(Wine-Searcher) - Faced with a shortage of pickers, one Mendocino County winery looked behind bars.

Grape pickers are always hard to find because the job is such hard work and pays poorly. One winery in Mendocino County, California is trying a new idea this year: prisoners.

Six inmates of Mendocino County Jail are picking grapes for Barra of Mendocino. They work alongside the winery's regular crew and are also paid by the bin.

"At first they weren't picking enough, so we had to pay them minimum wage, which in California is $9 an hour," owner Martha Barra told Wine Searcher. "Our other guys were picking circles around them. They have gotten faster. They're doing just fine."

Barra and Mendocino County Sheriff Tom Allman came up with the idea when she was desperate to get people to pick the 175-acre vineyard she and her husband own in Redwood Valley, about 40 miles north of Sonoma County. Mendocino County, the northern limit of what most consider California Wine Country, is a major producer not only of wine grapes, but also of medical marijuana.

"Marijuana growers hire trimmers the same time of year as grape harvest, and they pay $25 an hour tax-free," Sheriff Allman told Wine Searcher.

Barra said she made fliers seeking pickers and posted them in restaurants and food markets. She even placed ads on radio.

"What really set me off was, there were guys at the grocery store with a sign saying 'Work Wanted'," she said. "I said, 'Fine, get in the pickup truck, we've got grapes to pick.' They said: 'That's not the kind of work we're looking for. We're looking to trim buds'."