Nova Scotia Vineyards

December 2017 Blog
Spotted Bear Vineyards & Lavender Farm
Polson, Montana
www.spottedbearvineyards.com
spottedbearvineyards@gmail.com

           

            Well, we are just a week away from the winter solstice.  We have had some cold nights in the 20’s and hopefully the grape vines are asleep and will stay so until spring.  We always fear a warm spell in March,  that awakens them, only to have a frigid spell which has the potential to kill the vines. Let’s hope that’s not the case in 2018.  We sprayed the soil on October 18^th with a boron solution that should make up for the lack of this element in our soil around Flathead Lake.  We are speculating that the boron deficiency might have something to do with the underdeveloped berries in our clusters, sometimes called “shot berries” and look forward to next year’s harvest being the perfect grape clusters that we recently saw in Nova Scotia.  Our final bursts of energy at the vineyard this season were spent planting 400 garlic bulbs in late October, 100 orange tulip bulbs and adding 25 more haskap bushes.  The tulips consisted of “Princess Irene” and “King’s Orange” and were purchased from Van Engelen, Inc. (www.vanengelen.com ).  I can’t wait to see what they do come next spring!  If my calcualtions are correct they should bloom just before the magnificient poppy display in May.  The haskap bushes were shipped from, “Prairie Plant Systems” (http://prairieplant.com/ ) in Saskatoon, SK. Canada.  Our first haskaps should be producing berries next summer and I am looking forward to the juice and jam and perhaps even wine, that they will provide us.

Vineyard Autumn 2017

            Other exciting news from this autumn is that we now have a legal and delightful vacation rental cabin in the vineyard.  We went through the application process and received an accommodation license from the state of Montana.  Shortly thereafter, I registered on the VRBO website and now our rental is filling up already for next summer!  If you want to take a look at our VRBO listing, our number is 1168269.  This cabin should afford people a quiet retreat on Finley Point and also facts and information about a working vineyard.

Spotted Bear Vacation Rental

            In late October, we took an incredible trip to Nova Scotia, to enjoy the area and to research the L’Acadie Blanc grape which is an important variety in the growing wine industry there.  We drove to Calgary, and then flew to Halifax.  We had been advised to stay at the Waverly Inn in Halifax by a friend of a friend, and I am so glad we followed that advice (http://waverleyinn.com/) .  The historic inn was located centrally and everything that we wanted to see was within walking distance.  By taking a taxi to the hotel and picking up our car rental downtown and not at the airport, we saved enough money to stay at the inn and have a great seafood dinner downtown.  The next day we headed south to the seacoast town of Lunenburg and of course had another incredible dinner of mussels and seafood. The next day, after just heading west out of town, we stopped in Mahone Bay at the Haskapa store. (https://haskapa.com/ ).  I lost my mind, and purchased haskap tea, a maple and haskap syrup, haskap juice, and some dried haskap berries.  It was great reading up on the story behind the berries and the incredible antioxidant benefits that they contain.  Hopefully, these will be products that are available at our vineyard next fall.

            This same day we drove to the Annapolis Valley which is the home of the award winning vineyards that Nova Scotia is becoming so famous for showcasing.  We stayed in Wolfville and toured the Gaspereau Vineyards, Grand Pré Vineyards,  and L’Acadie Vineyards.  We were unable to see all the vineyards on this trip but will certainly go back to see Jost,  Blomidon, Luckett and others. Each vineyard that we visited was interested in the fact that we were growing the L’Acadie Blanc grape in the states and they were more than helpful in answering our questions about growing concerns. The L’Acadie Vineyard is an organic endeavor and talking to the owner, Bruce Ewart, (https://www.facebook.com/lacadievineyards/)  was very informative.

            We picked up a copy of “Halifax Curated Food & Drink Magazine,” (Vol. 6 Issue 23) which featured an article on Mr. Ewart and L’Acadie Vineyards and found an interesting article on how an area’s appellation wine is created.  I will try to include the article at the end of this blog, however, basically an area chooses a name.  “Tidal Bay” is the name that the Annapolis Valley chose due to the spectacular boreal tides that are found there at the Bay of Fundy.  To qualify for the Tidal Bay Appellation, a local vineyard subjects one of their wines to a blind tasting of approved judges to make sure the wine follows prescribed rules and strict standards. It must be a light white wine that has bright aromatics and a level of acidity.  All the grapes that go into the wine must be farmed in Nova Scotia.  We have forwarded this concept of an appellation wine to the Montana Grape Growers Association and hope to create an appellation here that compliments the Montana grape growers’ efforts and the Marquette grape which is popular in the region. 

