Ashley Noroian was our 3rd Summer Fellow from the Agroecology program within the Environmental Studies Department at UC Santa Barbara. As you will read in her reflections below, she joined us right before the grape harvest began in mid-August and will complete her fellowship with our olive harvests in November. We are grateful to Ashley, Professor Liz Carlisle and the many other UCSB interns who join us as we farm together at Condor’s Hope.
By Ashley Noroian
A few days prior to my arrival at Condors Hope, I received a text from Robbie that read, “It looks like our first harvest will be earlier than we thought, you’ll be jumping in big time!” A week later, I was eagerly waiting for the Shiraz harvesters to roll in when a fire alert buzzed on my phone. A 270 acre fire had broken out just north of the ranch. By the time it was contained, a small but determined group of harvesters made their way in, undeterred by the road closures. That first night, strangers quickly turned to friends over a classic Dutch Oven barbecue dinner courtesy of chef Eric Gliessman, wine, and flowing conversation. With the fire behind us and food in our bellies, we took on the Shiraz harvest the following morning with resolve.
Even under the August heat that matched the rest of the steady, hot summer, our spirits remained high. I forgot all about the heat the moment I picked my first-ever bunch of grapes. For the rest of the harvest I found myself in awe of the vines, and how much strength and resilience they had carried through such a hot season, especially considering that the Shiraz, along with the rest of the vineyard, had gone the entire summer without irrigation, watered only briefly at the end to help the fruit hold its structure. As I walked across the rows, I marveled at the extensive root systems below my feet, digging as deep as 35 to 40 feet down, to retain moisture and access groundwater entirely on their own. Together we harvested one ton of Shiraz in just one morning! It’s a reminder that as summers grow more intense and fires more unpredictable, the community at Condor’s Hope is what holds steady, no matter what the season brings.
That lesson deepened when I was welcomed into my second harvest. This time, the group was much larger, with returning members, first-timers, and generational families, all gathered over Labor Day weekend. We harvested Pedro Ximénez and Zinfandel varietals under cool weather. This harvest completed our grape harvest season three weeks earlier than normal, an unusually early finish, a pattern echoed across the Central Coast this season. Normally, the less ripe Zinfandel bunches are harvested separately and are vinted into the rosé wine. This year, the entire crop ripened at once, which means a bountiful Zin crop (3 tons), but unfortunately no rosé. Once it reached our winemaker, Colin McNany, the Zinfandel sugar level came back at a perfect reading, the promise of a beautiful batch of wine ahead!
We celebrated the Zin-Pedro harvest with a Sichuan inspired feast, prepared by Chef Garret Morris, good company, and the star of the late afternoon: a double rainbow overhead. Talking with the harvesters, I kept hearing the same thing, it’s the people just as much as the grapes that pull them back to harvest. More importantly, this sense of togetherness isn’t just what makes harvest enjoyable, it’s what makes it possible to keep adapting, season after season. Looking back, this season demanded a lot of the vineyard; an unexpected fire, an early harvest, and a summer hotter than the ones before it. But with each obstacle, the community met it with grace, determination, and joy, all falling into a harmonious rhythm with the land. I am grateful to have been a part of it. Even as the seasons change, Condor’s Hope shows that when people come together, remarkable things are accomplished.