The Grape crop was very small, but Grape Pails are popular, New Booklet to Download, Do grapes need a frost to ripen? Interview, Chemical in red wine may contribute to longer life, Northeastern Vine Supply, Double A Vineyards

The Grape Harvest Continues

 

The Grape crop this year is very disappointing. The winter damage to the vines reduced our crop more than I thought and we are having more customers than grapes this year. I had to cancel many juice orders.

We will be closing after Sunday  October, 12, 2003.

 

Our grape bags have been popular and useful for our customers this year. Unfortunately, by the time you get this they will not be available due to the short crop, but I thought I would show you some pictures anyway.

The grape pails are a plastic pail, with a nylon stainer bag in it, tied with a loose knot, filled with crushed and de-stemmed grapes and quickly frozen. These grape bags may be added to grape juice to add color and body resulting in a red wine, or just used by themselves. They are very handy when you do not have a press - just squeeze them by hand or let them drain - And the strainer bags are re-useable!

We have made a new winemaking booklet for beginning winemakers. We also include one in our "Beginners Winemaking Kit" that includes the booklet, a more comprehensive Presque Isle winmaking booklet, cambden tablets and three types of yeast.
Click here to download a sample.

 

We end our grape season in October when we have a frost. Many people think that grapes do not ripen until a frost - THAT IS COMPLETELY UNTRUE! The idea may have come from concord grapes that ripen quite late.

The sun ripens the grapes. When we have a frost, the leaves fall off within a few days and if we still have warm weather the grapes will start to decay, just like if you picked them and then hung them out in the sun.

 

 

Iris Lee Underwood, a local writer, recently interviewed Pat & I and wrote an article about our farm. It was published in some of the local papers.

She conducts many seminars and lectures on writing in our Michigan area.

by Iris Lee Underwood
www.irislee.org
      

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"The peoples of the Mediterranean began to emerge from barbarism
when they learnt to cultivate the olive and the vine."

Thucydides, Greek Historian, 5th Century BC

Some modern historians agree with Thucydides.  They see a parallel in the development of the Western world and the growth of winemaking.

The wine timeline indicates winemaking first appeared in Mesopotamia around 6,000 BC, spread to Egypt and Phoenicia by 3,000 BC and made it to Europe’s monasteries after the fall of the Roman Empire. 

Emperor Charlemagne advanced the art of winemaking in the 8^th century.  No wonder he’s a French hero.  In 1224, the king of France declared “The Battle of the Wines.”  Artifacts and historic records indicate various religions used wine in their ceremonies throughout these centuries. 

But it was the scarcity of clean drinking water in the 14^th-16^th centuries that made wine part of the daily diet.  Wine consumption gained influence in the health, political and religious beliefs of many civilizations. 

By the 19^th and 20^th centuries, the rolling hills of California, Australia and South America assumed the appearance of European wine country.  The immigration of European vintners into the United States eventually brought international acclaim to the New World’s vineyards, Michigan included. 

That’s where Bill and Pat Schnute enter local winemaking history with their modern, unique squeeze to the prehistoric fruit.  The rest of the story ....

Chemical in red wine may contribute to longer life

The New York Times


Biologists have found a class of chemicals that they hope will make people live longer by activating an ancient survival reflex.

One chemical, a natural substance known as resveratrol, is found in red wines, particularly those made in cooler climates like that of New York.

The finding could help explain the so-called French paradox -- the fact that the French consume fatty foods considered threatening to the heart but live as long as anyone else.

Besides the wine connection, the finding has the attraction of stemming from fundamental research in the biology of aging. However, the new chemicals have not yet been tested even in mice, let alone people, and even if they work in humans it will be many years before any drug based on the new findings becomes available.

The possible benefits could be significant. The chemicals are designed to mimic the effect of a low-calorie diet, which is known to lengthen the life span of rodents. Scientists involved in the research say human life span could be extended by 30 percent if people respond to the chemicals the way rats and mice do to low calories. Even someone who started at age 50 to take one of the new chemicals could expect to gain an extra 10 years of life, said Dr. Leonard Guarente of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, one of the pioneers of the new research.

The result was announced last week at a scientific conference in Arolla, a small village in the Swiss Alps, by Dr. David A. Sinclair of Harvard Medical School. It was published electronically Sunday in the journal Nature.

The new development has roused the enthusiasm of many biologists who study aging because caloric restriction, the process supposedly mimicked by the chemicals, is the one intervention known to increase longevity in laboratory animals. A calorically restricted diet -- including all necessary nutrients but 30 percent fewer calories than usual -- has been found to extend the life span of rodents by 30 percent to 50 percent. Scientists hope, but do not yet know, that the same will be true in people.

A similar mechanism exists in simpler forms of life, which has led biologists to believe that they are looking at an ancient strategy, formed early in evolution and built into all animals. The strategy allows an organism to live longer and postpone reproduction when food is scarce, and to start breeding when conditions improve.

Two experiments to see if caloric restriction extends life span in monkeys are at about their halfway point -- rhesus monkeys live about 25 years in captivity -- and the signs so far are promising, though not yet statistically significant. But even if caloric restriction should extend people's life span, the current epidemic of obesity suggests how hard it would be for most people to stick with a diet containing 30 percent fewer calories than generally recommended.

Biologists have therefore been hoping to find some chemical or drug that would mimic caloric restriction in people by tripping the same genetic circuitry that a reduced-calorie diet does and provide the gain without the pain. Sinclair and his chief co-author, Dr. Konrad T. Howitz of Biomol Research Laboratories in Plymouth Meeting, Pa., say they have succeeded in finding a class of drugs that mimic caloric restriction in two standard laboratory organisms, yeast and fruit flies. Both mice and humans have counterpart genes that are assumed to work in a similar way, though this remains to be proved.

