November 2017 Blog - Summer Recap
Spotted Bear Vineyards & Lavender Farm
Polson, Montana
www.spottedbearvineyards.com
spottedbearvineyards@gmail.com
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 16th 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 23rd and
24th. 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.
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.
Reasonably priced and better for the
environment.
