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Looking for a juicy job? Nebraska grape harvest is a real experience
by Pat Underwood

If you have found yourself intrigued by the help-wanted ads for temporary jobs picking grapes — appearing more frequently around Nebraska these days — my advice is to let your intrigue be your guide. Everyone should try this at least once in their life, because it really is interesting. It’s also fun. Truly... Well, okay, mostly.

No, you can’t make a living picking grapes, the vineyard owners tell you this right up front. (I think the words they used were, "you won’t make squat.") But if you are a sufficiently life-interested person, you already know money isn’t the only reason to do something. The experience of grape-picking is rewarding in many ways, including the "feel-good" aspect of knowing you are helping a local business owner who has had the courage to try something new and different — and difficult.

Vineyards and wineries are becoming more common around Nebraska, and Nebraska wines are beginning to win awards and be noticed by the people who notice such things. In addition, many vineyard owners are beginning to capitalize on the agri-tourism aspect of their business, inviting people as crazy as I am to come work in the field for a day or two just for the experience.

This sort of tourism is booming all across the state, because people who have never had the experience before are discovering that putting one’s own hands on an agricultural product seems to make it much more personal, and somehow adds to the joy of living in or visiting an agricultural state. I know that having worked a couple of days in a local vineyard myself, I will now be watching for the labels of certain wineries just for the fun of thinking some of the grapes grown by my neighbors might have ended up in those particular bottles.

A workday at Ponderosa Vineyards

My own grape-picking job was at Ponderosa Vineyards, located northeast of Alma and owned by Harold and Jan Smolik. Jan calls the vineyard "our pet," but you cannot set foot in it without being awestruck by the amount of work they have obviously invested. The water system alone must have taken months to rig, and a simple stroll down one of the vineyard walkways will help you realize just how serious Nebraska grape growers have to be to succeed.

The first vines were planted at Ponderosa Vineyards in 2003, and by 2005 the Smoliks had their first small harvest. The 2008 season would have been huge, Harold said, but about 60 percent of their crop was lost in a hail storm, a stark reminder of the many challenges the enterprise faces.

The Smoliks are now growing twelve different varieties of grapes, everything from dark purple Concord to the lovely white Edelwiess. They also grow a variety of table grapes, called Reliance, so delicious that the first taste will make you close your eyes and groan. The Smoliks even have some rows of Riesling grapes, which the cognoscenti know are especially challenging to obtain and grow in Nebraska.

It's a tough job but almost anyone can do it

Grape pickers arrive very early to start work, usually before 7:00 a.m. The tools are simple, just a couple of empty buckets, a grape fork (a small knife designed for safety, with two blades facing each other inside a plastic housing), and a ring of numbered tags and twisty-ties to mark your buckets after filling them.

If you are lucky, as I was, to be in a row with Hispanic farm workers, your day will be filled with the music of chit-chat and singing in another language. Working alongside them, I quickly realized that while I might be doing this for fun and for the experience, they are doing it because they need the money for basic shelter and food. One can’t help becoming a little more enlightened about our world by this tidbit of knowledge, yet another bonus life-lesson of this work.

Most of the morning, though, is about picking grapes. And picking grapes. And picking grapes. And yes, grape-picking does start to get a little old after a few hours. As consolation, right about the time you begin feeling like you’ve really had enough, you learn it is time to stop anyway, and that behind the scenes a delicious field lunch has been prepared for all the bone-tired and very hungry workers.

The grapes must be delivered to the winery by about 2:00 p.m. the same day they are picked, so as the bins are hauled away, the workers relax under shade trees or sit at umbrella covered tables to enjoy their lunch. The grapes picked on this particular Saturday were called St. Croix and were delivered to Silver Hills Vineyard and Winery in Tekamah, Nebraska.

The grapes are kept at about 62 degrees during the entire trip, Harold Smolik explained, in order to protect their physical condition, because when the winery crushes them, they want them to be as close as possible to the way they were on the vine. Grapes from the Smoliks' vineyard are also used at other vineyards and wineries around the state.

Yes, a day of grape-picking will probably leave you sore in places you have forgotten could be sore, but it is the good kind of sore that comes from satisfying, productive physical labor. It’s the kind of well-deserved exhaustion that might next lead right into a warm bath and a luscious mid-afternoon nap. Perhaps after a teeny sample of a tasty local wine.

Ah, Nebraska, the good life indeed.

Pat Underwood is a resident of Alma, Nebraska, where she does grant writing, fundraising, and other development work for non-profit organizations and serves part time as Harlan County Tourism Director. She also writes for the Republican Valley Review newspaper. She is a former resident of California, Hawaii, Guam, and most recently Florida, where she worked for a variety of federal and state government agencies and non-profit organizations. She can be reached at 308-928-8992 or underwoodpat@ymail.com.

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