North American Fruit Explorers mailing list at ibiblio

[road's end farm <organic101@linkny.com>]

 On Monday, June 7, 2004, at 12:53 PM, Thomas Olenio wrote:

> I have seen the machinery, but not in use.  As it was explained to me by the vineyard owner. the harvester straddles the row of grapes, knocks the berries from their clusters, and the berries are collected and moved on conveyor belts.
>
> He made special note to indicate that the netting over the berries is specially sized so that the grapes can be harvested (they fell through the netting) with the harvester, but birds could not get to the crop. 
>
> Possibly it is dicarded after harvest.

I think it might have to be discarded. I have seen grape harvesters in action, and it occurs to me that some people reading this may be visualizing whole berries dropping gently onto the belts. While some of them may well come through the process more or less whole, a grape harvester uses force enough to mash many of the grapes; the belts empty into a ton tote lined with heavy plastic to make it waterproof, so as not to lose the juice. I made the idiot's error once of standing behind one (some distance behind, in what was in retrospect an insufficient attempt to avoid hazards) to try to see what the inside looked like when working; I couldn't see a thing as my glasses were immediately entirely covered with grape juice. 

A skillful driver and a perfectly straight row keep damage to the vines to a minimum; but this is still not a gentle process. Maybe the netting would stand up to it; I don't know.

--Rivka
Finger Lakes NY; zone 5 mostly