Some visitors from Louisiana were in town on Wednesday morning enjoying grape harvest happening at Castano Prado Vineyards. Actually, they were here pretty much just for that reason and the watermelon harvest.
Timmy and Trish Breaux, and Gerschel and Dotty Crochet, from Montegut, Louisiana were visiting with Shane and Judy Faught and timed their visit just so they could see both these fruits being harvested.
One of the visitors stated, “Last time we were here, we enjoyed some watermelon that was the best we ever had. So we decided we would come back at watermelon time this year and see the harvest and where it is grown.”
Shane and one of his friends looking at the grape harvester
Shane had the visitors out bright and early at Castano Prado as the Albarino grapes were being harvested. The couples were very interested in the varieties and the growing season, and of course tested some right off the vine.
Looking over the Albarino grapes
From there, they headed south to T&S Produce where they met Randy Simpson and got to watch the watermelon harvest and how the melons are sorted inside the shed. They also met an HEB employee who was on hand testing the melons before delivery to his store.
HEB rep visiting about what he looks for in watermelons
Randy Simpson enjoying watermelon with the Louisiana crew!
They talked about seeing the cotton crop and not knowing for sure what it was. “Cotton in our area is so much taller. We didn’t recognize this as cotton until we got a closer look.” The cotton in Louisiana is Delta Cotton, which is still Upland Cotton. It just has lots more water on it than what we have here. Cotton there grows upwards towards five feet tall and is much bushier, simply because of the longer growing season and the longer season varieties used. They don’t grow until a freeze, as we do in this area.
They were also going to look at some of the peanut crop, which looks pretty good this year, thanks to the rains.
It was good to have these visitors here from our neighboring state and let them see what agriculture looks like in Terry County. If you see them around, show them some of that West Texas friendliness for which we are so famous!
