It's been a while since I've posted, but trust me, we've been hard at work. We've doubled the size of the garden from last year and we're doing it with one less employee, so needless to say, it's been a taxing few weeks. The weeds have taken over, but we're starting to get control of everything again. I have hopes that in two weeks, we'll be back on schedule and have a tolerable level of weeds!
The vineyard is looking amazing. We've been spot on for the spray schedule so far and kept the black rot at bay. The thing about black rot is that the berries become immune to it as they grow, so about 4 weeks after flowering, we don't have to worry about losing our crop any more! But the leaves can still get black rot, and if we lose too many leaves, we can't ripen the crop, so we're not out of the dark yet. Last year, we got a great hail storm about this time as well. The threat of severe weather can take various forms and ruin a season in only a few minutes. As someone told me today- "I don't count my chickens until those grapes are in the picking bins!"
The grapes themselves are looking large. Because we got some hot, dry weather during flowering and berry formation, some of the clusters are a little spotty. In spite of that, I think I'd rather have spotty clusters than dense, tight, disease-prone clusters. It looks like we're about to stage 31 to 33 of the phenological development (page 5) so we're preparing for an early season. We'll be spraying the kaolin clay soon to slow down the growth and development of the little buggers. I'd better order some extra nets now! I got a lot of great new ideas for the netting in Australia, so we'll try to get it on in time this year.
We'll hopefully be opening up the farm stand in the next two weeks with all of our produce as well as introducing David Goforth's peaches. Until then, stop by the Elizabeth Ave Market or 4758 Poplar Tent Rd on Saturday from 9-12 and pick up the last of the lettuce, broccoli, kale, kholrabi, and fennel.
I lost my camera last weekend, so pictures will be slow in coming. Sorry!
Monday, May 28, 2012
Thursday, May 3, 2012
Back from Tasmania!
Hi Everyone! Last time I posted, I was going down to Australia to work in a winery. After working in the first vineyard and winery, my boyfriend and I moved to Tasmania to work for Bay of Fires Winery . This experience was great. They produce some very interesting wines. My favourites were the Pinot Noir, Chardonnay, and Pinot Gris. Working at a larger-scale place will no doubt help us produce more consistent, well-made wines in the future. I also have a better understanding of winery logistics and design.
Meanwhile, back at the ranch, mom and dad were doing a great job of managing the farm and vineyard. Mom was out at Poplar Tent every Saturday (except one) selling veggies, and Dad made sure that all the tractor work was done on time! It's great to see their passion and skills in farming grow.
The season so far has been a busy one. Remember when it got cold around Easter? Well, our little grapevine buds had already broken, and sadly, the Vidals suffered quite a bit of frost damage. A good half of them lost their primary growth. Lucky for grapevines and for us, there are secondary buds, which break if the primary growth is destroyed or removed. We'll probably harvest the Vidal twice this year- pick the grapes that didn't get frosted, and then pick the grapes from the secondary growth a few weeks later.
The Chambourcin is looking great. They experienced very little frost damage. We're looking forward to a great crop off of them this year. The dry weather we have right now is perfect for ensuring great flavours in the berries.
Of course, as luck would have it, our lawn mower is broken. Please don't judge us in our messy landscapes right now. It won't affect the quality of the produce. It might even make it better, in that the vines have to compete with the tall grasses. Fingers crossed for a quick recovery for our beloved zero-turn.
On the veggie side of things, The Community Supported Agriculture starts next week! I think we'll be having some kale, swiss chard, salad mix, spring onions, and rosemary. We've got a lot of weeding to do in the next few weeks, but I think that we're up for the challenge. I can't wait to get our customers out there with us and to share our passion of great food that's good for the earth.
If you're interested in joining our CSA, just let me know. I can send you an email with all the info. We still have about 5 spaces left, so grab them while you can!
Meanwhile, back at the ranch, mom and dad were doing a great job of managing the farm and vineyard. Mom was out at Poplar Tent every Saturday (except one) selling veggies, and Dad made sure that all the tractor work was done on time! It's great to see their passion and skills in farming grow.
