"How long does this all take, anyway?"

Far and away the most commonly asked question I get is, "When will the wine be ready?" or "How long does it take the grapes to grow?"

That ends up being a rather long winded answer because we have done our planting in layers.  Here is my attempt to break-down our personal grapevine timeline.

Spring 2008, we planted 220 vines.  It takes three growing seasons for them to produce grapes suitable for wine making.  Which means, this fall (September 2010) marks the end of their third growing season and we'll have a harvest from our initial crop ready to make wine.  In a more mature vine, you can figure about 1 gallon of wine per vine.  But being their debut year, we anticipate about half that.  If you are following my math, that means that this fall we hope to have 110 gallons from our crop.  And you can get about 5 bottles from each gallon.  That wine will likely be ready for consumption in Fall 2011 after its has all been crushed,  fermented, racked, and bottled.

These are our third year vines in a Vertical Shoot Positioning system (VSP).   The grapes are already coming out and will be ripe for picking this September.  Wahoo!

Spring 2009, we planted 1800 vines.  Making this their second growing season.  Any berries these vines try to produce, we have to pinch off so the vines can focus their energy on growing bigger and stronger.  By fall 2011, these 1800 vines will be ready to harvest grapes.  Again, taking a more conservative approach since it will be their very first year for picking, let's say we get half a gallon per vine the first year.  So about 900 gallons, which makes 5 bottles each gallon.  That is an additional 4500 bottles of wine ready in 2012!  And at that point, we will be well beyond the amount of wine one can legally make for personal production. 

We are hopeful that our quest for our winery license will fall into place by then. 

If not, we'll have one heck of a grape jelly farm!  But things are in motion and we are confident we will come to some resolution with our Township board.


These are some of our second year vines.  While our friends were all out on the lake, we spent our entire Memorial weekend working in the vineyard.  I de-suckered all these vines, getting rid of all the excess growth so we can start positioning them and training them up on the wires.  And my quads feel like jello today.  Aaron sprayed for weeds and watered since we didn't get much rain last week after we planted.  With 3500 vines in the ground, we have more work than ever.

And as twisted as it sounds, we had to pinch off grapes off these second year vines.  They'll have to wait until next year to produce grapes! 

Spring 2010, we planted 1000 vines.  And another couple hundred we still need to get in the ground this year.  They are just starting to bud and will be growing in no time!  Grapes will be ready in Fall 2012 and the wine from them the following year.

Did you follow all of that?

All this being said, our goal is to get a winery license by next year so that by the Fall of 2012, we could start selling the wine from our first two years of planting. We're excited about it! But we have our work cut out for us!  At least we have some helpers.

Okay, maybe "helpers" is a loose term. 

A Wet and Muddy Planting Party

A little rain, a little sun, a little mud, a little wine, and some little ones, and we managed to have a lot of success at the planting party this year.

We were lucky enough to have some help come in on Friday night.  Aaron's Uncle Don (who you might remember from this) and Aunt Diane rolled in from WI in their camper on Friday to come help for the weekend.  I love when they come to town because they are such willing hard workers.  It's just in their nature to be busy and helpful.  After doing some work outside on Friday night, we had some pizza and finished eating at 8pm.  That's when Diane said, "Well, we still have some daylight.  Should we go out and dig some more holes?"

What?!  I think I was already in my pajamas and brushing my teeth for bed at that point!  They are amazing.  As I've mentioned before, I am still working on that farmer mentality. 

So we have Don and Diane to thank for sparing our Saturday helpers the blisters and aching muscles they would have received from manually shoveling holes.  Don and Diane worked the auger to pre-dig everything!

Even though our invite said 9am, we had a few eager helpers out by 8am.

I had to tell Kevin and our neighbor, Les, to slow down on planting so there would be enough left for the rest of the crew when they arrived!

I tried my very best to get photos of everyone who came, but I know I missed several people.  As I was sorting through them, I realized all I had was this picture of Scott's legs.

So, let this photo be proof that Scott A. helped out on Saturday.  If I recall, I was attempting to capture his dirty knees.  He actually came prepared with knee pads, but was nice enough to lend them to my dad and sacrifice his own clean knees. 

They were a good team, my mom and dad.  Dad planted and mom stomped.

And there was mud.  Lots of mud.

