Suddenly Stupid

Once upon a time I had a cute little blog background. Then the blog background expired and I forgot how to change the template settings. Please bear with me as I struggle to remember. And as always, the "Help" tool proves to be no help whatsoever.

Eureka!!! Its purple

You can see the purple one, and some the others are starting to blush... very exciting. I found four other purpley ones on the ground. See them below lined up nicely between our guardian spirit garden worker thingies. After several weeks of neglect, it will soon the time to start getting them ready for fall, but I still need to find out what that means.

And below you can see another picture of our proud little harvest. Notice also that my thumb is dirty from digging and cleaning up the grapes. I did try to eat the one on the left, it was fairly crunchy with no real flavor, just a lot of grit.

Hot Hot Heat and Vampirism

The grapes are approaching "berry touch", but until they get there, the vine photos and story-telling are kind of boring. So, without further ado, The Great Garlic Harvest of 2010. Plucked from the earth in 96 degree temps (with a "feels like" temp of 106). A lovely supply meant to keep us safe from a legion of vampires or one serious Twihard Fan. The pack of "garlic seeds" (regular-looking garlic bulbs that haven't been sprayed with growth-inhibitor like the ones on the grocery store shelf), contained two bulbs...one that we planted and one that we saved for a second planting. It's a bit too hot to consider that second planting as of yet. But in a few weeks we'll start in on the next crop.

A friend recently directed me to The Mother Vine. And so, for your enjoyment as well, the interesting tale of The Mother Vine: http://www.themothervine.com/default/history-the-mothervine/

Training Day

You can see the string that we're using to "train" the vines to cling to the right rails, and we certainly hope that goes well. I feel its a bit presumptuous to attempt the guide an organism that predates our species, and has a much better chance of surviving much longer (oil spills really don't bother the muscadine plant,) but that is how we are going ahead. The grapes are really coming along, too. They are still green, but they are getting really big!

In the picture on the right, however, a more than cursury examination will show that we have planted another far younger vine that will remain in several forms of infancy before bearing fruit. This is our afore mentioned Cabernet Franc! I planted it with only one stick protuding from the ground kind of aimed at the post. It has been a few short weeks, and the progress is notable. We really think that this one will come along fine. However, the supposed chief of the vineyard, mr. pinot noir does not share that optimism. It was planted only minutes before this one, and it still looks the same as that day.

Mulch Ado About Nothing

Recently spotted: One albino squirrel. Apparently he likes living behind our house. He was seen twice yesterday, but alas, the camera was not on hand. It was suggested that we call the DNR to learn more; are albino squirrels common in the area, will they come out and look for him, etc. Blog followers I ask you this question, should the albino squirrel just remain my little treasure, or shall we tell the world (aside from internet-land)?

Yesterday I mulched. This followed a week of diligent weeding and was carried out in ridiculous heat and humidity with frequent water breaks. But the efforts were well worth it. Upon completion, the phantom squirrel ran by and great peals of thunder ripped through the atmosphere before a mighty deluge of rain fell from the heavens above.

I picked two tomatoes from the garden yesterday (oh how I love the southern growing season!) with more just about ready for plucking. A broccoli crown has also emerged from one of the plants, but nothing yet from the other eight.

Expanding the Field

A few weeks have gone by, and the grape arbor is becoming less surprising by the hour. With that in mind, I have just ordered our next two grapes; to keep Mr. Muscadine company. First, and most prominent, I have procured a pinot noir. This will be the chief of our grapes. It will always come first, it will always command every vintage and mixture, it will always lead. We started drinking red wine in East Lansing with a few types of Chianti, thp thp thp. In our exploration we sampled several verieties of Merlot, and Shiraz, but the pinot noir was always the most intriguing. I got the vines from a website called mypersonalvineyard.com, from Visalia, California, of course. Here is what they had to say about it:

"Pinot noir ('pi no nwar) is a red wine grape variety of the species Vitis vinifera. The name may also refer to wines produced predominantly from pinot noir grapes. The name is derived from the french words for "pine" and "black" alluding to the varietals' tightly clustered dark purple pine cone shaped bunches of fruit. Pinot noir grapes are grown around the world, mostly in the cooler regions, but the grape is chiefly associated with the Burgundy region of France. It is widely considered to produce some of the finest wines in the world, but is a difficult variety to cultivate and transform into wine."

