Grub collecting day 1

Tuesday April 10, 2007

Today we went grub hunting. Armed with a pitchfork, two shovels, a wheelbarrow, a bucket and a large metal sieve, we set out to rustle up some Japanese beetle larvae. Cliff cut about 15”x15” squares of sod a few inches deep from a spot in his yard, which we picked apart above the sieve resting on top of the wheelbarrow. Our first attempt was unsuccessful, so we decided to try out a different spot. This time we found one Japanese beetle larvae. Success! He was a second-instar larvae up near the grass roots where he was feeding on the organic matter. (Japanese beetle larvae tend to come to the surface to feed in early spring when temperatures reach 60 or so, usually around mid-April). We chucked him in our bucket along with some soil that had fallen through the sieve. Then, we flagged the spot so Cliff could later come out with the GPS to mark the relative abundance of larvae at each location we dug. (We were trying to figure out where they were most abundant, so we could come back out later to dig up more). We tried a number of different spots along the rows of vines in the vineyard and continued to cut up these squares of dirt and pick them apart looking for the little white grubbies. We found one or two in a few squares. One row came out consistently with five bugs per square, and in one spot we found 15 of the guys! Even so, Cliff said he had been digging up bunches of them last year (before he had sprayed thousands of the adult beetles), so we decided to try digging in the garden soil instead, to see if they were more abundant there. And there were! In one big patch at the end of the garlic row where the soil had earlier been overturned and disturbed, they were practically jumping out of the earth. Just raking at the surface layer exposed a few. So we dug up that area for a while before heading to the corn patch where we found a few more along with some glass, rusted nails and other interesting artefacts. We found several different kinds of grubs. Just a few that I can remember included several June bugs (that are gargantuan in comparison to the Japanese beetle larvae-like monster-truck vs car size), a firefly larvae (it had a pretty pink stripe on it), some mystery cocoons, and several grey cutworms, which we promptly smushed, since they hurt the buds growing on the vines. We ended up collecting approximately 220 Japanese beetle larvae in the end. Not a bad haul. I took them back to the lab in white tub containers with sifted soil for use in our experimentations. It didn’t look like any of the ones we collected were infected with milky disease.

Bottle washing and tempeh smoking

Friday, April 6, 2007

Today I went out to the Ambers’ farm a bit early and smoked the tempeh we had made yesterday (cooked I mean, not inhaled). It had been in the drying rack for almost 24 hours and the mould had grown in it cementing the soybeans together in cakes that looked kind of like Brie cheese. Cliff prepared the grill/smoker device/thing by fuelling it up with wood on the bottom and starting the fire using the biggest blowtorch I’ve ever seen (it’s one of the ones used for killing weeds). He then placed a pot of water over the fire to provide the steam to keep the cakes from drying out. Then he tore off the plastic bags and placed the tempeh patties on the rack over the fire six at a time. After that, he put a lid on top of them and let them sit and smoke for a while. The first batch we smoked on top of hickory wood that he had chopped up. It was a bit windy, so thick white smoke kept blowing everywhere, but it was very nice-smelling and worked quite well turning them a pretty tan colour. For the next batch, Cliff added sawdust-like shavings of fruit trees to the fire, which gave the cakes a more faint smoky smell with less of the strong, spicy hickory smell. He then decided to use up the rest of the fire to smoke some tofu (yumm). All the cakes were put in the freezer except for one, which we sliced and fried up with oil and salt on the stove (like bacon) so I could try it. YUM! I think I’ve been converted! (Seriously, you guys should go out and try this stuff.)
After our nice snack we went down to the basement where I sat on a rocking chair watching Cliff rack a few wines using a racking hose to draw the wine off the solids that had precipitated out and accumulated at the bottom of the big bottles. One he topped up with wine left over from last year and put back in with the others to continue in its aging process. Another wine he racked did not taste very good, so he mixed it with another batch that tasted a bit better. Then he added lots of sugar to it, which made it very syrupy and sweet, but he said some people like their wines that way, so he let me keep a bit to bring back for my roommates (who are among a few of those that do). He also tested a few of the completed batches for their pH and acidity recording everything down in his book. Then I washed bottles, while he filled them and corked them with the completed wine (using his special CZ vineyard corks). I used a brush attached to a screwdriver and OxiClean to wash the empty bottles he had stored in the cellar. Then I rinsed them three times and put them on a bottle tree. It got a bit repetitive but was actually kind of therapeutic, excluding the incident where I almost lost a finger to the mechanical brush when it took a bite of my plastic glove, ripping it off my hand and turning the wire into a mangled mess. Luckily I kept my digits and Cliff had an extra brush. I went through four cases of empty bottles and about seven? pounds of wine before it was time to stop. Cliff gave me the dregs of the Oaked Seyval to take home with me along with the wonderful smell of wood smoke on my clothes. Yay for wine internships!

