Behind the scenes at an Oregon winery

Okay, time to move on from the "year in the life" books, for the time being.

Blosser, Susan Sokol. At Home in the Vineyard: Cultivating a Winery, an Industry, and a Life. Berkeley: University of California Press, 2006.

I picked this off the new bookshelf at my local public library back in January. I'm not a wine conaisseur, or a gardener/farmer in any way, but I'm interested in how businesses run. I finally got around to reading the book in March, and I'm so glad I did read it. Susan Sokol Blosser and her husband were one of the pioneers in the wine industry in Oregon, starting a vineyard in the early 1970s. They had no experience with vineyards or wineries; they tried it on a lark. The book chronicles their experiments and lessons learned on their way to building a successful business.

Sokol Blosser's book encompasses a bit of everything:
--accounts of her family's life on a farm, where they try to do everything themselves just about once
--what it means to have a family business: how the kids take part in the business, what can happen with relatives as investors
--zoning challenges in developing a vineyard and winery
--how a new regional industry markets itself
--agricultural and natural details
--event-planning
--women's empowerment
--how a business grows
--marketing, advertising, and sales for a business
--how an agricultural business becomes a "green" business

It's a breezy, fun, informative read.