Crushing At The Fall Harvest

Since the lovely folks at the Summerset Winery let us spend the night in their parking lot, we rolled out of bed around 7:15 a.m. for their 16th Annual Fall Harvest, a day filled with grape picking, wine drinking & juice stomping!   

The O'Babbitt's getting ready to pick grapes at the Summerset Winery in Indianola, IA
After breakfast & a spirited safety talk, owners, Ron & Linda put us to work

Katie collecting grapes with picking shears
The O'Babbitt's took their new "jobs" very seriously & made sure not to leave one grape on the vine

Babbitt filling up his bucket with grapes
Once a bucket was filled the "picker" yelled BUCKET! to get a fresh, empty bucket delivered

The O'Babbitt's with the bare vines
Ron did not bring out bottles of last year's vintage until our selected acre was
completely picked, but once he did, things escalated very quickly

Katie doing her best Lucille Ball impression, while stomping grapes in the barrel
Throughout the afternoon, we drank, met our new friends, Alice & Dan & enjoyed sangria & lunch

The O'Babbitt's drinking & stomping
Luckily Ron took a liking to us & insisted that we sleep off our hangovers in the woods on his property,
he even took Babbitt on a personal tour...Babbitt bounced back, but things did not go so well for Katie