String tying and tempeh making

Thursday, April 5, 2007

Today I made tempeh! When I got out to the vineyard, Cliff was splitting soy beans in a grinder/splitter device, so I helped crank the whole batch of through. Then we put them in a huge metal pot and boiled them, stirring them and skimming off the foam and husks that rose to the surface. Then we left it covered simmering while we went out into the yard to do a bit of maintenance work. Cliff took some pictures of the beautiful foliage and peach, apple, and pear trees that had started flowering already. We’re supposed to get freezing temperatures for the next few nights, so we covered the potato plants in a thin layer of dirt to insulate them. A few vines were beginning to sprout as well forming miniscule flower/grape clusters near the nodes. We took down some firewood from the shed and then headed out to the vineyard where we added strings to the newly transplanted vines. We tied the orange string to long staples that we stuck into the ground next to the baby vines and tied them onto the first wire to give the vines something to attach to as they grow. The wind was quite frigid today. The poor sprouting vines are going to die! Cliff said that most vines will re-bud two more times if the first ones don’t survive, but that typically only the first ones actually produce fruit. So certain varieties that bud early have a risk of being more susceptible to early spring freezes. It makes me glad that he has so many different varieties, so he’ll have a better chance of some surviving. Hopefully the buds on most of his vines will survive the next few days.



Then we came inside and I poked a grid of holes in plastic sandwich bags while he drained the soybeans and added vinegar and the special tempeh-making powder and mixed it all up. Then he added around 10-11 oz of the mixture in each plastic bag (we weighed and recorded them for fun-to see how much money he was saving by making his own instead of buying it in a store) and placed them in the drying rack (the holes in the bags were for aeration) to mould (or allow fungal fermentation) over a 24 hour period. While we were making it, Cliff gave me a nice speal about soybeans being a miracle food. Did you know that the U.S. is the world’s top producer of soybeans? They are a great nutritional substitute for beef; they are high in protein and other essential nutrients and low in fat and cholesterol, very cheap, and you don’t have to refrigerate them. We ended up making about 12 pounds of tempeh total! Then in the last few minutes, we worked out some milky spore calculations using the new milky spore powder formula to determine how many bugs we need to collect and infect in the lab in order to produce enough milky spore to cover his fields.

Vine collecting on High Peak

Thursday, March 29, 2007

I took Pete with me to experience my wonderful internship at Chateau Z vineyard today! It was a beautiful day, so Cliff decided to be super super nice and drove us up to High Peak in his truck, where we took in the gorgeous scenery as well as harvested a few wild grapes to bring back to the vineyard, which he had found last year growing along the winding road up to the mountain-top. They were a bit tricky to try and untangle, but Cliff managed to get two cuttings with roots on them, which we rolled in plastic bags with wet leaves to keep their roots from drying out. After taking a short refreshing coffee break upon our return (Cliff makes a very decent cup o’ joe), we planted the two wild vine cuttings in the vineyard. Then Cliff took us on a mini tour of his backyard woodland property showing us old masonry from abandoned cabins and an old cemetery. We also watched as he cleaned out the white bin (not sure what it’s called) that is used to catch the water from the creek flowing downhill, which provided the water pressure for a hose to be used for gardening, ect. It was plugged up from the silt that had accumulated over the winter, so he just unplugged it, running it through the plastic container until the water ran clear, so that the hose downhill could be used again as a supplemental water supply for the garden and vineyard. After that, he gave Pete a tour of the cellar and gifted him three bottles of wine to take back to Scotland. Needless to say, I think Pete thoroughly enjoyed himself. Most fabulous day.

