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Manuel Lopez, an 8 year veteran working at Bedell Cellers pruning vines Wednesday afternoon. (Credit: Barbaraellen Koch)

The growing cycle began again for grape farmers across the North Fork this week.

Bedell Cellers assistant vineyard manager Donna Rudolph and her crew of eight vineyard workers began the arduous task of pruning the vines of the 10 varietals they grow across 80 acres. They began on Monday and by Wednesday had finished pruning four acres.

Temperature went down to about 20 degrees on Wednesday, though the wind chill factor made it feel about 3 degrees.

Rudolph gave the workers off Thursday because of the extreme cold. The work is very weather dependent and the goal is to finish by March.

Bedell Cellers assistant vineyard manager Donna Rudolph with her dog Willow (left) and Jefferson, the dog belonging to vineyard manager's Paul Thompson (not pictured) among the vines on Wednesday.
Bedell Cellers assistant vineyard manager Donna Rudolph with her dog Willow (left) and Jefferson, who belongs to vineyard manager Dave Thompson (not pictured).

She’s posted a photo on Facebook Tuesday of the workers with the following caption: “Winter pruning at Bedell Cellars, the first over a million hands-on interactions with the vines in 2015.” When asked what this means she explained that over the course of the growing season each vine is touched by hand around 11 times. Starting with pruning, tying, shoot thinning, suckering,wire lifting (3 times) and shoot positioning, hand pulling leaves, fruit thinning and picking.

Previous Sunday Scenes:

Honoring Suffolk’s past

A very North Fork Christmas

National Day of the Horse

Longhorn cattle

A cold day at the beach

An early winter chill

 

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