 

Ken checking the grapes at Gaspereau

            I would have like to spend more time in Nova Scotia and plan on going back in the future, but the time came to move on to Prince Edward Island.  We took the ferry over and enjoyed a few days of beach combing and exploring that was easy to do in late October.  In too short a time, we headed over the Confederation Bridge and on to a few more adventures in Québec City.

            The time finally came to fly back to Calgary, but we were in no frame of mind to go home right away after such an incredible trip.  We prolonged our visit and got to enjoy a Calgary Flames game at the Saddledome as they beat Sidney Crosby and the Pittsburg Penguins in overtime. We made it home by the second week in November and unfortunately the weather cooperated and we were able to prune red dogwood and copious amounts of brush in the vineyard. We will be burning all spring at this rate.

            The pumpkins are in the root cellar and the jellies are all canned and in the barn.  It’s finally time to sit back and enjoy some family time around the holidays and start perusing all those seed catalogs that I seem to be getting earlier and earlier each year.

A link to the "Tidal Bay Rising" article in "Halifax Curated" mentioned above:

Tidal Bay Rising 

Summer 2017 Recap

November 2017 Blog - Summer Recap
Spotted Bear Vineyards & Lavender Farm
Polson, Montana
www.spottedbearvineyards.com
spottedbearvineyards@gmail.com
 

            What a fast, frenetic, fun summer we had at the vineyard.  In April, we purchased the 13.9 acres adjacent and to the north and south of the vineyard.  This property has a large orchard, main house, guest house, root cellar and storage buildings.  It originally was the living quarters and the vineyard was a part of the property.  In 1992 the property was divided into 3 parcels, the vineyard, the 2 houses, and a large wetlands area bordering Flathead Lake. It is nice to see the property reunited and functioning as it did so many years ago.  The good things from this acquisition are that we doubled the number of cherry trees that we had, added numerous apple and pear trees and an outstanding English walnut tree.  The bad things are that we quadrupled our work load for this year and also for many years to come and turned a hobby into a full time job.

            I need to write down a few of the things we accomplished this summer so that I can account for where all my time went.  First of all, the grape harvest, it was a great one this year.  The grapes thrived in the long dry summer.  We harvested 500 lbs. of Marquettes and 250 lbs. of L’Acadie Blancs on September 16^th that went home with Gary Sloan to Vancouver, WA.  Gary is a talented wine maker who owns and operates “Sul Lago Winery & Coffee.”  With the help of many friends, we harvested the rest of the grapes on September 23^rd and 24^th. A local Polson winery took 940 lbs. of Marquettes.  Daniel Murphy of “White Raven Winery” in Columbia Falls (http://whiteravenwinery.com/) took 300 lbs. of Leon Millets and St. Pepins.

        

        We had a few issues with the grapes this year, primarily undeveloped berries in the clusters.  We took some time in November to visit the vineyards in Nova Scotia and research growing methods for the L’Acadie Blanc varietal.  It was an incredible trip and will be the basis for the December blog.

         A huge chunk of our summer time went to the planning of our vacation rental property nestled in the vineyard.  A steady stream of contractors was seen during the spring and quite a bit of the summer.  We applied for a “Public Accommodations Permit” from Lake County so that we could rent the cabin.  I cannot praise the staff at the Lake County Planning Office and the Lake County Environmental Health Department enough for their help in ensuring that the process was clear and that each step was carried out correctly.  Things came together right after Labor Day when the permit was approved.  We now have a “Vacation Rental by Owner” (VRBO) number: 1168269 and will open for business around April of 2018 (https://www.vrbo.com/).  Our friends who stayed there this summer, particularly enjoyed the peaceful cabin with its incredible views of the vineyard, Mission Mountains and Flathead Lake.  They enjoyed that glass of wine in the evening sitting on the bench that overlooks the grape vines.  Not to mention the U-pick cherries in mid-July and the fragrant lavender field above the vineyard.

