After the cold 2016 fall (-12F/-24C and little snowcover)
and -41F (-41C) in January of 2017, it was no surprise that we saw a lot of
winter damage. Blackberry production was down dramatically (though Marionberry
came through and gave us enough berries for some wine). Numerous
less-than-Alaska-hardy apple trees, pear trees and stone fruits did not flower
and some barely produced any growth at all last summer. On the other hand, red,
white and some black currants did wonderfully well. Again, we harvested enough
to make wine . . . and then some. A real surprise was the survival of our
Cascade Delight raspberries! Only the tallest canes exhibited cold damage to
the tips, so we had strong production from these plants. The wasps seemed to
like them, too, and we found ourselves having to share. Some red raspberry wine
is in the works at the moment. We also saw production from several varieties of
gooseberries. A real treat at the end of the summer.
We added some goji
berry plants to our collection as a test. Some varieties grow well in southern
Canada and, considering their health qualities, we thought we’d try them. We
also continue to work with arctic and arguta kiwis to see if we can get
anything to overwinter and produce fruit. Our cherry patch saw some expansion,
as well. The Northstar cherries continue to produce a little fruit, but nothing
else apparently is old enough to fruit yet. When the entire patch reaches
bearing age, we expect to get gallons of tart cherries. Cherry wine, anyone?
The bulk of last summer
was spent planting the 100s of plants we already had. It was a busy summer to
say the least. We managed to get all but a few raspberries in the ground. That
means we now have a vineyard!!!! Okay, so most of the grapevines won’t produce
ripe fruit, but we do have some promising Vitis amurensis vines out there. One, which we refer to as Amur-1, budded out
in mid-May and was completely dormant (lignified wood and all) by the end of
September. This particular seedling is 4 years old and
has suffered through quite a bit of drought stress, having survived two summers
in a patch of alders (notorious for their high water consumption). Now that it
is in the vineyard, we expect it to be much more vigorous. Another variety we are watching is Zilga. Preliminary pruning last weekend showed that at least half of the 18-inch 46 cm) cane had viable buds on it! The rest of the cane was likely too small in diameter to survive any amount of cold anyway. This is clearly the most growth we have seen harden off and survive a winter. This grape variety has been known to ripen fruit outdoors at 63 degrees north latitude in Finland. While we're not in Finland, nor quite that far south (almost 65 north here) there's still hope. Our plan is to train
all grapevines up 7ft/215cm bamboo stakes to see which ones might harden off
wood and to test the winter hardiness of Amur-1. The V. amurensis species is
typically hardy to between -30 and -40F (-35 to -40C). Our goal right now is to
use Amur-1 or a similar V. amurensis seedling in breeding to create ultra-ultra
early ripening grapes suitable for our 750 growing degree day (GDD, base
50F)/425 growing degree day (GDD, base 10C) climate. Currently available grape
cultivars are limited to climates that accumulate 1250 GDD (base 50F)/700 GDD
(base 10C) or more of heat. Thus, we need grape varieties that ripen in half
the heat required by currently available varieties. Is this possible? We intend
to find out.
A major shift in
focus occurred this past summer here on the farm. We realized that relying
entirely on the sale of fruit (though local fruit is in high demand) would not
support the farm in the long run. In addition, the thought of having to compost
good fruit when it didn’t sell was less than appealing. The other option was to
make wine instead of sell fresh fruit. We could simply freeze most of the fruit
we harvest until it is time to make wine (during the winter/spring months!!).
Grapes don’t quite fit this model, but we are a few years away from having to
deal with that, anyway. Hence, while we have intended to start a winery for a
few years, it is now imperative. This past winter we began honing our
wine-making skills on several batches of fruit wines (raspberry, blackberry,
serviceberry, etc.). Some are turning out quite good!
This past winter we
also made our second batch of (wild) high bush cranberry wine. It turns out
that high bush cranberries really like our food forest (orchard-like area with
berries intermixed). It took us only 3.5 hours to pick three pounds of these
berries as opposed to the 3 days required in the past. From past experience, we know that this
powerful wine needs 3 years in the bottle to mellow out. However, at that point
it is quite nice.
What about the
peonies you ask? Well, over the last two summers the farm has seen lots of rain
that has made the transportation of materials in and out very difficult. In
addition, prices for cut peonies have fallen dramatically over the last several
years and with the expense of required infrastructure that would have to be
installed, peonies no longer appear to be a profitable crop on the farm.
Moreover, their sensitivity to disease and lack of tolerance for our weather
conditions (heavy rain, hail and wind) make it a risky venture at best. We will
be selling our remaining roots locally over the next few years. This is really
too bad, because our farm is one of just a few locations that can produce the
much-sought-after coral peonies.
This spring we have
purchased far fewer plants than in past years as we change from primarily a
research farm to a production farm. Now that we know what grows well here and
what has good potential, we will be weeding out the unproductive stuff in favor
of plants that will produce fruit for high quality wines – especially those fruits
that can’t be grown elsewhere in the area. And, while the construction of a
winery is still a few years off, hopefully it won’t be too long before we are
sharing the “fruits” of our labor with the world!
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