Fruity Wine night

Wednesday, March 28, 2007

I had a visitor today! Pete, whom I’d met last year at St Andrews, came to visit during his spring break! So, naturally, I took him wine tasting with me J. We did fruity wines tonight. Very tasty. I found out that blueberry wine is actually quite yummy. I liked a lot of the fruit wines, actually. And I learned a little bit about Scotland’s geography as well (Thanks Cliff :P) I think Pete really enjoyed himself.

Vine transplanting

Tuesday, March 27, 2007

Today I got nice and muddy. We did some transplanting of vines this time, digging holes and placing the young roots in them. We dug them up out of the nursery area in the garden where Cliff had planted them. We tried to keep as much of their roots in tact as we could, which was surprisingly difficult as many of their root systems were just as big if not bigger than the vine twig itself! We took several different varieties of vines bundling them up in batches of ten or so or each with labelled pink tape and stored them in buckets full of water (to keep their roots from drying out). Then we carted them up to the vineyard where we planted them among the rows, replacing old/dead vines and filling out a few empty spaces along the wires on the right side. Cliff did most of the digging, which I planted them, so it went by pretty quickly (even though we had to stop for a coffee break in the middle, since I needed the extra energy boost!). The vines were actually much easier to transplant than the trees had been since we didn’t need to dig quite as deep holes. As long as they were deep enough for the main roots to reach down and we didn’t bury the feeder roots too deep, we were good to go!

Last day of pruning at the Annex!

Thursday, March 22, 2007

Today I continued my background reading on developing a plan for “growing” milky spore in the lab with the grubs in the morning. In the afternoon I headed out to the Annex Vineyard by the Sweet Briar Community Garden. We finished pruning today (ALL DONE with this season’s pruning!) Then I watched Cliff change the blade on the lawn mower/tractor thing and jump-started its battery from his truck. Then we pruned the apple and crab-apple trees that he planted in 2002 around the outside of the fence surrounding the garden. The idea was to thin them out leaving a straight trunk/branch up the middle and then trimming off the branches that were facing inward leaving a relatively open space in the middle. I mostly just followed Cliff with the wheelbarrow picking up the branches he was cutting off the trees and chopping them up so they’d fit nicely in the wheelbarrow before adding them to the brush pile, which is now gargantuan! It was hot and sunny today, so I got nice and scratched up carrying around twig bundles and wearing my tank top (note to self-wear long sleeves when pruning at a vineyard). I also now officially have my first spring sunburn.

Tree Transplanting for use as future vine-posts

Tuesday, March 20, 2007

Today, I went out to the Ambers’ farm and helped Cliff transplant about 12, year-old trees that he had started from seeds in his garden. We added them to three or four rows he had already put in on one side of their property. He’s growing them for their future use as fence posts for his vineyard (which is why we planted them in a polygon grid pattern). First, we dug holes for the trees with shovels. I learned the proper method of doing this by first removing the top layer of sod starting at the centre and going in a circle around it and then digging down a foot or so. We dug 12 holes lined up 14 feet? apart in rows that lined up in a zigzag pattern. A few holes were very rocky and difficult to dig. We even found the remains of what looked like a gravel road as well as a huge boulder in one of them. While we were digging, we also were collecting Japanese beetle and June bug grubs as we found them in the soil, which we’ll take to lab later. After digging the holes, Cliff dug up the saplings from the garden and we transported them in his green tractor bed keeping their roots covered with dirt (so they wouldn’t dry out). We then placed the treelings in the holes we had dug, covering them with the dirt, which was packed down on top of them to approximately ground level. Then we placed the sod back on top upside-down in a circle around the tree, which will eventually decompose and contribute nice rich organic matter to the growing trees. We ended up with five leftover saplings, which we placed in/near where the backyard woods meets their lawn in hopes that they’d grow there, since we’d already dug them up and didn’t want them to die. The weather was almost hot today! I got nice and dirty and sweaty, and now my back’s a little sore from all that shovelling, but it was nice to be outside on such a beautiful day.

