{"id":389,"date":"2009-10-06T10:11:00","date_gmt":"2009-10-06T09:11:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/glitteringshards.com\/blog\/2009\/urban-grape-harvest\/"},"modified":"2009-10-06T10:11:00","modified_gmt":"2009-10-06T09:11:00","slug":"urban-grape-harvest","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/glitteringshards.com\/blog\/urban-grape-harvest\/","title":{"rendered":"Urban Grape Harvest"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a onblur=\"try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}\" href=\"http:\/\/2.bp.blogspot.com\/_qsoYm16IPZk\/SssSbAP803I\/AAAAAAAAAXA\/mwv0aHjYhB0\/s1600-h\/100_6715.JPG\"><img decoding=\"async\" style=\"margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 240px; height: 320px;\" src=\"http:\/\/2.bp.blogspot.com\/_qsoYm16IPZk\/SssSbAP803I\/AAAAAAAAAXA\/mwv0aHjYhB0\/s320\/100_6715.JPG\" alt=\"\" id=\"BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5389421634211599218\" border=\"0\" \/><\/a><br \/><a onblur=\"try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}\" href=\"http:\/\/1.bp.blogspot.com\/_qsoYm16IPZk\/SssSbntJvcI\/AAAAAAAAAXI\/OuozCyOdcgI\/s1600-h\/100_6714.JPG\"><img decoding=\"async\" style=\"margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 240px; height: 320px;\" src=\"http:\/\/1.bp.blogspot.com\/_qsoYm16IPZk\/SssSbntJvcI\/AAAAAAAAAXI\/OuozCyOdcgI\/s320\/100_6714.JPG\" alt=\"\" id=\"BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5389421644803063234\" border=\"0\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<div style=\"text-align: center;\"><a onblur=\"try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}\" href=\"http:\/\/2.bp.blogspot.com\/_qsoYm16IPZk\/SssP_-91Y1I\/AAAAAAAAAWg\/QSJTjm4k6T0\/s1600-h\/100_6718.JPG\"><img decoding=\"async\" style=\"margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 320px; height: 240px;\" src=\"http:\/\/2.bp.blogspot.com\/_qsoYm16IPZk\/SssP_-91Y1I\/AAAAAAAAAWg\/QSJTjm4k6T0\/s320\/100_6718.JPG\" alt=\"\" id=\"BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5389418970987455314\" border=\"0\" \/><\/a><span style=\"font-size:85%;\">Our little grape harvest<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p>At the weekend we took part in our local urban grape harvest. This is a fantastic <span class=\"blsp-spelling-corrected\" id=\"SPELLING_ERROR_0\">community<\/span> co-<span class=\"blsp-spelling-error\" id=\"SPELLING_ERROR_1\">operative<\/span> organised in our neighbourhood (a sub area of the town of Tooting called <span class=\"blsp-spelling-error\" id=\"SPELLING_ERROR_2\">Furzedown<\/span>). The project is  called the <a href=\"http:\/\/www.urbanwineco.com\/index.html\">Urban Wine Company<\/a> and here is a little about it from the website:<\/p>\n<p style=\"font-style: italic;\">The Urban Wine Company has grown from a simple idea that sprung up two seasons ago in a community called <span class=\"blsp-spelling-error\" id=\"SPELLING_ERROR_3\">Furzedown<\/span> in Tooting, South London. Grapes that were growing in Richard and his neighbours\u2019 gardens were unfortunately going to waste. The only beneficiaries of the grape glut were the local birds!<\/p>\n<p style=\"font-style: italic;\">Sitting under the vine, glasses in hand, Richard and Tim decided to team up and do something about it. After rounding up a group of local friends the first collection of garden grapes were pressed into London\u2019s first urban wine. There was nervous excitement as the first bottle of \u201cChateau Tooting &#8211; <span class=\"blsp-spelling-error\" id=\"SPELLING_ERROR_4\">Furzedown<\/span> Blush\u201d was uncorked.<\/p>\n<p> We duly did our first  little grape harvest on Saturday, Isabella helping to place the cut grapes in the bucket and Toby participating to the extent of wanting to go up and down on the tail gate of the lorry where all the grapes where loaded on  Tooting Common!<\/p>\n<p>It was quite reminiscent for me as my family used to own a large vineyard in Southern Italy so I have  lots of memories of harvesting grapes and the amazing smell when they were all collected together (I jumped onto the van with all the cut grapes, sniffing and <span class=\"blsp-spelling-error\" id=\"SPELLING_ERROR_5\">ahhhhing<\/span> a few times as the memories flooded back!)<\/p>\n<p>I am looking forward not only to our wine (which I am told will be ready to taste in March -in time for  a celebratory drink for Neil&#8217;s birthday and our 16<span class=\"blsp-spelling-error\" id=\"SPELLING_ERROR_6\">th<\/span> wedding anniversary!) but am also excited about the community aspects of this <span class=\"blsp-spelling-corrected\" id=\"SPELLING_ERROR_7\">brilliant<\/span> project. Neil and I are also hoping that  promised local Community Supported Agriculture scheme will start up soon as we love the community elements of these initiatives.<\/p>\n<p>When we got back from dropping off our little grape harvest, we found two bunches that we missed. So glad because we at them and they were oh so sweet. Thank you September sun, you did your job so well.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Our little grape harvest At the weekend we took part in our local urban grape harvest. This is a fantastic community co-operative organised in our neighbourhood (a sub area of the town of Tooting called Furzedown). The project is called the Urban Wine Company and here is a little about it from the website: The [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11,35,13],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-389","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-community-life","category-nature-the-planet","category-soulful-life"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/glitteringshards.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/389","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/glitteringshards.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/glitteringshards.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/glitteringshards.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/glitteringshards.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=389"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/glitteringshards.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/389\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/glitteringshards.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=389"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/glitteringshards.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=389"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/glitteringshards.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=389"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}