  The cherries turned out to be a significant event last summer.  We were managing the new property, orchard, lavender and vineyard fairly well until mid-July when the Rainier cherries ripened.  After that it was crazy, the Lamberts and Bings came next and we opened a road side stand, offered U-pick for the public and also shipped 2-gallon bags of cherries across the United States to keep up with the abundant supply of fruit.  In 2018, we plan to take orders for cherry shipments on our webpage and make sure that not one incredible Flathead cherry gets wasted.

            I am starting to feel better, in that it was a productive summer and not just a series of reactions to one crises after another.  That is about it, a few other events that are definitely worth mentioning.  We travelled to Hot Springs, MT in September, where Tootie Welker, (facebook shop Maya Rising)  gave us a demonstration on distilling lavender essential oil and hydrosol.  This was a great opportunity to learn about the distilling process and the many uses for lavender oil. 

            In mid-October we planted 400 garlic cloves.  Why?  Because of the enthusiasm and helpful information that we received from Jim and Kathy Catalano of Red Rocket Farms in Whitefish, Montana (http://gourmetgarlicofmontana.com/)  I learned a lot about softneck and hardneck garlic and look forward to an incredible crop of garlic next year and lots of scapes in my stir-fry recipes.

            And last, but not least, the lavender farm had a great year.  Many fresh bundles made it to a wedding on the west shore, lots were dried for culinary lavender, particularly tea, and of course several bunches were distilled by Tootie Welker.  I want to thank Paula Jean of Paula Jean’s Gardens in Paradise, MT (https://paulajeansgarden.com/) for all her help and good information in the past on growing lavender.

     More to come next month, on our trip to the vineyards of Nova Scotia and our research on Marquette and L’Acadie Blanc grapes.  We also had ample opportunity to learn about the many haskap farms in eastern Canada.  We purchased haskap juice, tea and maple syrup from Haskapa (https://haskapa.com/) and have increased the haskap plants in our vineyard to 100.

Addendum to the March Blog on plastic drinking straws:

            In my search for alternatives to plastic drinking straws I have found a couple of alternatives.  At the Kitchen Collection in Bend, Oregon I purchase 4 reusable silicone straws that are dishwasher safe and only $2.00. https://www.kitchencollection.com/kitchen-collection-set-of-4-silicone-straws-assorted-colors-09305

            At the “Green Light” on Higgins in Missoula, I was able to purchase 4 stainless steel straws. https://www.greenlightmt.com/  They have a soft plastic casing on the neck so that the straw doesn’t clang in a soda can.

            At Lehmans, an online market place, I found paper straws.

https://www.lehmans.com/product/earth-friendly-paper-straws-pack-of-24/

Reasonably priced and better for the environment.

Plastic Straws - We don't need them!

March 2017 Blog

The seedlings have sprouted.  I have a dozen white lavender plants on their way and several Padrone peppers started.  With the help of a plant light and a heat mat, things are progressing nicely.

This month’s blog is about “Plastic Straw Pollution.”  A plastic straw with a cold beverage seems innocuous enough, however they are used once and disposed of all too quickly.  Americans use 500 million drinking straws every day according to the “Be Straw Free Campaign” organized by the National Park Service. That is enough straw waste to wrap the circumference of the earth 2.5 times or to fill Yankee Stadium over 9 times in a year! Now imagine that magnified by global consumption! (https://www.nps.gov/commercialservices/greenline_straw_free.htm)

It’s worth googling “Plastic Straw Pollution” to see the different groups that have organized to address this nuisance.  I am on board.  I have purchased stainless steel straws that are reusable and I also have paper straws which are not an ideal solution but are still better than plastic ones.  I am still searching for a local source of paper straws and would love some feedback on that if anyone knows where to get them.  I purchased some online but that method seems to have too big of a carbon foot print.

I am in the process of reading “The Food Babe Way” by Vani Hari.  I am enjoying the book despite the many critical book reviews that cite Hari’s lack of common chemistry knowledge.  The book has gotten me back into healthy green juicing which I have neglected for the past 2 years for no good reason.  Another healthy exercise behavior that I have discovered is the singer, Adele’s, 5 daily planks.  Easy to fit into the daily schedule and oh, do you feel them.

The exciting news for this month is that we are in the process of purchasing a house next to our vineyard and lavender farm.  I hope to have a short term rental available this summer for visitors to Finley Point who come to enjoy our spectacular summers and wander throughout the vineyard.  And if you want to help prune, that can be arranged at no extra cost (lol). 

Here’s to the arrival of spring!  It has been a long winter.