Leaf plucking is critical for the growers of grapes down near the bay or out towards
the ocean.
With the fog that blows
in our region, mildew can be a real problem.
If the moisture hangs in the cluster
it will contaminate the wine with mildew an off flavor.
Lots of other methods can be used but what we found out about three or four years ago
was that sheep could come along,
they're not gonna what eat a grape that doesn't no sugar developed in it yet, it's very astringent,
but they will eat the leaves right at their head level and that's where the clusters
hang on the cordon.
They'll go along and we'll use about five hundred sheep to do about twenty acres a day,
they'll pluck every leaf off, they eat the weeds under the vines, and then
we move on to the next block of twenty acres for the following day.
It's pretty cool and the lamb taste great coming off of grape vines.