Oh my gosh.  Did I just post a picture of somebody's bum?!  I can't believe I did that!  Who invites guests to come help them plant and then post obscene pictures like this on the Internet?  Well, I assure you I will respect this person's bum and won't tell you who this belongs to.  This muddy bum will remain completely anonymous.  No one will ever know who this is.

Did I mention that this planting party was a big babyfest?  Oh boy, did we have babies!

Starting with this little lover...

Evelyn came prepared in her red checkered strawberry overalls.  I wanted to keep her, but she belongs to these friends....

Laura and Jeff so far have had perfect attendance at all two of the Schram Vineyards planting parties.  They've already signed up Evelyn for Schram Vineyards bootcamp when she's a little bit older.  More to come on that. 

You know what is the best?  When you meet people randomly.  Like the way Aaron and I met Henry and Kim and Marg.  Just by striking up conversation while sitting at a restaurant bar last December having a glass of wine.  It was the night the snow starting falling for last year's big Christmas storm.  We started talking about the weather, then wine, then exchanged business cards....

...And here they are today, along with Marg's husband, Don, helping us plant!  I love stories like that and I love that they volunteered to help us! 

Don't they make planting grapevines look so romantic?

And then the next babe showed up.  Here's Julie with newborn Ivan, who has the best. hair. ever.  They supervised while daddy, Michael, got down in the dirt. 

And then it rained.  At about 10:45, we got a dumped on.  And since all our food was still up in the house, we decided to corral everyone into there.  And then more people showed up right then and we had about 40 people taking cover in our home at the peak of the day.

It is probably worth noting that:  a) had we actually been prepared with a rain back-up plan, we probably would have had the chicken coop ready,  b) our house is what you would describe as "cozy",  c) we only have one bathroom, and d) we don't have central air conditioning, which we could have used with 40 bodies in the house.  

But everyone rolled with it and we took advantage of our downtime to have some lunch and do some wine tastings.  I had to laugh when I saw people using the dog beds as seating to eat lunch.  We had our guests sample our Marquette wine we bottle in December.  And also tasted some great wines from our friends at Parley Lake Winery, right here in Waconia, and Fieldstone Vineyards in Morgan, MN.  It was all about Minnesota wine!

And when it cleared up, we went back to work.  Henry and Marg got creative by putting Target bags over their shoes so they wouldn't get muddy.

I think there were others who wished they had thought of that.

And these two showed up in their adorable rubber boots.

They killed me! You know how I feel about my rubber boots. And kids in rubber boots is even better.  I think of all 40+ people who came to help, these two were best prepared with appropriate footwear.

Lindsey is lucky enough to claim these cuties. 

And she also claims Beau. 

And then the sun FINALLY came out.  It was either the sunshine or baby Colton that brightened the day. 

Kevin and Jaxon clowned around.  Apparently real men don't wear gloves.  Actually, I think they just forgot to bring them.

This was taken moments before Aaron decided to start a mud fight with his sister, Angie, and threw a mudball at her back. 

Sibling rivalry, well into their 30s.  Does it ever end?

I was nice to my sister, Allee, who managed to stay clean for a little while.  Until...

She joined the muddy hands club.

I even had three of my favorite girls help me plant tomatoes and peppers in my garden. 

Okay, one of these girls was more of a hindrance than a helper.  But she really wanted to be in the girl picture with us.  I won't say which one. 

And just when we thought we had seen enough babies for the day, one more showed up!

Tux and Belle were curious about all these little creatures all day long. 

And they finally found Cade, right at their level where they could sniff out and nudge this sweet smelling little bundle.  I think it was good exposure for both of them. 

And what a mom for putting up with two giant dogs sniffing her precious little boy.  Thanks, Shannon!

By evening, I was wiped out.  Taking pictures all day is hard work!

But Steve came to help string up wire on the posts. 

And Don and Diane weren't ready to quit either.

We got a lot done this weekend.  And we thank all of our volunteers for your help and support in continuing the success of getting Schram Vineyards off the ground. 

Or should I say in the ground.  Whatever. 

Now I need to go to bed. 

When Two Worlds Collide

Yesterday I woke up, put on a crisp white button down blouse, a pencil skirt, my 3 inch peep-toe pumps, silver drop earrings and my favorite silver chunky bracelet.  I made sure the last bit of dirt was out of my fingernails after RE-planting my cucumbers and zucchini after last week's frost, spritzed a little perfume on and hopped in my car for my 40 minute commute to work.  My office job.