Independently, Elixir Pharmaceuticals of Cambridge, Mass., had found a different set of chemicals that mimic caloric restriction, said Ed Cannon, Elixir's chief executive. Because of testing and regulatory requirements, he said, his company is "eight to 10 years away from having an approved drug."

After presenting his results for the first time, Sinclair said in an interview from Arolla, "I've been waiting for this all my life."

"I like to be cautious," he said, "but even as a scientist it is looking extremely promising."

So far Sinclair and his colleagues have shown only that resveratrol, the chemical found in red wine, prolongs life span in yeast, a fungus, by 70 percent. But a colleague, Dr. Mark Tatar of Brown University, has shown, in a report yet to be published, that the compound has similar effects in fruit flies. The National Institute of Aging, which sponsored Sinclair's research, plans to start a mouse study later in the year.

Despite the years of testing that will be needed to prove that resveratrol has any effect in people, many of the scientists involved in the research have already started drinking red wine. "One glass of red wine a day is a good recommendation. That's what I do now," Sinclair said. Resveratrol, he said, is unstable on exposure to the air and "goes off within a day of popping the cork."

Tatar, asked if he had changed his drinking habits, said, "No, I have always preferred red wine to white."

Health authorities have not yet had time to make a detailed evaluation of the research. Dr. David Finkelstein, the project officer at the National Institute of Aging, said he would not advise anyone to start drinking red wine.

"At this point we have no indication that there will be a benefit in people," Finkelstein said, adding that the calories in a glass of wine could lead to weight gain.

Dr. Toren Finkel, who is in charge of cardiovascular research at the National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute, said: "I would be cautious in sending out the message that one glass of wine a day will make you live 10 years longer. The concentration of resveratrol in different wine differs. As a drug, it is not ready for prime time." But the concept of a drug that mimics caloric restriction "is a great idea," he said.

Sinclair said that he and Howitz were working on chemical modifications of resveratrol that would be more stable. Ownership of the patent will be split evenly between their parent institutions, Harvard Medical School and Biomol.

Resveratrol is synthesized by plants in response to stress like lack of nutrients and fungal infection. It exists in the skin of both red and white grapes but is found in amounts 10 times as high in red wine as in white because of the different manufacturing process.

According to "The Oxford Companion to Wine" pinot noir tends to have high levels of the chemical, cabernet sauvignon lower levels. "Wines produced in cooler regions or areas with greater disease pressure such as Burgundy and New York often have more resveratrol," the book says, whereas wines from drier climates like California or Australia have less.


 

Grapevine Nurseries

 

Northeastern Vine Supply

I received a note from Andrew Farmer, he owner of Northeastern Vine Supply, a grape vine nursery specializing in cold hardy varieties.

He can be reached at:  and_farmer@yahoo.com
and his website is: www.nevinesupply.com

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Double A Vineyards

I just received the new Double A Vineyards catalog and Pat groaned and kiddingly said "NO MORE GRAPES!!" I tend to get excited about new varieties and want to plant more. (We have our hands full with our more than 20 varieties and almost 8 acres.)

Here is a listing of Grape Growing Info that they recommended:

Lake Erie Regional Grape Program Home Page
Trellising Supplies, Spec Trellising
General Supplies, Orchard Valley Supply
USDA Hardiness Zone Map - GrowIt.com
General Grape Information - GrapeSeek
United States Department of Agriculture (USDA)
Sommer Breeze Vineyard, WinePress.US
Grape Cultivars for the Upper Midwest

October grape recipe

White Gazpacho - Ron & Lisa Krueger - Michigan

1. Combine all ingredients except radishes.
2. Remove half the solids and place in a food processor. Do not use a blender. Pulse briefly and stir into remaining soup. Chill for 2 hours.
3. Garnish each serving with sliced radishes.

• ¾ cup seedless green grapes
• 2 tbsp. chopped fresh dil
• 1 cucumber, peeled and chopped
• 1- Granny Smith apple, peeled, cored, and chopped
• 3 - scallions (white and green parts), sliced
• 1 ½ cup plain yogurt or butter milk
• 1 ½ cup ice water
• Salt and pepper to taste.
• 4 radishes, sliced paper thin

From our readers

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 ......

Visit the Readers Comments page to view all the content of these messages. Here are samples of this months e-mails:  

"MEHU-LIISA" pot  ••    Raw honey,  ••   How can i stop the fermentation process with niagara grape juice?   ••    Ice Wine   ••   Science fair project on candles   ••    Making beeswax tapers   ••    Did I lose my free grapes offer?   ••   Damage of last winter on your vines?  ••    Blocks of beeswax?   ••    PDF catalog   ••    Winemaking questions   ••    What is the best way to store honey   ••   We had a good time visiting your farm today!   ••    Weekly drawing   ••    Never received candles?

The "From our Readers" Page

Candle W*nner & Laugh of the Month

 

Congratulations! October candle w*nner is: kathrynsfournier@yahoo.com


Will this months w*nner,
kathrynsfournier@yahoo.com
please contact us and send your address so that I can ship your candles.

Our list of previous candle w*nners.

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Laugh of the month: Vampire Slayer

See You Next Month!

Honeyflow Farm
4939 Mill Rd.    PO Box 275
Dryden, Michigan 48428
(810) 796-2344 (Phone & Fax)

Comments or questions concerning Honeyflow Farm should be addressed to wcs@honeyflowfarmREMOVETHISBIT.com