The guy has grapes.
Mike the Greek wooed local media with his backyard bumper crop of delicious red grapes at his home in Steveston Friday.
“Every year I grow grapes, but this year, too many grapes,” said Mike, a 48 year resident of Canada, who was born in Crete, Greece.
The 18 year resident of Richmond said he has so many grapes he’s throwing them away in the compost by the pails.
“You’ve never seen so many grapes,” he said.
Well, at least in a backyard, maybe!
“I don’t know why. Maybe just a good year?” he said in his thick Greek accent.
Mike is a well-known face around Steveston. He enjoys his cup of Joe at the Cannery Cafe and is good friends with George from George’s Taverna, a Greek restaurant on Moncton Street.
Mike said he planted his grape vines about 15 years ago and typically gives them away to friends and neighbours
“I give here, I give there. I eat myself, that’s for sure!” he exclaimed.
His homemade lattices cover most of his yard and compliment his fig trees.
He’s even built a racoo-deterring contraption from a street hockey net and garbage cans, that has a bell attached to it to scare the critters away, preventing them from eating his grapes.
But that’s not as far as he’ll go to protect his crop.
He says he even sleeps in his car some nights to scare away the racoons.
“Maybe three or four times, so they know I am here,” he chuckled.
Mike said he spends a lot of his time with his grandchildren these days.
