SILVER CREEK, N.Y. — During the height of the pandemic, many people took time to reevaluate their careers and made some big changes.
Steven Suraf is a fourth-generation grape farmer.
"Over the years, you just, you know what to do and when to do it, and it just gets a routine," Suraf said.
His family has owned land in Chautauqua County for more than four decades, but this wasn't always his life.
"Right before the pandemic hit, I was a corrections sergeant with the Department of Corrections," Suraf said.
That was Suraf in early 2022. We talked with him right after he switched careers, launching his thriving grape farm on more than 120 acres in Silver Creek.
"It is a physically demanding job. At certain times of the year, like, tractor work is not that physically demanding. You're just riding around all day, but during trimming season where you hand-trim everything, that's very physically demanding. And putting in posts is physically demanding, so it's a good mix," Suraf said.
Suraf does not do it alone, especially when it comes to fixing the posts. Family helps with that because it can be a heavy lift.
Suraf sells the grapes to a processor and they turn them into juice, jelly, and jam. Right now, he's waiting for them to ripen so he can start harvesting them.
"Try to take some every so often throughout the row so you get a good average of what they are," Suraf said.
He's pulling samples to test the sugar content of the grapes. Once it's high enough, they can harvest.
Suraf is out in the fields nearly every day because there's always work to be done.
"I think I went like three months without one day off at least, and just the weather was good so I could get out here and do stuff. And even when the weather is bad, there's oil changes, tractor repair, maintenance, stuff like that to do, so I pretty much work seven days a week," Suraf said. "I got a ton of time off from my other job, and I still wouldn't trade it."
Since that story aired more than a year-and-a-half ago, a few friends have approached Suraf about making career changes of their own.
"And I just told them, you've got to do it if that's what you want to do, you know, life is short, so take the jump," Suraf said.
As far as Suraf's future, he started making wine last winter.
"So we'll see how that goes. Eventually we're going to see if we can get it right and maybe sell it some day down the road," Suraf said.