The season so far has been a busy one. Remember when it got cold around Easter? Well, our little grapevine buds had already broken, and sadly, the Vidals suffered quite a bit of frost damage. A good half of them lost their primary growth. Lucky for grapevines and for us, there are secondary buds, which break if the primary growth is destroyed or removed. We'll probably harvest the Vidal twice this year- pick the grapes that didn't get frosted, and then pick the grapes from the secondary growth a few weeks later.
The Chambourcin is looking great. They experienced very little frost damage. We're looking forward to a great crop off of them this year. The dry weather we have right now is perfect for ensuring great flavours in the berries.
Of course, as luck would have it, our lawn mower is broken. Please don't judge us in our messy landscapes right now. It won't affect the quality of the produce. It might even make it better, in that the vines have to compete with the tall grasses. Fingers crossed for a quick recovery for our beloved zero-turn.
On the veggie side of things, The Community Supported Agriculture starts next week! I think we'll be having some kale, swiss chard, salad mix, spring onions, and rosemary. We've got a lot of weeding to do in the next few weeks, but I think that we're up for the challenge. I can't wait to get our customers out there with us and to share our passion of great food that's good for the earth.
If you're interested in joining our CSA, just let me know. I can send you an email with all the info. We still have about 5 spaces left, so grab them while you can!
 |
| A beautiful, healthy Vidal blanc vine |
 |
| Frost-damaged vines |
 |
| Frozen Clusters :( |
 |
| Maybe they'll break bud again? |
Wednesday, January 11, 2012
Our first season in review
All of our wines are almost ready for finishing. It's a good opportunity to recap the year and learn about our mistakes and our victories in the wine making process.
One of the first things that I'll say that I need to work on is knowing my YAN (yeast assimilable nitrogen) count at the beginning of the harvest so that I know how much DAP (di-ammonium phosphate) to add. Yay acronyms. Basically, this means that I need to know how much nutrition is in the juice so that I know how much more food to add so that the yeast have a healthy ferment. When the juice doesn't have enough inherent nutrition at the start of the ferment, and I have failed to supplement it with DAP, the yeast get stressed during the ferment and begin to produce a lot of sulfur bi-products. This happened this year with our Vidal and our Chambourcin, most smellably with the Vidal.
Nevertheless, this mistake offered me the opportunity to learn to about copper additions! Small amounts of copper take out the nasty sulfur smell and let the good qualities of the wine shine through. There is a legal limit on how much copper you can add and don't worry, we're way under those limits.
Another thing I've learned is that I don't want to use V1116 yeast with the Vidal next time. We did one tank with V1116 and then one with W15, and by far, the W15 was superior. It had more body, more fruity notes (apple to be precise), and more balance. The V1116 was a superior fermenter, but the wine was devoid of fruit after the fermentation. It lacked body, and was quite a bit sour. If the lab was correct, this wine ended up with 14% alcohol. This seems almost impossible as we started out with 22 Brix.
The tank with the W15 yeast did get stuck around 4 Brix and we used the V1116 to get it started again. There is a use for this yeast, however I doubt I will use it next year for the main batch of wine.
One thing I will use next year for everything will be pectolytic enzyme. When making wine by hand, maceration in pectolytic enzyme makes basket pressing much easier and juice yield much higher. Plus the aromatics are much more intense. I believe that it is our use of pectolytic enzyme and maceration time (5 days for the Chambourcin and 1 day for the Vidal) that gave us such interesting and intense color and flavour. I would consider extending the Vidal maceration period for another day just to increase juice yield and ease of pressing.
Now a word of caution about the malolactic conversion in the Chambourcin: Don't worry about it! I was very worried about the progress of our malic acid to lactic acid when I couldn't taste any progress for the first few days. I've had conversions that last 2 days and I've had conversions that lasted two weeks before. Now I've had one that lasted 2 months. I worried so much about these conversions, their nutrient statuses, and the temperatures at which they occurred. The lab work said that the conversions were over, however, in one tank specifically, I couldn't smell or taste any of the buttery results. Until I opened the tanks 3 months after the 'end' of the conversions and BOOM! Popcorn smell hit me in the face!
