At 8.10 Ernst and his team of 5 arrived. No time for coffee, eggs and bacon refused. They’d travelled from South Western Germany the day before, bringing the tractor and planting machine, arriving at their Dorset base at midnight. Food, a quick beer, sleep, then up, and here 8 hours later.
An hour of setting up, with lines, wires and lasers, fitting the wheel that plunges the vine from the back of the tractor to the required depth at the required spacing. And away they go. Line after line, perfectly straight. Perfectly. And (despite the tilts, bumps, mounds and crescent shape of the field) along both axes. Somehow Ernst’s love of life sidesteps the limitation of language – everything he does is so obviously undertaken with total enthusiasm, with such complete respect for the task that I can’t stop smiling while I watch: I couldn’t have put the vines in better hands.
A couple of minutes less than 5 hours later, he and the team leave. 3500 vines planted. I’m chuffed as nuts.