Rounding Third and heading home

Well it has been an interesting year down on the farm. Some good some bad. Bottom line we are still in there swinging! It was a long cold winter, I had to push way too much snow. That gave way to a cool wet spring with not many breaks to get and early field work done.

Vineyard views

We grow about 40-50 different crops and so we just kept planting what we could when we could. Good news was the rain and cloud cover did keep the late frosts away that often threaten the grape buds towards the later part of May. I hate to have a clear night on that last full moon in May, that is what can give us trouble.

Long view

So now we are heading down the home stretch and just have to finish strong. We need to keep the birds from trying to destory our best crop yet. We also have to keep an eye out for late season pathogens sneaking in and trying to spoil the party at the end. The Japanese Beetles have not been too big an issue this year which we count as a good thing too.

We are about 2-3 weeks away from starting harvest with some varities as much as 4-6 weeks till they mature. Then we start the fun part of turning our harvest into a product. Yea that is a bit of work but I always laugh when some of our winery owner peers think growing grapes and running a winery is a lot of work.

I just smile and say….So you have never milked cows, have you?

Red n Ripe!

Last years crop of Red Raspberries just recently found its way into the bottle in the winery but it’s story didn’t start there. There was a great deal of work that went into getting that rich red goodness into that glass carrier of pleasure.

Red Raspberry Beds

Well the snow might still be on the ground but we are getting ready for those long hot daz of summer!
Along with all the “good-for-you” vegi’s we grow at Maize Valley we also grow fruit. One of the most sexy fruits out there has to Red Raspberries. Especially when Todd my brother-in-law and our wine maker balances the sugar with the acidity and makes our Red Rasperry wine.

Visiting Relatives

Like most things on the farm Rasperries take a great deal of work. The first years we pruned the berries we used a chain saw and walked down the rows all bent over and such swinging the saw back and forth. We then graduated to a weed eater with a metal saw blade on it. This was better but still not a whole lot of fun. Now we thing we got it down! I bought this 40 year old sickle bar mower last fall and what was old is now new again.

Mater's movin' on!

At Maize Valley yes we say “We Make Great Wine…FUN!!” But we also still grow a whole bunch of stuff besides just grapes and make wine. There are five family members currently involved in our farm. Todd makes the wine, Michelle runs the store, Bill is the “Fun TSAR” and does stuff like this blog, Donna handles the banking and running and all “that” kind of stuff and Kay grows the vegi’s.

Tomatoes waiting for a new home

These tomatoes should hit be ready end of May or so we are planning on and have flavor like a field rippened fruit should have growing in the soil. It is really tough competing with the imported tomatoes from the South. We try and grow a great local product early that we can sell at farmers’ markets and sell in our market and also serve in our entree’s in our Winery Cafe’.

Come on little guy, U can do it!

There are also Asian Greens, Spinach, Lettuce and Radishes in this greenhouse.

We have tried a variety of early growing techniques over the years. Some have worked better than others. One year we tried to cover melons with a “row cover” that covered the beds in the field. That worked great till two years of back to back wind storms pretty much gave us the counties largest kite.

Making rasied beds in the new greenhouse

Getting ready to put some of the early tomatoes in the soil.

Equipment usually only found out in the field in the greenhouse

I won’t write too much here as the video at the end of this post really shows how this machine works. So if you catch this blog on face book the face book notes feature usually cuts off the You Tube video, be sure and follow up and go to www.ohiowineandmore to see the entire blog post.

Long view of the raised bed

The crops grown in this greenhouse and our others get sold at area farmers’ markets, thru a local modified CSA group up in Cleveland, at our farm market and in some of the meals we serve in our winery cafe’ and market.

J.D. 2630 with plastic mulch bedder

At Maize Valley we are many things. My wife family have made a living with the land here in Marlboro township since the 1800′s. We grow about 52 different crops on about 700 acres we are a small farm anymore. But we think it is our diversity that keeps us in the game and keeps us strong. From Corn Mazes to Cabernet, from Garlic to Greenbeans, 1/2 marathons to Merlot, come and see why Maize Valley IS the Place To BE!

LaCrescent vines sleeping

What goes on in the vineyard in January, well not too much. These vines are very winter hardy and can handle temps. down to 30 degrees below zero farenheit. They had a good growing season last year with lot of heat and sunshine and not too much or too little rain.

July vs. January

We had a early harvest due to the good growing season. This allowed for the leaves to hang on a long time since we had a late “killing frost” also. The vines were able to load lots of energy via the fall sunshine and hopefully store some good energy in the root systems before they went dormant. This helps on these long cold days.