What I learned: Get the conversion started at 70 Fahrenheit. And even if it doesn't seem like its converting, just wait. Don't try to raise the temperature. In fact, lower it a bit after the first few days. Wait a few months and see. Having too much buttery flavour is just as bad as not having enough. Therefore, patience my friends, patience!
So what we have at the end of this process are a few different wines. We have two Vidal- One very fruity, like apple cider; the other one (made with the V116), more alcohol, more acidic. We've thrown a few wood chips in there and put 10% of it through malolactic conversion (therefore, it's going to taste more like a chardonnay when we're done).
We have two Chambourcins too- One very smooth, and one that was a bit rougher. We did a blending trial the other night, and the wines that were the best were the ones that were 100% of either one or 50% of both. It's strange to see how having 75%-25% of one wine mixed with the other produced either a harsher wine or a wine with no flavour at all. Therefore, I think we'll be mixing our Chambourcin tanks 50%-50% to get the best wine.
We fined all the wine (except for the Vidal W15 and 5 gallons of Chambourcin) with gelatin. We'll be making a few bottles of vegan wine for our vegan friends. Let me know if you know anyone who wants some, as it will go fast!
Well, if you'd like to try this wine, email us or call my dad's old supermarket at 704-782-2117. Wanda will answer the phone and assist you in giving you a taste!
I'm off to Australia to work at Carlei Wines for the next few months. Hasta luego!
One of the first things that I'll say that I need to work on is knowing my YAN (yeast assimilable nitrogen) count at the beginning of the harvest so that I know how much DAP (di-ammonium phosphate) to add. Yay acronyms. Basically, this means that I need to know how much nutrition is in the juice so that I know how much more food to add so that the yeast have a healthy ferment. When the juice doesn't have enough inherent nutrition at the start of the ferment, and I have failed to supplement it with DAP, the yeast get stressed during the ferment and begin to produce a lot of sulfur bi-products. This happened this year with our Vidal and our Chambourcin, most smellably with the Vidal.
Nevertheless, this mistake offered me the opportunity to learn to about copper additions! Small amounts of copper take out the nasty sulfur smell and let the good qualities of the wine shine through. There is a legal limit on how much copper you can add and don't worry, we're way under those limits.
Another thing I've learned is that I don't want to use V1116 yeast with the Vidal next time. We did one tank with V1116 and then one with W15, and by far, the W15 was superior. It had more body, more fruity notes (apple to be precise), and more balance. The V1116 was a superior fermenter, but the wine was devoid of fruit after the fermentation. It lacked body, and was quite a bit sour. If the lab was correct, this wine ended up with 14% alcohol. This seems almost impossible as we started out with 22 Brix.
The tank with the W15 yeast did get stuck around 4 Brix and we used the V1116 to get it started again. There is a use for this yeast, however I doubt I will use it next year for the main batch of wine.
One thing I will use next year for everything will be pectolytic enzyme. When making wine by hand, maceration in pectolytic enzyme makes basket pressing much easier and juice yield much higher. Plus the aromatics are much more intense. I believe that it is our use of pectolytic enzyme and maceration time (5 days for the Chambourcin and 1 day for the Vidal) that gave us such interesting and intense color and flavour. I would consider extending the Vidal maceration period for another day just to increase juice yield and ease of pressing.
Now a word of caution about the malolactic conversion in the Chambourcin: Don't worry about it! I was very worried about the progress of our malic acid to lactic acid when I couldn't taste any progress for the first few days. I've had conversions that last 2 days and I've had conversions that lasted two weeks before. Now I've had one that lasted 2 months. I worried so much about these conversions, their nutrient statuses, and the temperatures at which they occurred. The lab work said that the conversions were over, however, in one tank specifically, I couldn't smell or taste any of the buttery results. Until I opened the tanks 3 months after the 'end' of the conversions and BOOM! Popcorn smell hit me in the face!
What I learned: Get the conversion started at 70 Fahrenheit. And even if it doesn't seem like its converting, just wait. Don't try to raise the temperature. In fact, lower it a bit after the first few days. Wait a few months and see. Having too much buttery flavour is just as bad as not having enough. Therefore, patience my friends, patience!
