Thanksgiving and Tawse

Although we've only met Mary twice at meetings and have since exchanged emails, when we went to Ontario last week, Mary invited us over to spend Friday evening with her family to celebrate Canadian Thanksgiving with them. Could we refuse her kind and gracious invitation---no way!!!! She mentioned that her husband was in Burgundy making wine, but her nephew and his girlfriend are in the business and it would be fun to get together.
When we arrived, we met Isaac and Laurie who are involved with Tawse Winery. The July-August issue of Vineyard & Winery Management featured Tawse Winery on their cover and I read the article with interest since we had been to Ontario in April. What a coincidence! Both Isaac and Laurie mentioned that we must go to Tawse. Unfortunately, we were heading off to Prince Edward County the following day. The evening and the company were delightful, the food was par excellence and Laurie made this pumpkin cake that was the hit of the evening.
When I came home, I reread the article which mentions that the owner, Moray Tawse is committed to organic and Biodynamic farming. Tawse Winery is concerned with building healthy soil in order to hold nutrients and water while enhancing the stability and structure of the soil. We subscribe wholeheartedly to this mindset and we agree that good soil is the key to growing healthy plants. Healthy plants in turn have the immune system to ward off a certain amount of disease pressure.
Our first introduction to Biodynamic farming occurred when we visited Southbrook Vineyards, located in Niagara-on-the-Lake. Brian Hamilton showed us how the Biodynamic preparations were being made on site. Our thought is, if people in Ontario can farm organically and Biodynamically, we should be able to do something similar in Connecticut. We are certainly going to give it a try!