Vito Mecca’s invention lives on through his son, Lenny, and grandson, Lenny Jr., who shared his grape harvester with the public at the annual antique tractor and engine show held every year in Fort Meade, Fla.

Each day during the show there was an equipment parade, and the grape harvester was part of it. Lenny Mecca said, “Dad invented this. He sold about 300 of them and the last was probably in the early 1980s.

“My dad passed away in 1988. I now live in Lake Worth, Florida and do citrus farming.”

These days Lenny also runs a laser land leveling business, laser alignment and equipment sales and hauling – when the Mecca-Nizer was in its heyday, the Meccas were busy harvesting grapes.
“We were grape farmers and grew our own grapes. We picked from a vineyard on a side hill,” Lenny said.

The machine was originally built and used in northern New York. Although the Meccas no longer build the machine, it is popular in South Africa, New Zealand and Australia. With its ability to make short, sharp turns, it is rather unique.

The grape harvester works by straddling the grapes, then shaking them off the vines. “The first portion of the harvest is to go around the grapes so the grapes don’t fall on the ground. The machine is slanted to fall in buckets,” Lenny said.

“The machine shakes the whole plant (and) berries, leaves and all fall into the buckets. The buckets carry the grapes up the back, where the fans blow the leaves out. The grapes fall on the belt and the conveyor swings out and grapes fall into the wagon.”

Although for the Meccas the grape harvester is just a curiosity at the moment, there is hope for use of it in the future, with a little-known crop called jatropha – a golfball-sized berry used for biofuel. Jatropha has been used in the Philippines and is considered by some as one of the most promising sources of biofuel today.
About 30 percent of the nut is composed of oil, which can be processed into fuel to replace or be mixed with petroleum-based diesel to save on imported oil and, most importantly, increase local employment. The plant has not been eyed in the past for fuel, but is widely known for use as fencing.

The Philippine Forest Department stated, “Jatropha is a drought-resistant perennial shrub with an economic life of up to 35 years and can even extend up to 50 years. The shrub has a smooth, gray bark which exudes a whitish color, watery latex when cut.

“Jatropha starts producing seeds within 14 months from planting but reaches its maximum productivity level after four to five years. The seed matures when the capsules change from green to yellow about two to three months after flowering.”

Aside from use as biodiesel, the extracted oil can also be used in soap. The leaves can be used for fumigating houses to expel bugs. The root extract can be used as yellow dye, and the bark extract as blue dye.

The seeds, when pounded, can be used for tanning while the roots, flowers and latex of the plant are said to have medicinal properties.
The hope is that the Mecca-Nizer would be used to help get all of the oil out of the jatropha berry. “They are doing it in Haiti and South America. It worked for grapes and we hope it would work for jatropha; there is some interest in harvesting,” Lenny said.
The Mecca-Nizer may soon roll again!

Readers with questions or comments for Cindy Ladage may write to her in care of this publication.