Fellow Growers,
We have completed the first partial year of operation using the Virginia Sustainable Winegrowers self-Assessment Guide (VA SWAG) website since 4 April 2013. We will now capture all the work accomplished by you who have started or completed the guide for their self assessment in 2013. The captured statistics will be saved for subsequent use in comparing our progress over the coming years.
The actual cut off for making any changes to your guide book is midnight on December 31, 2031. On January 1, 2014, your guide books will look the same as before the cut off, but as you begin using the guide again you will see that your existing entries will have to be selected again if you want to retain them. Or as you proceed with the year and make changes to your entries, your new selection will be recorded in place of the old selection.
As a very brief summary of the year, we have 53 active users who have designated some 42 vineyard blocks. We also have six out of state users who are not included in our statistics.
With that I wish you all a great new year and urge you to use our new tool to assist you in growing great grapes.
Bill Freitag