into a proper shop which sold clothes, electrical items, food etc. Having calmed down from the excitement (sad I know) we bought a couple of items, watched a man cut up kiwi and melon with a knife which made pretty patterns and then left. We walked along the main street but most of the shops were starting to close (everything closes at 5pm) and there wasn’t much else to look at so we made our way back to the car and headed home.On Sunday I decided I would make some fairy cakes to take to work. After having gone a bit OTT with the cake mix I ended up with 24 fairy cakes but they were yummy and I even put a little pink icing sugar on top.