Dec 20, 2010

The Orchard AND the Vinyard?

Everything old is new again....
A few years ago, my sister introduced me to a wine from Ponderosa Winery.  It was a nice table wine called Vino de Pata (literally, wine of the feet).  Two years ago, we went up to the winery and asked to purchase a few bottles.  The answer was no - there was no more Vino de Pata and may never be again!  My sister and I were pretty unhappy. 

The owner of the winery related the tale - sadly, a typical one in NM today.  The grapes for that particular wine were grown in a single 10 acre field in Corrales, NM (just north of Albuquerque and along the Rio Grande).  The grape variety was an old one (Léon Millot), not commonly grown anywhere anymore, and the vintner didn't know of any other NM sources.  That particular 'vinyard' had likely been planted over 60 years ago.  The owner of the field decided that he just wasn't making enough money on the grapes, so he sold the field to a developer who plowed it up, built a huge custom adobe home on the spot and sold it for over a million.  Tragically, this is happening everywhere in the Rio Grande Valley - people want to move there because of the agriculture and beauty, but they tear it all up to build a giant house. 

Well, I thought, we can try to make our own wine!  Why not, grapes grow pretty well throughout NM, and there are some old vines at my Mom's house (20 miles south of Albuquerque) that have thrived on total neglect for the 35 years she's lived there. We have no clue what variety are, but we're fairly sure they are wine grapes.  The vines are old, and date back to the building of the old part of the adobe house (around 1910), but every year that the horses don't eat them, there are small, tasty, sweet/tart, purple grapes on the vines.  

This past march, while visiting my mom, I cut 12, foot long branches for rooting.  I wasn't too hopeful because the vines seemed really desiccated.  When I came home to IL, I stuck the vines into a pot of damp sand, forgot about them, and was surprised a month later, to see roots!  I potted each little vine and they sprouted leaves soon after (see photo above).  I kept them growing in harsh conditions (lean soil, very little water, tons of sun & heat, no fertilizer) all summer/fall because they will have a hard life at Ghost Dog Orchard starting next year.  Tough little plants, they have thrived and are now dormant in the basement.


The plan is to plant these grapes along the back wall next spring.  I will extend the drip system a tiny bit so each little vine has water, but that will be it.  These guys will have to tough it out and climb the wall.  I have no doubts that they will do a good job.

The next step is to put in a heavy duty trellis and plant some Léon Millot vines the year after.  Vino de Pata, here we come!

Dec 10, 2010

kitchen mosaic

The kitchen as seen from the living room.
The kitchen is getting to the point where it's just detail stuff now.  Of course, the stove needs to be put in and the plumbing hooked up, but those are jobs for next summer.

The room itself is small and quite narrow.  You can see most of it in the photo above.  To the right, behind the arch is another two feet of width, just enough for a small table and some chairs.  The walls you can't see (behind the arch and to the right) are covered with a lovely lime plaster (my father's work).  The wall to the left is painted (to match the plaster) drywall and the far wall is exposed burnt adobe. 

The burnt adobe is nice and I decided to leave it exposed.  The one thing I don't like about that wall is the ugly concrete bondbeam above the adobe.  I plan to put up a shelf/opencabinet for dry goods stored in canning jars, but it will be small and the bondbeam will still show.

So, what to do to make it pretty?   Since I have covered so many other sins in the cabin with tiles, why not this too?  I have decided to do a mosaic, but it's going to be a subtle one.  The room is dark and I don't I don't want to have so many things going on on the walls that the eye is frantically finding a place to rest. 

At this point, I think I'll create a night scene (not sure what yet) and have some ghost dogs running.  Darwin will be there for sure (see previous post) and maybe Simba, my sister's dog.  Updates will follow!  Stay tuned.

Dec 3, 2010

The Orchard - Fall Update

A happy young apple tree
This past year was a wet one. The area received rain regularly through the summer, which is rare, so the weeds were exuberant. Of course, the garden and orchard are on a drip system, but I could tell everything was pretty happy with extra water- growth everywhere was pretty lush.

Esapliered fruit trees have a tough time their first few years because they are pruned so extensively during the growing season. In the spring, before buds swell, I prune to encourage growth of new branches. Because the trees rarely do what I want, or expect, there is usually some heavy pruning around June and then some more pruning in July or early August.  After that, I don't prune again because I don’t want to encourage late growth susceptible to winter damage. This past year, I easily pruned 50% of the new growth on the trees.

Still in training - only a Y.

The final shape - a double U.












The result's are encouraging. Many more apples are achieving their final forms (a double U shape). The remaining trees are in a Y form and just need a bit of length in the branches to pull down and tie into a U. The stone fruits are doing really well, and even my reluctant peach (Rio Oso Gem) grew vigorously. A few apples have put on some height and are over 7’ tall.  At this point, the tree branches are still small enough to be caged in chicken wire. After next year, the trees will be too big for cages, so I'll have to buckle down and put up a fence. Yet another project!

A 7' tall branch in front of the a perfect NM sky.