Nothing about this would seem unusual to anyone who knows me in a corporate environment.  I've led them to believe I am polished and put together. 


...Until they see my Jeep...

Earlier this week, I was walking out with a co-worker to the parking ramp when realized we had parked right next to each other.

"That dirty Jeep is YOURS?" he asked incredulously.  "I've always wondered whose that was!"

And as I got in my Jeep, another co-worked turned the corner and rolled down the window in his car.

"Hey, Ashley!  Did you go mudding?"

I don't even know what mudding is. But I don't blame him for thinking that.  All of this was a reminder to me that it is that time of year again; Where the dirt cakes on like mud.  This is what I am seen in driving around town.

Apparently someone thinks my Jeep is sad. 

That little marking happened while I was inside Costco yesterday.  I noticed it as I was loading up two 48 lb bags of dog food, 10 lbs of ground beef, 3 cases of beer, and about 50 lbs of water, all while trying to balance on my heels and avoid swiping my white blouse against the dirty car. 

"Excuse me?"  I heard a lady behind me ask in the parking lot.  I turned around.  "How did you get the back of your car so dirty?" 

"I live on a farm." I laughed as I answered her. "Gravel road." 

"YOU live on a farm?" she asked incredulously.

"Yep." I said proudly.  "I sure do."

That really happened. 

Earlier in the week, I was invited by a fellow blogger, who happened to find my blog and who also happens to live in Waconia, to a BBQ with a group of women in Waconia.  I went and had a fabulous time meeting and talking with some other local women.  It was a really diverse group of women all ages and backgrounds, who have found some common ground all living in this growing community on the outskirts of the Twin Cities. 

When I was introduced to the group, someone said, "Oh, you're the WINE lady.  The one with the vineyard that we heard about!  Gosh, I expected you to look like a farmer and show up wearing overalls.  But you look so...nice!" 

I made sure she saw my Jeep parked on the street later that evening.  I think that made her feel better that at least some of her preconceptions of me were true.

But when I got home that night, I kicked off my wedge sandals, threw my hair in a ponytail, and put on my favorite green rubber boots and bibs and went out to pick some weeds. 

I may not look like a farmer.  I may not talk like a farmer.  But at least I have my Jeep as proof that it's a part of who I am. 

Wine Term Pronounciations

It is that time of year when tasting rooms are opening up again, if they haven't already. Which means you might want to bulk up on your wine terminology and pronunciation before you go winery-ing.

Raise your hand if you've ever tripped over your vowels and consonants trying to pronounce some French or German wine terms such as, Chambourcin, Sommelier, or Gewurztraminer? It's similar to when you got to a nice Italian restaurant and you end up just pointing to an item on the menu when the waiter comes around because you don't know how to pronounce it. "I'll take.....that one."

Or is it just me?

Wouldn't it be nice if you could go to a wine tasting and just roll "terroir" off your tongue if you get a chance to speak to the vineyard manager and ask him or her some questions?

I was talking to a friend who has made a couple of trips out to the California wine country recently. While she is a wine fanatic and loves talking about wine, she said she got embarrassed when she got a chance to meet the wine maker in the tasting room and mispronounced a lot of wine related terms. She spoke with him about her dream of quitting her job and becoming a sommelier. Except that she didn't know how to pronounce sommelier, and said, "som-a-lear" because that is how she has always read it.  So she felt she lost all credibility.

When she told me this story, we went to work to try and combat this little phonetics problem. Lucky for us we discovered a few great little sites on this thing called the world wide web that offered some assistance.

Now, I would have had this post up days ago if I had actually figured out how to post audio clips on my own blog. But after much research and trial and error, I've decided to just link up to the other site, which has already done all the work already anyway.

Wine Lovers' Page has lots of brief wine related term definitions and audio pronunciations. Check it out!

There is today's hooked on wine phonics lesson.

My Editor and Mother Nature

I thought this would be an appropriate day to give a shout out to my editor. 

My mom.

Isn't she beautiful?  I took this picture of her last month in Mexico before we went to the beach party.  She certainly doesn't look like a woman who would have 13 grandchildren and counting?  But she does.  Believe me.  