Another research day

Thursday, March 8, 2007

Was supposed to go out to the annex vineyard today to finish pruning, but Cliff was sick with the flue, so I did some more research on milky spore disease and tried to come up with a formula for the amount of bugs we need to infect in order to produce enough spores to cover his vineyard instead. Managed to plough through a number of big references. Who knew there have been so many studies done on these things?

Wine Tasting Week 5

Wednesday, March 7, 2007

Wine-tasting. More whites tonight. I learned that almost all white and rosé wines are meant to be consumed relatively soon after they are bought. Though whites that are particularly acidic, alcoholic, tannic (oaky), or very sweet may survive long aging. I also found out that they are best stored upside-down or on their sides and served at cellar temperature (50-55ºF). Our table brought in cheese, crackers, and grapes, which helped me to better taste each individual wine I think, almost like clearing the pallet between them, or something. Cliff’s Seyval Blanc CZ wine was actually my favourite of the bunch! [Helped with set-up and clean up.]

Bottle Labeling and more pruning

Tuesday, March 6, 2007

Today I helped Cliff calculate grape content percentages for a few of his wines that he had bottled the day before. I used the extensive records he has kept of the entire wine-making process for each of the wines he has made/is making from the grapes he picked in the 2006 growing season. Just before bottling them, he had recorded the pH, TA (acidity), and SO4 content of the wine, which he later typed up on his temporary labels along with the date the wine was bottled, and the name of the wine based on its grape content. (Once he begins to sell his wine, he will also add other mandatory information on the labels, including alcohol percentage and net content as well as his specific brand label, name and location). He then printed them off and we went down to the cellar to stick them onto the three different wines he had bottled. Once the labels were stuck onto the appropriate bottles, they were placed upside down (to prevent the corks from drying out) in boxes, which were then taped up and labelled as well. One of the wines we had added the bentonite to last week was now clear, but the other one was still cloudy, so Cliff said he’d have to add something else to that one later on to try and clear it up. Next we went out to the vineyard and continued pruning. We managed to finish almost an entire lower row before 5:30. It is still a bit too chilly to dig for grubs.

Wine Tasting Week 4

Wednesday, February 28, 2007

First day of red wines. Today we looked at the classics, such as Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot and Pinot Noir. We also did an experiment with adding toasted oak chips to boxed Burgundy wine. We smelled the difference between light, medium, and dark oaks (yes, they do smell different!) and then we added a little bit of the dark oak to the wine. The wine smelled (and tasted) much better after we stirred in the oak. It’s amazing what adding one thing can do to change the wine! I can see how adding oak chips, or fermenting or aging wine in oak barrels could produce some very tasty wines.

Pruning at CZ continued

Tuesday, February 27, 2007

Today I went out to the CZ Vineyard. First we went down to the cellar where his wine was still undergoing the fermentation process. Cliff had already added fining agents to the vats that needed it (milk powder, ect). However, two white vats were still cloudy, so he added a few oz of bentonite and mixed it in with a cool propeller-type rod. So hopefully the particles will settle out of suspension and the wine will be clear within a few days. Next, we went out into the vineyard to do some more pruning. It was much easier to prune these vines than the ones at the annex vineyard. We got through the top row and then decided to try out using the handheld computer database. We walked down the second row and recorded the distance from the first post each vine was using a measuring tape along the ground. I typed the row, the distance, the vine type, and the year it was planted and the computer program recorded its exact location based on the location of the starting post. After that, we continued pruning along another row using the spur pruning technique this time.