It's a Cutworm

Earlier this week, I blogged about a mass of white eggs that I found on a grape shoot. I cut the shoot and brought it home to take better photos.

The eggs were laid in such perfect rows that it was quite beautiful. When we ran into Pamm Cooper at the Soil and Cover Crops Workshop held at Woodstock Orchards she quickly identified the eggs as cutworm eggs.

It was good to know what they were and her diagnosis was confirmed the following day when I happened to check the container that I put the grape shoot in. The eggs had begun to hatch. There were many of these little black worms in the container, so taking one out, we took a photo next to a ball point pen. They are tiny, little things with large black heads. In the Western United States, these cutworms are known as the Striacosta albicosta and are devastating to corn crops. In the Northeast, I believe that these eggs are those of the Noctua pronuba moth. In looking at Google images of our cutworm eggs, this identification appears to fit. This cleared up a mystery for us. In July, I saw this grapeleaf with all of these worms on it and flagged the plant. After consultation with my husband, we decided that so many "whatevers" can't be good, so we removed the leaf but did not know what it was:

Mystery solved and it was a good idea to remove the leaf at that time. Wikipedia lists one of the food sources of the Noctua pronuba or the Large Yellow Underwing Moth as Vitis.
Good references to read for more information include:
1. Wikipedia entry for: Noctua pronuba
2. Christina Difonzo¹ and Howard Russell², Noctua pronuba(Lepidoptera: Noctuidae): An Outbreak in Emails, ¹Department of Entomology, Michigan State University and ²Diagnostic Services, Michigan State University, East Lansing, MI, October, 2010.
3. Images for the Large Yellow Underwing Moth can be found here:
North American Moth Photographers Group.

Soil and Cover Crops

On Thursday, my husband and I took a trip to Woodstock Orchards in Woodstock, CT, to attend a Connecticut National Resource Conservation Service (NRCS) workshop on Amendments, Cover Crops and Nutrient Cycling in Soils. The agenda included Professor Tom Morris from the University of Connecticut, Storrs, who spoke about Cover Crops and Nutrient Cycling in Soils. The importance of cover crops include preventing soil erosion, maintaining soil organic matter and capturing nitrates. In order to improve soil structure, he recommended turning in the cover crop, but emphasized that proper timing is crucial. He quoted Columella who wrote about agriculture in the first century:
     Where no kind of manure is to be had, I think the cultivation of lupines will be found the      readiest and best substitute. If they are sown    about the middle of September in a poor soil … they will answer as well as the best manure. –– Columella, First Century, Rome

It is interesting to me that much of what we are rediscovering as good agricultural practices were known in "ancient times". Prof. Morris recommended using buckwheat, crimson clover, hairy vetch (for nitrogen), rye, and sorghum-sudan. Prof. Morris mentioned that much of the work on cover crops was done in the 70's at Rodale. Prof. Morris also mentioned that a good site to listen to webinars about cover crops can be found at the Penn State Extension:
2013 Cover Crop Innovations Webinar Series Recordings.

The next speaker was Tom Akin from the NRCS-MA, whose topic was Cover Crops and Soil Physical Properties. His focus was on soil attributes and how cover crops can help in making physical improvements to the soil. Tom said to unlock the resources in the soil, the soil must remain an aerobic, living system by minimizing tillage, keeping the soil covered and keeping living roots in the soil throughout the year. The roots of plants aid in the formation of water stable aggregates creating pores that helps move water through the soil and not as surface runoff. To emphasize this point, Lisa Krall and Raymond Covino (NRCS-CT) set up a demonstration:

From left to right, the experiment shows (1) cover crop, (2) cover crop cut and laid down, (3) light grass, (4) tilled with crop residue on top and (5) tilled. They simulated rainfall and the bottles were there to capture the water. It is clear that in the (5) tilled soil, there is a lot of runoff carrying away nutrients. We then split into two groups to see three different cover crop treatments as well as a soil test pit.
We thought the day was a thought provoking one and are now doing more online research on understanding how using cover crops can have a beneficial impact in our vineyard. Another benefit to attending these workshops is meeting people. We saw Pamm Cooper from the University of Connecticut Cooperative Extension whom we know from our Master Gardener activities. Pamm cleared up one mystery. These eggs are those of the cutworm! Good thing we took it out of our vineyard!

