This is the 3rd issue this year of our monthly newsletter and we hope to keep you up to date on all farm activities.

Although the U-Pick part of our farm is only open September to Mid October - our website is open all year!   At our Candle Shop you can purchase candles and honey products any time you wish.

 

To view past issues of our newsletter, please visit our Newsletter Archive.

 

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MSU course in viticulture, Book Review - Northern Wineworks, Turkeys Eating Grapes? Winebarrel Plus, March grape recipe.

 

MSU course in viticulture - this months posting:
W.C. Paetz / HRT333 / Wine Judging / September 16, 2002
Varieties - NY Muscat, Concord, St. Peppin, Sangiovese
To continue this story ........

More details about the MSU program and additional articles .....

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Book Review - Northern Wineworks
Growing Grapes and Making Wine in Cold Climates
by Tom Plocher and Bob Parke

I recently received a copy Northern Wineworks and I highly recomend it for anyone interested in growing grapes and making wine in cool climates. It is geared towards small vineyards and homewinemakers with a lot of detail on the varieties to choose, cool climate areas, wine making, wine blending and wine tasting.
The rest of the story .....

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Cornell University also has some very good information on  Dealing with Winter Cold Injury to Grapevine Canes and Trunks

Cane and trunk anatomy in relation to cold injury
Types of cold injury to canes and trunks
Role of bud survival and recovery from cold injury
Deciding what to do when trunks are injured
Strategies to avoid trunk injury

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Are Turkeys eating your Grapes? Find out .....

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Pat & I just delivered a load of honey to the Winebarrel Plus store (for their meadmaking and brewing customers) and we had a nice discussion and tour of the store from Mark George. If you are ever in the Livonia, Michigan area I highly recomend that you stop in. You can also purchase most of what he has available at his on line store and website.

Here are a few of the useful features on his site ......

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March grape recipe - DELICIOUS GRAPES
The recipe .....

 

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Checking Colonies, Famous Beekeepers, Sweet & Spicy Dip.

 

In March we will continue checking the colonies for winter survival and also to see if they need any feeding. (pictures of how we emergency feed the honeybees if necessary)
I have checked most of our colonies by now and have found varying amounts of winter die-off (from 70% to 5%.) This is most likely because of queens not resistant to varroa mites and the cold winter.

Sometimes when it is real cold for long periods the honeybees cannot move their cluster even if there is honey one inch away. A few warm spells really helps a lot.

Our preliminary estimate of winter loss this year look pretty substantial but we are also seeing better winter survival in some yards due to varroa mite resistant queens. The last few years we have been raising new queen cells with newly developed resistant queens. (pictures from last year) We just ordered 2 of them. ($75 each) I call them my expensive bugs.

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Who are some of the World's Famous Beekeepers?

With about 100,000 beekeepers in the USA and Canada today, and several million beekeepers throughout the world, one would hope that at least a tiny percentage of these folks have distinguished themselves in other fields as well! The story .......

 

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March Honey Recipe - SWEET & SPICY DIP
The recipe .....

 

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Restoring Afghanistan Agriculture - Grape Culture - Fruit Grower Magazine

A University of California-Davis pomologist will lead a team of faculty members who will travel to Afghanistan this spring as part of an international effort to revitalize that country's agriculture system after two decades of war. "Renewing Afghanistan's agriculture touches the lives of the majority of the population in that country and gives hope for the future," says Patrick Brown, who also is director of International Programs in the College of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences at UC-Davis.

From March through August, UC-Davis faculty will carry out a market survey and prepare to hold workshops in Afghanistan to train Afghanistan-native agricultural specialists on issues such as orchard management and tree crops, postharvest technology, agricultural business management, and analyzing farming systems.

The idea is to provide the university system and government in Afghanistan with the know-how to rebuild their crop system and assist farmers in growing crops such as almonds, walnuts, pistachios, and grapes.

All of this activity is a direct result of the United States restoring Freedom and Stability to a country.

Fruit Grower Magazine

 

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This is a section for comments/questions/recipes from our readers. Please read the comments & feel free to put your 2 cents worth in.

Please send me your comments ......