We prune these grapes later than most to see what and if any late frosts take away buds we may be counting on.

These reisling vines pictured above are not as winter hardy as the LaCrescent and we will see, this might be their last year on the farm. We may replace these with another French American Hybrid called Traminette.

So while the grapes are outside enduring the winter, our guests are inside enjoying the fruits of their labor from seasons past!

At Maize Valley We Make Great Wine…FUN! Last weekend we had the Island Dr. aka Scott Alan in. We have live entertainment every Friday and Saturday night and this past weekend the Dr. brought the house down! Great guests desended to form a massive conga line, limbo and just a whole bunch of other Island style fun.

How low can you GO?

View from outside of the Greenhouse

Ohh, Ohh, Pick me!

Plow snow in the morning pick a greenbean in the afternoon?

One thing you may have seen if you watch this blog and You Tube etc. is we are always trying something new at Maize Valley. I have to give credit to my father-in-law Kay. In his 70′s not retiring and always up for a new challenge. As we try to diversify he is experimenting with not only growing some different crops in the greenhouses, but even how we grow some “old ones”. We go to a winter farmers’ market that actually does as well in the winter or better than many of our summer ones!

These beans are grown in hanging baskets just like you would flowers. We use a potting soil and all natural fertilizers. You can’t call them “organic” because we are not “certified” but we don’t use any snythetic fertilizers or chemicals either. We are more of a “Sustainable” farm business, that is we try and “sustain” ourselves to be around to do it again next year!

Fresh, Homegrown, Green beans in January!

WoW look at all those wine bottles behind Chelle in the backround!! When you own a winery it is important that you constantly do product quality control testing! What wine goes best with greenbeans??? Well depends how you prepare them, lightly heated with touch of butter in a pan as Chelle did a nice light off dry white goes well.

Spinach getting going

"Pole beans" B 4 the pole part!

More and more people are asking not only what is for supper, but where did it come from? It is still not a huge amount yet but it is growing every year. In order to see if we can maintain our agricultural roots and adapt to meet an emerging market we have over the past three years begun to grow a wider variety of crops. From garlic to green beans, from cantelopes to carrots.

Almost all of these items we sell direct to the consumers and even incorporate them into our entrees’ served at our farm market and winery.

Two short clips below! The first one shows my “culinary roots” you might say the second actually has some views about what’s comin’ up, down on the farm.

Take care!

Long view of the Reisling

Waiting for spring

Pretty Cool

Our old barn

Home sweet home

Boy winter started early, like I think it was somewhere around last June? Anyhow we are seeing some signs of spring here or there. Days getting longer, still daylight at 6:30 Wow! Our vines so far so good. Despite all the snow and cold it really has not been as extreme as it was last winter.

Last winter we had significant die back due to temp in the sub zero teens for an extended period. We did not have that this. The trick will still be to get past that late frost in May however. You can look back on last years posts for that disaster. But that is what we roll with here on the farm.

We are planting more grapes this spring, doing new crops in the greenhouse and some other unique things will be coming up in the field too! Look for us at area farmers’ markets and of course at the main market and winery with tons of new special events and cool tried and true trusted ones as well.

Here are a couple of videos one of the vineyard itself and one of the drive out to the vineyard in my pickup hope you enjoy.

Remember at Maize Valley We Make Great Wine…FUN!!

What's up Doc?

On the way to being Raspberry Wine!

Cabbage Patch

Pa, Pa, Pa....Peppers!

Maters' still going strong!

Vineyard view

LaCrescent Vineyard

It has been a very interesting season. Weird weather to say the least. Cool, cloudy & dryish early, wet later, some heat now in Sept.? Yea, whatever we just roll with it and make the best of it and are happy to wake to see another day.

The Ohio Wine and More formal blog has been difficult to keep up as of late. My desktop crashed and was either sick or in the shop for almost three weeks. Then we are dealing with some family health issues as we head into harvest as well so my eye has been off this ball.

Been doing a lot more “Micro-blogging” via face book w/fan pages and such. Really trying to redefine my local marketing efforts etc.

I am also running for school board this fall, an election run during harvest? What was I thinking!!

Today my wife and I are taking a motorcycly ride on my V Strom headed down towards Harrison County Ohio. Cool gravel roads down there, most of them end in the word “Hollow” too! One of those “smell the roses” days if ya get my drift?!

Here are a few crop updates and general farm stuff from grapes to corn mazes.