So what we have at the end of this process are a few different wines. We have two Vidal- One very fruity, like apple cider; the other one (made with the V116), more alcohol, more acidic. We've thrown a few wood chips in there and put 10% of it through malolactic conversion (therefore, it's going to taste more like a chardonnay when we're done).
We have two Chambourcins too- One very smooth, and one that was a bit rougher. We did a blending trial the other night, and the wines that were the best were the ones that were 100% of either one or 50% of both. It's strange to see how having 75%-25% of one wine mixed with the other produced either a harsher wine or a wine with no flavour at all. Therefore, I think we'll be mixing our Chambourcin tanks 50%-50% to get the best wine.
We fined all the wine (except for the Vidal W15 and 5 gallons of Chambourcin) with gelatin. We'll be making a few bottles of vegan wine for our vegan friends. Let me know if you know anyone who wants some, as it will go fast!
Well, if you'd like to try this wine, email us or call my dad's old supermarket at 704-782-2117. Wanda will answer the phone and assist you in giving you a taste!
I'm off to Australia to work at Carlei Wines for the next few months. Hasta luego!
Monday, November 21, 2011
Hunkering down for the winter
The tomatoes, peppers, and eggplant have frozen. The lettuces and fennel are covered. All the harlequin bugs are dead. It's official- summer's over. As sad as it is, we knew it was coming. We're starting to sell out of many of our winter crops, and for this we are grateful. It's the time of year when we get to all the things we've let go for the rest of the year: building a high tunnel, painting the garage doors, organizing all the tools.
We're starting to clean out around the fields to prepare them for next year's crops. Many of our fields have become overgrown with honeysuckle, smilex, and lagustrum. We'll be bush-hogging what's left of the crop residue next week and then plowing the field to let it lay fallow over the winter. We'll be going over to Branchill farms and picking up several loads of manure to spread over the fields for the winter.
As the farm goes to sleep, we're scaling down our operation. We're closing out store on HWY 29 to re-open in the Spring. We'll be selling vegetables at 4758 Poplar Tent Rd on Saturdays from 9-12 at least until January. We'll also be selling vegetables by special order (call 704-782-2117 or email thefarmatdovervineyards@gmail.com). Let me know if there's anything you're wanting. We'll pick it fresh and have it waiting for you.
An update on the wine: it's tasting great! We're really proud of our first vintage. The whites are almost ready to bottle. We racked them off the gross lees and then proceeded to shake the wines a bit to stir up the fine lees. We'll be racking again sometime this week. We're sending samples off to the ASU enology lab the week after. We'll see the changes they recommend, but I'm pretty sure we've lucked out for the first year. I hope it's because of skill, but it might just be beginner's luck.
It's been a great season, our first season being open to the public. We've learned a lot and have a lot of ways to improve our operation for next year. We hope you'll continue to spread the word about our farm and come back to the store next year to see the improvements.
We're starting to clean out around the fields to prepare them for next year's crops. Many of our fields have become overgrown with honeysuckle, smilex, and lagustrum. We'll be bush-hogging what's left of the crop residue next week and then plowing the field to let it lay fallow over the winter. We'll be going over to Branchill farms and picking up several loads of manure to spread over the fields for the winter.
As the farm goes to sleep, we're scaling down our operation. We're closing out store on HWY 29 to re-open in the Spring. We'll be selling vegetables at 4758 Poplar Tent Rd on Saturdays from 9-12 at least until January. We'll also be selling vegetables by special order (call 704-782-2117 or email thefarmatdovervineyards@gmail.com). Let me know if there's anything you're wanting. We'll pick it fresh and have it waiting for you.
An update on the wine: it's tasting great! We're really proud of our first vintage. The whites are almost ready to bottle. We racked them off the gross lees and then proceeded to shake the wines a bit to stir up the fine lees. We'll be racking again sometime this week. We're sending samples off to the ASU enology lab the week after. We'll see the changes they recommend, but I'm pretty sure we've lucked out for the first year. I hope it's because of skill, but it might just be beginner's luck.
