HARVEST FEST 2009 - It's hard to believe that yet another year has come and gone so quickly. We celebrated our 15th Harvest this year at Flag Hill, and although not one of the best years in the vineyard for our grapes ... it certainly was a memorable year at Harvest. We were pleased to be greeted by some returning Flag Hill harvesters as well as a considerable amount of first timers this year!!


Thanks to all those who attended - especially those hearty souls who showed true New England spirit and kept their committment to pick in the light drizzle on our first weekend! Our business is as much about the farming as it is about the fun, and we certainly can't make our wine without the grapes - and they don't care whether it's 70 and sunny or 60 and drizzly, they're ready when they're ready!


We've collected some great photos from all three weeks (unfortunately we couldn't get as many from the 3rd because of the rain on the lens). We've posted/shared them through kodak.com. Kodak has a great site for photo sharing and allows very large files. If you would like any of the images as printed photos, you can use their site to order them. We have included web version size photos of the group photo from each week that you can see below, along with more news and stats about our harvest this year .... ENJOY !! We hope to see you next year!


HARVEST FEST OCTOBER 3, 2009


















For more photos from Harvest Fest on 10/3 visit:

http://www.kodakgallery.com/gallery/creativeapps/slideShow/Main.jsp?token=894913837113%3A1560301482

HARVEST FEST OCTOBER 10, 2009














For more photos from our Harvest Fest on 10/10 visit :

http://www.kodakgallery.com/gallery/creativeapps/slideShow/Main.jsp?token=315913837113%3A1307868117


HARVEST FEST OCTOBER 17, 2009












For more photos from our Harvest Fest on 10/17 visit :

http://www.kodakgallery.com/gallery/creativeapps/slideShow/Main.jsp?token=535913837113%3A655813618


Along with the work and fun we also tried a new raffle contest for the first time for our second and third harvest days, which we have decided to make an annual tradition for future harvests. We asked our participants to bring in non-perishable food items to donate to the NH Food Bank. Each item earned a raffle ticket towards a drawing for 6 guaranteed spots to the Harvest date of their choice for the 2010 season. We had no idea everyone would be so generous and we were more than pleased to see all the great items come in to help those in need of a little assistance this year. Thanks to you we were able to deliver 485 food items to the NH Food Bank totaling 557 pounds of food donated. We picked the winning ticket from all the tickets from both weeks. Congratulations to Catherine Rasmusen who had the winning ticket and will be guaranteed attendance to one of next year's harvest dates. Both Flag Hill and the NH Food Bank were very appreciative of everyones efforts with this food drive - great job everyone!

Flag Hill Harvest 2008

Another year, another harvest - 14 total to be exact. That's right, we are coming up on our 15th Harvest next year. But not to get ahead of ourselves, our 14th annual Harvest Fest was something we want to reflect on and remember - well, most of it anyway!

Thanks to ALL our volunteer harvesters this year, we certainly could not have done it without you. 20 acres is a lot of grapes!

Before we get to the good stuff, we would like to address those we haven't seen at a harvest yet. It doesn't slip by us that there are many who have continually tried to get to Harvest Fest year after year and we do appreciate that fact. We really would love to invite everyone and we so enjoy making new friends (just like the O's). We whole-heartedly encourage all those out there to keep trying. We do send the email out at different days and different times each year to try and give everyone a shot (from those who access email at home, at work, at night, in the morning, etc). Good Luck and we hope to see you next year!

We've posted the group photos below as well as the winners of the various contests. If you have any pictures from Harvest you'd like to share, we would love to see them!

GROUP PICTURES: These pictures have been cut down to fit in this blog. Many thanks to Andy Brown, our photographer on September 28th and Linda Reinhold who also got some great shots in October. If you would like a larger image of any of the group photos you can email heather@flaghill.com - please be sure to include which date(s) you would like the full copies of.

Sunday, September 28

Saturday, October 4

Saturday, October 11

CONTEST WINNERS:

1. How many pounds of grapes will be picked over the course of all three harvests at Flag Hill in 2008?

Answer: 52,000 pounds were picked.

Winning Guess: We had one guest who nailed the answer exactly. Congratulations to Rebecca McFarland. She will get 4 guaranteed spots to Harvest Fest 2009 on the date of her choosing. Her winning package includes the registration cost, 4 free t-shirts, and some complimentary drinks. Good guessing Rebecca!

Honorary Mentions: We had a handful of guests who were very close (within 1000 pounds of the correct answer). The following guests have been added to the 24 hour early notification email list for the 2009 Harvest: Janice Felzenberg, Larry Schmidt, Jim Gagne! Who says close only counts in hand grenades and horseshoes!

2. The votes are in! Thank you to everyone who cast a vote for the 2009 Harvest Fest design. To show our appreciation, we pulled a random vote that was cast from each harvest and those three guests will also be added to the 24 hour early notification list for Harvest Fest 2009. Thh three guests added to the list were: Sheri Kraus, Michael Correan, and Jen Johnson.

The design that received the most votes over the course of the three weekends was Drink Local by Tricia Carr (pictured below). Tricia will be updating the year for us and her design will be featured on the T-Shirts and Glasses for next year's harvest. Tricia will also receive 4 guaranteed spots to a harvest date of her choosing, 4 free t-shirts, and some complimentary beverages. Thanks for all the creativity of everyone who submitted. Keep that creativity up - and don't be afraid to submit the same design next year, there were a lot of great designs, we wished we could use all of them.

Candy Apple Contest Winners !!

Congratulations to our Candy Apple contest winners !! Many of you made guesses as to the amount of candy inside the apple jar at harvest (I know, I had to sort through them all!). There were some very interesting guesses, including one gentleman that chose his own interperative answer, to quote - "A Lot !". That being said, the correct answer was 187 pieces of candy. We had one participant who guessed the exact number and a few very close guesses - see below.

CONTEST WINNER: Beth Landauer with a guess of 187

2nd Place (tie): Erin McCleary & Jennifer Wood, both with a guess of 186

Honorable Mentions: Lyanne Gauvin (guess: 185) & Paul Neilson (guess: 183)


Prizes:

Contest Winner
The Apple Dish (including the candy) & An all expense paid trip to Harvest Fest 2008 for 4, including:
4 guaranteed spots on date of your choice
4 free harvest fest t-shirts
4 wine/beer tickets or 8 soda/water tickets

2nd Place
24 hours prior notice before general public for Harvest Fest 2008
2 Flag Hill wine glasses filled with candy

Honorable Mentions
24 hours prior notice before general public for Harvest Fest 2008

October 13th Harvest - Pictures and Group Photo

Thank you everyone for your hard work and dedication !! It was a great day and a great evening party!! If you have pictures you would like to share, we'd love to see them. They can be sent to harvest@flaghill.com .

If you would like a larger digital image of the group photo you can email your request to harvest@flaghill.com.

October 6th Harvest - Pictures and Group Photo

Thank you everyone for a great harvest !! If you have pictures you would like to share and post, send them to harvest@flaghill.com - we'd love to see them. Please include the harvest date the picture(s) are from as well.

If you would like a larger digital photo image of the group picture you can email a request to harvest@flaghill.com.

September 29th - Additional Pictures and Group Photo

If you would like a larger copy of the group photo you can email harvest@flaghill.com to request a larger digital image be emailed to you.

Thank you everyone for your dedication and hard work at Harvest 2007 !!