Jim Thompson: Vineyard Manager at Martha Clara

On our trip to Long Island, we met with Jim Thompson, the vineyard manager at Martha Clara. Jim is one of the organizers of the Long Island Sustainable Winegrowers. Jim started managing vineyards and practicing viticulture in Traverse City, Michigan. Jim took us around the 100 acres that he oversees and explained the various tests that were being conducted in the vineyard by Alice Wise, Viticulturalist and Education Specialist for the Cornell Cooperative Extension of Suffolk County, at the Long Island Horticultural Research & Extension Center in Riverhead.

Jim drove us around the extensive vineyard, pointing out where some Merlot vines were converted to Sauvignon blanc. They brought out experts from California to do the chip budding in the field and the results were some amazing growth of the new shoots this year. There are several barns in the vineyard and in one barn was a Lipco sprayer that they use. It was huge! There is definitely a difference in scale of equipment between a 100 acre vineyard and the 4.5 acre vineyard that we have. One of the things that Jim said was indispensable was the movable catch wires that Martha Clara uses to position the grape shoots. (My ears perked up!) Jim said with movable catch wires, the vineyard crew can do the 700 miles of wires in 3 days! (In our vineyard, we will have about 6 miles of catch wires.) In this photo, Jim is explaining how the catch wires are tethered to the end post. Since we also plan to do movable catch wires, it was really instructive for us to see how it is done. We took a short break with Jim to have lunch at Love Lane Kitchen and then back to Martha Clara to finish up the day with a wine tasting. We thoroughly enjoyed the on site education from Jim.

Fearful Symmetry

We are in the vineyard making a last pass through the vines at dusk on Sunday. The vineyard beckons with promises of discoveries to be made, good or bad, delightful or fearful, known or unknown. This evening, walking and Max Tapenering (more on this process in another blog), and doing bug patrol, I came upon a vine that looked white. A thought ran through my head, "What is white fungus doing on a vine?" I should tell you, I need to wear glasses to see anything more than 6 feet beyond my sight line so white fungus was what I saw. But on closer inspection, I recognized it for what it was and it looked like this:

I know, it looks like sweet corn, doesn't it. I was torn. Leave it in the vineyard or cut the vine and remove it. We're still new in this business so we know that if this is bad, it is very bad, but if this is good, it could be very good. Foe or friend?

That is the question. In the end, I chose to cut the vine and bring it back in a water bottle that I had previously emptied. Having these eggs in hand I was able to take closer photos of these mystery eggs. What we believe is that these are stinkbug eggs, but we still do not know if these are beneficial stinkbugs or not. Either way, it's amazing how so many eggs can be laid in such straight rows.
Update: On August 29th, we went to a Soil and Cover Crops Workshop sponsored by the NRCS and we met Pamm Cooper of the University of Connecticut Cooperative Extension who identified these eggs as being that of a cutworm.

Third Annual ilili Lamb Roast at Paumanok

Our little jaunt to Long Island was motivated by the desire to spend the 30th Anniversary celebration of Paumanok Vineyards with Charles and Ursula Massoud. They have given us countless hours of their time to answer our numerous questions as well as to introduce us to others in the business. August 20th turned out to be a beautiful summer evening. We arrived before 6 and found the crowd slowly assembling.

The al fresco dinner featured food made by Charles' nephew Philippe Massoud, Executive Chef and Proprietor of ilili Restaurant in New York City. When we sat down, there was an assortment of Lebanese dips and pita breads and the wait staff was making the first of their rounds asking what kind of wine we would like to drink with the appetizers.