It's been a great season, our first season being open to the public. We've learned a lot and have a lot of ways to improve our operation for next year. We hope you'll continue to spread the word about our farm and come back to the store next year to see the improvements.
Wednesday, November 9, 2011
We're selling Turkeys!
Hey Yall! We'll be placing an order for FRESH, LOCAL, ORGANIC turkeys on Wednesday morning the 16th. They're going to be $2.69/lbs and delivered on Tuesday before Thanksgiving. Call us at 704-782-2117 if you're interested! Tell your neighbors and friends too!
Wednesday, October 26, 2011
Pumpkins and Updated Fall Hours
Hi- We've decided to scale back our hours even more these days. We'll be open at the Farm Store
TUESDAY AND FRIDAY 12-5:30 and open for selling vegetables straight out of the field at 4758 Poplar Tent Rd SATURDAYS from 9-12.
We still have a few tomatoes, bell peppers, and eggplant coming in from our summer plantings. But these days, we've also got a great selection of Greens (all $2.00/lbs):
Swiss Chard
Collards
Mustard Greens
Red Kale
White Kale
Bok Choi ($4/head)
Tat Soi ($4/head)
We have some great salad greens as well (all $8.00/lbs)
Red lettuce
Green Oakleaf lettuce
Speckled lettuce
Arugula
Spinach
Our pumpkins, grown by my friend James Bullock, are oddly shapen and shiny, perfect for an elegant front door step, table centre piece or even a great pie.
If you're looking for a large quantity of any of these delicious vegetables, it's always a good idea to email or call before you stop by so we can make sure we have enough picked for you!
Mom's run off with my camera, so as soon as I get it back, I'll put some pics up of the greens and pumpkins.
TUESDAY AND FRIDAY 12-5:30 and open for selling vegetables straight out of the field at 4758 Poplar Tent Rd SATURDAYS from 9-12.
We still have a few tomatoes, bell peppers, and eggplant coming in from our summer plantings. But these days, we've also got a great selection of Greens (all $2.00/lbs):
Swiss Chard
Collards
Mustard Greens
Red Kale
White Kale
Bok Choi ($4/head)
Tat Soi ($4/head)
We have some great salad greens as well (all $8.00/lbs)
Red lettuce
Green Oakleaf lettuce
Speckled lettuce
Arugula
Spinach
Our pumpkins, grown by my friend James Bullock, are oddly shapen and shiny, perfect for an elegant front door step, table centre piece or even a great pie.
If you're looking for a large quantity of any of these delicious vegetables, it's always a good idea to email or call before you stop by so we can make sure we have enough picked for you!
Mom's run off with my camera, so as soon as I get it back, I'll put some pics up of the greens and pumpkins.
Wednesday, October 12, 2011
Ideas for expansion- let's see if we can make any of these happen
I have a few ideas for how to make our farming operation even more awesome than it already is. Thing is, I can't do these things by myself. Well, some of them we can, but not all of them. That's where you, the community come in. I'm going to put these ideas out there (even if they seem a little wild). My hope is that someone will see them, realize their potential, and then we can work together to make the little projects happen.
1) Start a food truck!!
2) Move the old Pitts School to our property so we can have an indoor farms store!
3) Build some hoop houses so we can grow more veggies more of the year!
ok- so we can probably accomplish this last one on our own, I just wanted to let everyone know that we are looking into this and it will probably be a reality very soon!
If you or anyone you know is a house mover, a generous supporter of historic preservation, or a food truck manager looking to strike out on his or her own, please contact me at thefarmatdovervineyards@gmail.com
1) Start a food truck!!
2) Move the old Pitts School to our property so we can have an indoor farms store!
3) Build some hoop houses so we can grow more veggies more of the year!
ok- so we can probably accomplish this last one on our own, I just wanted to let everyone know that we are looking into this and it will probably be a reality very soon!
If you or anyone you know is a house mover, a generous supporter of historic preservation, or a food truck manager looking to strike out on his or her own, please contact me at thefarmatdovervineyards@gmail.com
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