Come Visit Me! I'll pour you some wine!

I will be at the Schnucks grocery store in Cottleville this Saturday, February 28th from 12 p.m. to 4 p.m. pouring our Blackberry, Concord and Apple. Come by and say hello, and taste some wine, and maybe, possibly even buy a bottle. It's really a win-win situation- I get to meet you and you get wine. =) How bad can that be?

See you there!?!

Rolling Hills of Missouri

Here's a picture of our long rows of "new" Concord. The "old" Concord was planted sometime in the early 1980's, and this "new" Concord was planted sometime in the early 1990's. So, they really aren't "new" hence the quotations. Today Dad is taking our tractor to a neighboring winery so they can fit it with one of their mechanical pruners, and all these vines will get a hair cut real soon. It seems odd that so much of the vineyard is unpruned right now, being that we are heading into late February, but one swipe with the "new" trimmer and we will be good to go. Pictures of that coming soon.

Winter Work

In the winter we cut down and sharpen cedar posts for the vineyard from our woods. Then, in the spring we use them in the vineyard for trellis. It's all part of our sustainable farming motto here.

winter sunrise

I'm Really Getting Into Winter

Katie and Clyde own Peaceful Bend Winery in Steelville, Missouri. If you haven't been there yet, you are really missing out. Their winery is back in the woods, but not hard to find. It is beautiful there, and the wine is outstanding. Katie and I are friends in real life, but we are also blog friends. She has two blogs, just like me, a personal one and a winery one. Last week they did some sledding, and it looks like so much fun, and makes me laugh. If these videos don't make you like winter, or even the idea of winter, then your heart might just be an icicle. The video I like the best is on Katie's personal blog PeacefulkT's Pursuits, but there are lots of great video on the Peaceful Bend blog too.

Need Some Winter Encouragement?

"There's a point where you can give up on winter--when temptation can enter your soul, prying its way in like cold air through the cracks in your cabin--around January sixteenth or so, and this can make you realize that February's coming, and beyond February, March.

See, I don't yet realize that March will be the hardest month. Early February's the coldest, and often the snowiest, but March, strange, silent March, will be the hardest.

The danger in yielding to thoughts of spring--green grass, hikes, bare feet, lakes, fly-fishing, rivers, and sun, hot sun--is that once these thoughts enter your mind, you cant get them out.

Love the winter. Don't betray it. Be loyal.

When the spring gets here, love it too--and then the summer.

But be loyal to the winter, all the way through--all the way, and with sincerity--or you'll find yourself high and dry, longing for a spring that's a long way off, and winter will have abandoned you, and in her place you'll have cabin fever, the worst.

The colder it gets, the more you've got to love it."

~Rick Bass fr. Winter -Notes from Montana