Short crop in the Vineyard
this year, The Vineyard is now closed for the season, Making wine at Honeyflow Farm, Do the grapes need a frost to
ripen? Winemaker Magazine, Other interesting links, October
Grape Recipe
Click here to go directly to our October Vineyard
Report.
Our vineyard season has finished quite quickly
this year. The last two very cold winters have
reduced our crop somewhat and we sold out of everything.
.
The Vineyard is now closed for the season
October in the vineyard can be very beautiful. The color
of the leaves on the vines start to change color slightly
and drop off. After a hard freeze most of the leaves quickly
fall off.
Many people ask us how much wine we make a year and it varies from
none to 50 gallons or so. I usually
take what is left after the customers pick everything. This
year the crop was short so I did not make any wine. Last
year I made 10 gallons of a Foch-Baco combination. Click here for a pictorial of making that wine.
Many people mistakenly assume that you need a frost to ripen the
grapes. This is completely untrue. Grapes ripen
due to the sun hitting the leaves. If the leaves are burned
off by a freeze and are no longer there - we have no increase
in sugar levels in the grapes. The grapes just hang there
on the vines and will start to deteriorate - Although they
are much easier to see and pick!
End of Season Information -
Quite often people ask us to return after we are closed
to "glean" the rest of the grapes from the vines
- looking for a discounted price. We do not allow this
and usually there is nothing left. When the vineyard is
closed (in Mid-October) we have to use all of our time
to complete the rest of our Honey harvest and get the
honeybees ready for winter. Please come early and pick
your grapes.
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I just received the lastest issue
of WineMaker magazine, and then receive an extra bonus -
a copy of Beginner's Guide to Winemaking and Beginner's
Guide to Homebrewing.
I highly recommend
this magazine to anyone interested in home winemaking.
Here are some things that caught
my eye:
Keeping your fermenters cool during warm weather
Th e right amount of yeast to
use
Cal culating how many fresh grapes
you will need for your batch
Ke eping fruit flies at bay during
fermentation
Boost ing sugar content
Time for Apple Wine
Northern Viticulture
Tips from the Pros
Wine Wizard
Varietal Focus - Chambourcin
Wine Kits
Backyard Vines
Intro to Winemaking
Grape Wine
Country Wine
Go to their
website and subscribe:
www.winemake rmag.com.
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Here are some other interesting wine
related links I found this month:
Wine Cellar Creations - Need a
wine cellar, check them out. Pine and Mahogany
wine racking systems, Free standing cellar's - Cooling units,
Redwood racking - Accessories, Custom wine cellars.
FairWine.com - A collection
of home winemaking links
The Fruit Growers News - Table grapes make
themselves at home in Idaho!
Wine.com - A great place to purchase
wine on line.
**********************
I would like to thank Kathy Lewis
for sending us two jars of wonderful grape jelly.
The over twenty varieties of grapes
that we grow can make grape jelly making as interesting
as grape winemaking. Kathy asked us what she could
use to make an exceptional jelly. I recommended trying various
varieties and she sent us a jar of a very rich tasting Price/NY
Muscat jelly (red) and a Seneca (white) jelly. They were
great.
**********************
A plug for 103.1 fm in Flint, Michigan area!
A friend of ours, Carl Coffee
stopped by the vineyard last week to pick some grapes
to take to a farmers market. Carl is the
host of "Coffee Time" on 103.1 fm in our
area from 6:00 to 9:00 am. Listen to him on the way
in to work every morning.
Pat and I met Carl and his wife
at an MSU extension class in small
business that we took a few years ago. Carl also sells
heritage varieties of tomatoes at a local farmers
market.
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This
Month in the Vineyard