We sat across of Gale and Tom who live about 30 minutes from Paumanok. We had a great time talking with Gale and Tom, this was the second time that they have attended the Lamb Roast. The food was served family style and there was more than enough to go around. Ursula and Charles personally welcomed each and every person in attendance. Below is the menu and the accompanying wines which were served:

At the end of the evening, we had a chance to speak with Charles who asked us how our vineyard was doing. We talked about the cool, wet June and the dry July. Charles said that the good thing about this vintage is that the berries are small. (Small berries make for a concentrated juice because of the favorable skin to pulp ratio.) It was a wonderful evening and as we drove off to our B&B we were already making plans to attend next year's Lamb Roast at Paumanok. Hope to see you there!

Visiting Wölffer Estate

We took a trip to Long Island on Tuesday and Wednesday. It was such a beautiful, calm day that the ferry ride from New London to Orient Point seemed to take no time at all. We decided that our first stop would be Wölffer Estate since we always manage not to have time on our previous trips. We took the Shelter Island Ferry which is a very tiny ferry that might hold 25 cars. I'm not really sure what the schedule for the ferry is, but it comes very often. The ocean was calm and our trip was fast through Shelter Island but we made a mental note that we should come and visit Shelter Island in the off season. Our first stop was at Wölffer Estate. The entry to Wölffer's European style tasting room is a set of stone stairs that gives you a view of the front vineyard if you look back at the vista from where you came. Enter into the tasting room and look to your right and through the glass windows you will see the winery with a catwalk and stainless steel tanks below. You can do your tasting in the tasting room or outside under a covered pergola that overlooks the vineyard, the latter is what we chose to do.

Our timing was perfect because we were there around noon so we tried their Grand Tasting and their Club Tasting with a plate of charcuterie. As Melissa poured and gave us a short explanation of the wines we were drinking, we settled into a delightful, slow lunch as we enjoyed the tasting. I have to add that their pours were more than generous for the tastings and the stop was an auspicious start to a short but relaxing getaway.

Harrisina americana: The Grapeleaf Skeletonizer

We are now back to manual hoeing to remove weeds in the vine rows. This is not so bad. I've found that the tall grasses, if they haven't established a foothold can be pulled out by hand and if the carpetweed (Mollugo verticillata) is growing, finding the taproot is an effective way of removing what looks like a huge area of weeds.
Doing weeding brings me up close and personal to interesting things in the vineyard such as this caterpillar. I stopped to take it's photo with my handy Canon ELPH300HS that has a macro option. I'm not really good at taking macro photos but sometimes luck is on my side. We were able to identify this caterpillar as the Harrisina americana, the grapeleaf skeletonizer.

I'm thinking to myself, "If you grow grapevines, they will come." I've never seen a caterpillar that looked like this or the previous blogpost on the Eumorpha pandorus, the Pandorus Sphinx moth. The Wikipedia entry on Harrisina americana, mentions that this caterpillar has hair-like setae that produces hydrogen cyanide a potent antipredator toxin. If you brush against this setae it can give you a rash that lasts for days! Good thing I had my gloves on when I squashed this caterpillar which was only about 1/2-inches long and looked relatively harmless to me. Who knew!

The moth of the grapeleaf skeletonizer looks like this, shown on the left:³
References:
1. Wikipedia entry on Harrisina americana: The Grapeleaf Skeletonizer.
2. The University of Florida has more information: Harrisina americana.
3. Wikipedia image of Grapeleaf Skeletonizer

Eumorpha pandorus: Beautiful But Voracious

I'm back in the vineyard! My husband said that this July was the hottest on record. We haven't had much rain and although the weeds are thriving, the vines are not. Walking the vineyard, we came upon this not so little critter and as beautiful as it was, we knew it was doing significant damage to our leaves! We picked it off, went home and discovered that it is called Eumorpha pandorus, a member of the Sphingidae, the Sphinx family of moths.