 

Who says a man can't get along with his mother-in-law?

Anyway....

Even when I think I have corrected all errors in my blog posts before they actually post and before the email subscriptions get sent out.  I don't.  I used to find it really irritating (as any daughter would) when my mom would read my posts and then email me with corrections (especially when blogger took away spellcheck for a while), or to tell me I used the word "the" twice in a sentence in the second paragraph from the bottom.  But I've learned to put all my imperfections aside and be grateful for a mom who is willing to act as my editor, even if  it was self-appointed.  Isn't that what moms are for?  As a journalism major who appreciates well crafted, grammatically correct blog post and cringes when I discover a mistake AFTER the posts are sent in an uneditable email, I am glad I have an English major mother who cares enough to comb through every sentence in my posts to make sure it is publishable, even if she doesn't always get to it before it actually posts.

Mom, thanks for reading all my blog posts and being my biggest fan.  And most of all, thanks for deciding to have a fourth kid.  Happy Mothers' Day!


And since it is Mothers' Day, a word to Mother Nature: You've been very good to us this spring and have brought us some pleasant surprises.  But the frost you left overnight (on MAY 9th, I might add) after you've given us an absolutely gorgeous, warm spring, with lots of bud break and growth on our vines, AND after I planted my garden...wasn't very nice.  I hope you work your magic and work things out like you do and make this a fruitful season for us.  Thank you.

Bud Break, Weed Control, and Then and Now

Please excuse my random title for this post.  Too many thoughts and ideas swimming around in my head and instead of pinning down just one topic, I'm trying to put all these somewhat related topics together and segue from one to the next.  Bear with me. 

It's hard to complain about a beautiful and unseasonably warm spring in Minnesota.  We had virtually NO snowfall in March and April has been warm and sunny, with just enough rainfall for a nice start to growing season.  Everything is about a month earlier than normal, including the grapevines.  We were a little worried we'd have early bud break and still get a late frost, which would not be good for the vines.  But as more time passes, that risk decreases.  And the forecast is not giving us anything to worry about at this point. 

These are the first vines we planted that are now on their third year.  These will be the vines that will produce grapes for wine making this year! 

Feels like just yesterday they were just babies in their grow tubes.  But was two years ago already!

And our vineyard shot from this side looked like this two years ago.

                        

             

Now it looks like this.

                  

Here is a second year vine that we planted last May that has done a lot of growing just in the last few weeks.

They are still young and need to work on growing up, not out.  So we have been spending time "suckering" which is basically pinching off all but a one or two buds on the vine so it will put energy into growing up, instead of turning into a bush which is its natural tendency without training, pruning, and suckering. We even have to pinch off berries or grapes that might develop too early.  That was a hard concept for me to grasp at first, but I am getting the hang of it now.

Speaking of bud break, I got started transporting some of my vegetable flats into the ground.   Peppers, sugar snap peas, zucchini, cucumber, lettuce, radish, and carrots made it in the ground this weekend.  Here are a most photogenic vegetable plants so far.

Sugar Snap Peas

I've mentioned this before, but this landscape fabric over the garden was the best thing to ever happen to me.  After two years of looking like that lawn ornament of the plumper woman bending over showing her bloomers while she is weeding, I knew it was time to find a weeding solution.   Seriously, that's what I felt like!  Weeding is a bit of an obsession. There is nothing more satisfying to me than yanking a weed out of the ground after a good rain.  Love that feeling.   Except for the fact that when you have a garden this size and a vineyard to tend to, plucking them by hand out of the ground doesn't get you very far. 

Two years ago, there was an uncontrollable weed that grew into an enormous bush.  I was obsessed with killing it.  I started by pulling it out and it would grow back.  I doused the area with Round-up and it would come back.  I shoveled a hole 3 feet deep to try and get any piece of root of that weed possible and it grew back.  I took a chainsaw to that garden and that weed STILL grew back.   It was the snaggletooth of my garden.  Growing. Lurking.  I knew it was there and it was only a matter of days before it pop out.

Finally, I put down landscape fabric and I am happy to report the garden has been weed free!  If you are looking for a good weed control for your garden, you will not regret putting this on top.   Just poke holes with a knife where you want to plant.  It should last about 4 years or so and will save you time and back pain.