State Vineyards Rush To Harvest Big Crop

Yakima Valley grape growers are hoping they can get their late-maturing bounty off the vines before a hard frost hits.

“The grapes are ripening very slowly,” said Roger Moe of Wapato, who grows Concord grapes. “I wasn’t able to start picking ‘til last week and they are still quite green. … We’re toughing it out.”

On the bright side, Moe’s crop is the largest in 22 years, he said.

This year’s Concord crop is estimated at 250,000 tons, which is larger than average but not quite as big as the record 1993 crop of 292,000 tons, said Dave Tobin, Washington area manager of the National Grape Cooperative in Grandview. The Concord harvest is about half done.