This caterpillar was in our vineyard because the host plants are Vitis as well as the related Parthenosissus or Virginia creeper. This caterpillar turns into the Pandorus sphinx moth.
Reference:
Wikipedia entry on Eumorpha pandorus.

Rioja Winetasting at The Wine Store

James Morrison sent out another email invitation to join him and Chip Goss, chef and caterer of 3 Squared in Central Village, CT., for a Rioja winetasting with food pairings held on Tuesday, August 13 at The Wine Store in Westerly, Rhode Island.
This was the second event that we attended, the first was in June, when James hosted a Byron Winetasting and Skyping with Jonathan Nagy, winemaker at Bryon.
Tonight's winetasting accompanied by the food prepared by Chip was a great hit. We tasted 4 wines: a 2011 Monastrell from Jumilla, Spain. The Monastrell is the same grape as the French Mourvèdre. We had this with a beef brisket and what Chip called Texas caviar made of black beans, fresh corn and cilantro. It paired very nicely. The next wine was a 2010 Tres Picos Garnacha. The Monastrell and the Garnacha are both wines that are under $20.00, a good value! The next two wines were both Temperanillos, a 2010 Numanthia Termes (around $24.00) and a 2005 Lan Edicion Limitada ($55.00) and those wines were paired with a pulled pork slider with a delicious cole slaw. All the wines complimented the food. Come and join James Morrison and The Wine Store in Westerly on the second Tuesday of each month.

Oldest Living Grapevine: ‘Žametovka’ Grapevine from Lent in Maribor

While reading the article on Top 10 Most Irritating Wine Terms I came upon a tidbit that peaked my interest and I followed up. I'm always on the lookout for grapevine oddities and have put some of my "finds" under a tab that I call "Esoterica". For example, there is the Hampton Court Grapevine in the UK planted in 1768! It is a Black Hamburg grapevine that still produces edible grapes in the fall. Or, the La Parra Grande and the La Vina Grande, reputedly the largest grapevines in the world that grew in Santa Barbara, California.
What I followed up on was information about the Žametovka grapevine from Lent in Maribor (Slovenia), documented to be the oldest living grapevine in the world, shown below:¹

In 1972, Prof R. Erker, professor of dendrology in the Department of Forestry and Renewable Forest Resources at the University of Ljubljana, determined that the Žametovka grapevine from Lent in Maribor was at least 375 years old.² The grapevine was cultivated by the Celts in the area of present-day Slovenia, even before the arrival of the Romans. In Jancis Robinson's book, Wine Grapes, the entry for Žametovka mentions that the grape is an ancient dark-skinned Slovenian variety used to make the local, tart wine called Cviček. This ancient vine yields approximately 77-121 pounds of grapes annually and makes about one hundred 25 cl (250 ml) bottles of wine.
In 2004, the Žametovka grapevine from Lent was included in the Guinness book of records.

References:
1. The photo is from the Gateway to Slovenia Site.
2. S. VRŠIČ, A. IVANČIČ, A.ŠUŠEK, B. ZAGRADIŠNIK, J. VALDHUBER, and M. ŠIŠKO, The World’s oldest living grapevine specimen and its genetic relationships, Vitis 50 (4), 167–171 (2011).
3. J. Robinson, J. Harding and J. Vouillamoz, Wine Grapes - A complete guide to 1,368 vine varieties, including their origins and flavours, pg 1168, Allen Lane 2012 ISBN 978-1-846-14446-2.

