With Struggle Comes Strength

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Thankfully, a very wise friend constantly reminds me that no one climbed a mountain without taking his first step.  Reaching a goal can be gratifying, but to embrace each step along the way is truly beautiful.  How did you reach that goal?  What did you pick up along the way?  I'm discovering that true success lies in the desire to learn from each challenge because these struggles are what drive us to develop and grow stronger.  Great winemaking is no different and as it turns out, the key ingredient is...

A Full House: Three Kings and Two Queens

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After 18 hours of traveling and incredible Italian train station coffee, I found myself with an hour to kill in Grosseto, a small hub station town at which I made my 4th and final transfer on my way to Montalcino.  I was heading to the only true home of the world famous, highly praised, fine Brunello wine as well as...

Traveling Farmers: Italy Pic of the Week

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All my bags are packed, I'm ready to go...Stay tuned, the next few weeks I will beet report from some Italian farms in Tuscany and Umbria (if there's internet).  3 farms, 1 bag of Graunola...things are already getting crazy.

Let Us Transplant, but Seriously...

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Last week we finally got our chance to directly seed a bed, so this week we mixed things up and got our hands dirty with some transplanting.  Transplanting can be a much more efficient germinating technique depending on what you are growing.  Some seeds, like the Mache from last week can be directly seeded because it tends to germinate well right in the soil, whereas other seeds like these Breen lettuce pictured above tend to have a stronger germination rate when they are first seeded in plastic cell seedling trays or soil blocks in another area of the greenhouse called the...

Pic of the Week

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Always choose your tools wisely.

Sow You're Telling Me There's a Chance...Yeah!

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Surprisingly enough, I recently realized that there was one step I had never completed in the greenhouse...sowing seed.  You'd figure something as basic as actually seeding a plant would have happened a long time ago when working on a farm, but then again don't doctors go to school for like 10 years before they deliver a baby?  On some level it makes a lot of sense (to me).  I finally got my chance with these little mache seeds and it's a lot harder than it looks.  Okay it's probably a lot easier than I made it, but either way...

We Are What We Eat Eats: If A=B and B = C, then A = C

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As the saying goes, we are what we eat, but what does that really mean?  I've learned that quality, taste and nutritional content go far beyond what we can see with the naked eye.  Many foods may look the same on the surface, but if we dig a little deeper, we can see that...

My Way is Long, But The Road is Foggy

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Interestingly enough, 1 year to the date of starting Have You Ever Picked A Carrot?, I received a  message from Google explaining that we've reached our capacity for free picture storage on Blogger.  It felt good to reflect on the 1 GB of pictures uploaded on the website and the multiple GB of pictures I have stored in total.  It was all fun and games until they asked for my credit card number.  It's been an...