In addition to our raison d'vineyard, we purchased a Cabernet Franc. The vineyard down the street, the Grove, uses this version. We wanted another established grape. The website said:
"Cabernet Franc is one of the major varieties of red wine grape in Bordeaux. It is mostly grown for blending with Cabernet Sauvignon and Merlot in the Bordeaux style, but is also vinified alone, particularly in Chinon in the Loire.[1] It is even made into ice wine in Canada. Cabernet Franc is lighter than Cabernet Sauvignon (of which it is a parent),[2] contributing finesse and a peppery perfume to blends with more robust grapes. Depending on growing region and the style of wine, additional aromas can include tobacco, raspberry, and cassis, sometimes even violets. The Cabernet franc wine's color is bright pale red. Cabernet Franc is one of the major varieties of red wine grape in Bordeaux." And we resume waiting anxiously for delivery.

The Next Stage: General Confusion

Hello Blog Followers!

After a harrowing night upon which our poor Zorack, Jr. (of the canine variety) found himself miserably sick every hour, I sit in mild delirium hoping to write a fabulous blog entry (he's much better today. Oh the mysteries of the canine tummy).

I am sad to say however, that today's post title "General Confusion" applies not only to my sleepless state, but to Ol' Miss Bella's Little Farm as well.

In the previous post I described the unfortunate structural disintegration of the wood planks between the posts on the grape arbor. Zorack, Sr. (of the human variety), cleverly repaired those issues yesterday evening and we are back in grape-growing business...or are we? According to the Eichorn-Lorenz Stages in Shoot Development, the majority of our grapes have passed through Stage 23: Full Flowering (50% of flowerhoods fallen) and are now in stage 25: Late Flowering (80% of flowerhoods fallen). Um...what? Here's a link to the stages, http://extension.oregonstate.edu/catalog/html/em/em8413-e/stages.html

Ergo, just a few of the grape bunches look like this:

While the rest look like this:

And so the question remains; are the grape bunches really in Stage 25, or are they simply dying a slow, miserable death? Also of interest, are the little bugs I just noticed on the grapes while I was taking these pictures, symbiotic or parasitic?

Speaking of bugs, what else is growing at the Farm? Garlic, strawberries, broccoli, tomatoes, and apparently veggie bugs. Out came the can of garden dust yesterday in the hopes of saving the broccoli from further damage.

Finally Bloggity Bloggers, if you're interested in Hollywood's version of wine enjoyment, Zorack and Bella recommend the movies Bottleshock and Sideways. Both to be viewed with a glass of Pinot Noir in hand, of course.

Until next post, Happy Wining.

A Lesson in Tensile Strength, or Things Fall Apart

I first learned about Tensile Strength in my art history classes, studying Greek and Roman sculptures. It is because of tensile strength, or rather, the lack thereof, that so many ancient marble statues are missing arms and legs. Briefly stated, tensile strength is the ability of a material to retain it's shape despite the application of outward force. In order to counteract the effects of gravity, artists would add various sneaky support structures to their statues, such as incorporating the pastoral element of a carved tree to lean on, or strategically placed branches supporting a thin ankle.

It seems as though the grape arbor has more in common with ancient Greece than simply a celebration of Dionysus. You would think that with all of this fancy education I would have remembered about tensile strength. Not so. The 8 foot planks between the posts have begun to bend and split. As a result, in the near future we will need to replace the wood planks with galvanized wire. Sadly, this will negatively effect the aesthetics of the grape arbor, but will certainly increase it's ability to maintain the weight of the vines in the battle against gravity.

In happier news, the grapes appear to be entering the next phase in development known as First Bloom. This is when the "flower clusters" (what we thought were little baby grapes) begin to open. You can see the fuzzy little bunch in the middle of the picture. Apparently we're doing something right!

The grapes of Ella's wrath

If you look very hard, you can see the grapes...

Starting Up

My wife and I have always wanted a grape arbor. For our fourth anniversary we got each other the materials to build one in our back yard. We found plans for the grape arbor from eHow.com, and went to Lowe's to follow the lesson exactly. Our charge was to procure six 8 foot fence posts (we chose 4x4s) with the intent of planting them 18-24 inches below the surface (in order to go below the frost line.) We also had to get some wire or thin wood strips for the vines to grow on. We got the materials, which cost about $50, and retired to the house for the real work. Post hole digging is never fun; if at all possible, it is always best to avoid post hole digging. What made it worse was that there stood about a foot of parched clay on my way to 20 inches. It took both of us about four hours with very few breaks in 90 degree heat to dig all six holes. My neighbor let me use his tools, and luckily he also has a pick axe, which, although still very difficult, made breaking up the clay easier. We chose the hottest day of the spring for our project. There was not a large selection at the local nursury, so we purchased one muscadine vine of the Noble variety, a self pollinator. Our prefference would be for a dry grape, but to get started we went with a sweet option. The nursury also recomended a soil conditioner to mix in with the clay. It was about $25 at the nursery. After some disagreement we finally settled on the location for the actual plant, we thusly subplanted it, and began farming. What a rush!