The Wine Bible by Karen MacNeil

I was having wine withdrawal when I was in Hawaii, both drinking and reading about wine. I found this book at the Ala Moana Shopping Center Barnes and Noble and bought it to have something to read, it did not disappoint. Although it was published in 2000, which makes some of the information a little dated, most of the nearly 1000 page book was filled with timeless details.
Author, Karen MacNeil advises that you can read the book from any chapter, including a tour of wines around the world with chapters on every wine region of the world including France, Italy, Spain, Germany, the United States, Australia---you get the point, she begins her book with information on viticulture and enology. MacNeil walks you through the noble grapes (Vitis vinifera), red and white winemaking, champagne making, literally everything you need to know about wine before the chapters on the wines of the world. There are interesting tidbits of information highlighted in tan colored boxes and there I learned that the punt of a wine bottle was not made for the wait staff to put their thumbs into and pour the wine, but because when the glass was initially blown, the cut end would make the bottle unstable when it was put on the table.
Before leaving Hawaii, I gave this book to my son-in-law who is a bartender at 53 By the Sea. It is indeed a Bible of a Wine book.

2012 Clos le Vigneau Vouvray

I was able to find this 2012 Clos le Vigneau Vouvray at Tamuras for $18 and some change. I'm not sure if it is the influence of the islands, but the aromas from the wine glass reminded me of the smell of mock orange and honey. The balance of fruit and acidity in this wine was perfect and I could just taste the pairing with oysters. I think that Chenin blanc more than any other white wine needs to be served at the proper temperature. On the label on the back of this Vouvray, Alexander Monmousseau has provided the temperature at which to serve this wine---8 ^oC.
At the appropriately cool temperature, a white wine's acidity is highlighted and the wine will appear to taste lighter and fresher. At too cold a temperature, the wine can appear to be flavorless. Conversely, as the temperature of the wine increases, a white wine can begin to taste more alcoholic.¹ The alcohol content of this Vouvray is 12.5% and I think that is another reason why this Chenin blanc has a very balanced flavor.
Reference:
1. Karen MacNeil, The Wine Bible, 2001, Workman Publishing Company, pg. 88-89.

Transformation of Our Land

My husband and I have been working on clearing our property ever since we purchased it in 2005. At first it was just the two of us clearing out invasive plants during the summers and while we enjoyed doing that, progress was slow.
But, slow is still progress and by 2012 we were ready for the major work of preparing the land for the spring planting. Here is a short video of how the land was transformed so that the vines could be planted in May, 2013.

If you are interested in more detail, earlier blogposts have been collated under the tab called "Starting a Vineyard".

Michael Harburg: Hawaiian Gourd Carver

Before leaving for Hawaii, my husband and I decided that time and opportunity permitting, I should visit Michael Harburg, at his gallery, Ipu Kane on the Big Island. So, yesterday, I flew to Kona Airport and drove up to Hawi. The drive was straightforward through ancient lava fields that looked as if they could have been formed just a few days ago. I drove to the northern most point on the Big Island and found Michael outside of his gallery, in the middle of unveiling a gourd that he had recently dyed. He gave me a tour of his gallery and then showed me the process involved in transforming a gourd into art. He mentioned that this art form would have been lost if it was not for Dr. Bruce Crisman who figured out how the carvings were done. Michael teaches this ancient art of gourd carving to other people in order to ensure that the art form will be preserved for future generations.
Michael also mentioned that he has taken the art form to another level by being able to use multiple colors instead of just one. Since Mother Nature has a hand in the transformation of the gourd into art Michael said that every time he scrapes off the skin that is left on the gourd to unveil the result, it is a unique and wonderful surprise.
Michael's niece Mary was there and she is in advertising and is a multi-talented graphic artist and web designer. She will be updating Michael's current website to include more photos of the gourd art. In the meantime, here is a beautiful example what Michael and Mother Nature can produce:

So, what does ancient Hawaiian gourd carving have to do with a winery in Connecticut? You'll have to stay tuned to find out. Meanwhile, if you ever find yourself in Hawaii, take a trip to the Big Island to see Michael Harburg and his fabulous Hawaiian gourds and take a piece of ancient Hawaii home with you.