Meanwhile at the Winery

I was lucky enough to be asked to photograph two beautiful families recently. Do to scheduling conflicts we had to do the shoot at noon on a 94 degree day! Despite the blaring sun and oppressive heat these two families really shined through. They were such a joy to work with and at the end we all enjoyed getting cooled off in the winery.

Laurita Winery Harvest Fest 2013

On October 19th we went to Laurita Winery's Harvest Festival. I was looking forward to this event all year! I went last year with Brady and Tiny. We loved it so much we couldn't wait to go again. This year Freddy was able to come with us and I was actually able to drink some wine!

 

At the festival there are tons of vendors. The boys had to get a homemade caramel apple.

 

New this year was a barn with lots of items for sale. If are looking for some antique farm items this is the place to go.

 We saw our alpaca friends from My Poppy's Alpacas.

 

 

 

 

We saw Rex the pumpkin eating dinosaur. Brady wasn't too sure about getting to close to it. Tiny was clinging to my leg.

 

 This year they had wine to purchase and taste out at the playground! That was a great addition from last year.

 

Freddy and I sampled 6 different wines.

You can buy bottles of wine, taste wine, get a glass of wine or even a glass of Sangria.



 

One of the vendors had this sign. We thought it was very funny.

 

Of course we rolled down the big hill! 

 

See the grass on Freddy's arm. He rolled too :) 

 

We sipped some wine as we waited for our turn to take a tractor tour of the vineyard.

 

The winery supplies all it's own water and is 100% solar energy powered. This is the place to be in all the power goes out!  They have endless drinks and the lights stay on. 

This bat house is home to 1,000 bats.  The bats help keep the number of bugs down. I didn't see any bugs. Those bats work hard.

This is one of the prettiest places in the Fall. There are so many beautiful colors.

I think my parents need a pavilion like this at their farm.

Because of all the rain we got this year it wasn't a good year for the grapes. They like it to be dry.

Tiny didn't want his picture taken.

 

This is one of my favorite places and I can't wait to go back next year.

 

If you live in the area check out their website for events. They have lots of them. This weekend is Food Trucks & Fire Pits.  I think we might have to go back. Trucks and BBQ!!!

 

 

Laurita Winery

Today I packed up the boys and we headed to Laurita Winery in New Egypt, New Jersey.  They were having a Fall Harvest Festival this weekend.  It was our first time there and we had so much fun.

 

There was so much to do at the festival. There were pony and wagon rides.

Thanks to my alpaca friends Kevin and Tammi from My Poppy's Alpacas they told me about the festival.

I am so glad they told me about it!  They had two of their alpacas at the festival and they were a huge hit.

How funny are these guys!?

They boys bought some special treats and we found a place to sit and enjoy them.

We had such a pretty view.  The views are breathtaking anywhere you are on the property.

The main building was built using the materials from two barns.  The wood was salvaged and reused to make this amazing building.

Look a horse!

 

There goes another one.

There were lots of vendors selling all types of things.

Taking a break.

There are concrete picnic tables all over the vineyard.  Some were decorated with mason jars and flowers.

The vineyard is open to the public and people are welcome to come and use the property for walks or stop and have a packed lunch.  I think this is a great place for a photo shoot.

Oh and there was lots of wine.  I unfortunately didn't have any so I took a few pictures of other people enjoying their wine at the playground.  hee hee. It was such a fun atmosphere to watch parents eating cheese and drinking wine while the kids were having so much fun on the playground. Fun times.

 

If you are planning on going to the Festival you can bring your own chair and set up camp. There is live music and there is food there, oh and wine :) Do you see the solar panel in the shot below? The vineyard is 100% solar powered.

We took a tour of the vineyard.  They have really nice trailers that are pulled by tractors.  You can only imagine how exciting it was for the boys.

This is a spring fed pond. It is 17 feet deep (at least I think that is what he said).

They have weddings at the vineyard and I can only imagine how beautiful an October wedding would be here.

Below is a bat house.  There are 1500 bats living in there!

 

I am not sure what this building is for, but it was fun to photograph.

 

We were very lucky to have Nicolaas Opdam (on the right) on our tour. He is the wine maker!

Nick told us that they get 4 bottles of wine from one vine. They have a lot of vines! I forget the total count, but there are lots and lots.  He also said with proper care a vine will live for 70 years.  That's a lot of wine.

Around the base of the building that have dirt piled up to form hills. This helps with temperature control.  All the wine making equipment is in the cellar.  The hills form great hills for rolling!

 

 

We absolutely loved our trip to Laurita Winery. As we were walking back to our car Brady looked up to me and asked, "Mommy can we come back here again."  I promised him we would. It was such a fun time.

Link to Laurita Winery here 

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