June 2012 Update

Lots of news… First of all, we did suffer a tremendous amount of Spring frost damage, due to a too warm Feb and March, followed by 3 mornings of 22F in mid April. We lost: 4% of the 2007 planting,  20% of the 2008 planting,  40 % of the 2009 planting, and 98% of our 2011 planting. We did soil sampling, and that was not the problem… an owner of 4,500 vines for 27 years in Lake City told us that he had never seen such weird and destructive weather. Our Marquette vine is unusually susceptible to frost damage.

We are NOT discouraged! Our live plants are doing great, and we expect 4,000 pounds to harvest on Sept 29 or October 6… make those dates if you want to “Have a great time, with good people, helping outstanding charities”.

We planted 250 Prairie Star ( a Elmer Swenson – developed cold-hearty hybrid, that we suspect will be more resistant to Spring frost! ) on June 2, and were done by 3pm… had a good time afterward… our 2011 Altered States Apple was enjoyed, until 4am the next morning. Thanks so much to all 32 of you who helped.  We gave each a bottle of our current wine, with our promise to contribute $5.00 per bottle to our charities… we’re planning to give away 150 bottles in 2012, so we made our $750.00 contributions to our 3 charities on June 4… expect to see receipts posted by July 1, along with great pictures!

Everyone have a great Summer, and hope to see you at the Fall harvest!