Another Arkansas Hillbilly

[MisterEd]

Howdy Folks,

My bio is short and not that impressive:
I'm a semi-retired 60 year old living in the backwoods of the north central Arkansas Ozarks on about 55 acres of rural bliss.
My small vineyard has around 100 vines:
Cynthianna
Chambourcin
Landot Noir
Chardonel
Vidal
Roucaneuf (just getting started)

I am currently making just under 50 gallons a year. I pressed out my cynthianna about a week ago. If my liver can hold out I hope to keep making grape juice for another 20-30 years!
En Vino Veritas,

Ed DeLauter

 

[Tnuscan]

Hello. I hope it does too. And I hope you get to enjoy your vineyard and some nice wines.

 

[Rocky]

Hi Ed, welcome to Wine Making Talk. Glad to have you aboard.

You say north central Arkansas. Are you anywhere near Jasper?

 

[vernsgal]

Hi Ed.Welcome to the forum! I hope you have many years to enjoy your vines and wines!

 

[MisterEd]

Where are you?

Hi Ed, welcome to Wine Making Talk. Glad to have you aboard.

You say north central Arkansas. Are you anywhere near Jasper?

Rocky,

I am probably about 70-80 miles due east as the crow flies from Jasper.
About 5 miles from Blanchard Springs Caverns. Do you live around Jasper?

 

[Rocky]

No Ed, I live currently in Ohio.

I grew up in Pittsburgh, PA but many years ago my father owned a cheese factory in Jasper (Jasper Cheese Company) and I spent some very happy and memorable weeks there as a kid for a few years. I am trying to make one last trip back to Jasper, maybe late Fall or next year. I have viewed it on Google Earth and it does not seem to have changed a whole lot. We were there in the late 1940's and early 1950's for a couple weeks at a time. My father had a manager who ran the operation year round. The cheese was all goat milk cheese and I remember riding along those mountain roads in a Dodge Power Wagon with one of my father's workers (a guy with the enigmatic name of "Zip") picking up the cans of milk that the farmers left on stands.

Jasper was very quaint at the time. One of my most vivid memories was the town square which had the court house, police station and jail, all in one building. We could talk to the prisoners through the bars of the jail and we kids would run across the square to the General Store to get cigarettes for them from a machine. The cost of cigarettes at the time was $.12 a pack in the machine. We would insert $.15 (that the prisoners would toss to us through the bars of the jail) and there were three pennies inside the cellophane along the side. That was our reward for getting the smokes and we would buy candy at the General Store. I remember coming back to the jail and tossing the packs back through the bars.

Our home backed up to the Buffalo River and there was a suspension bridge across it near our house. I remember that many of the local kids went barefoot and once we tried to be like them. We took about 5 steps without shoes and socks and quickly retreated to regain our shoes. Our soft "city feet" just could not cut it. Great memories.

 

[bchilders]

Welcome Ed, hope you have many more years making wine as well. Would love to see some pics of your vineyard.

 

[Stressbaby]

Welcome!

You are in a beautiful area of the country. One of my kids went to college in Conway, we'd drive down on 65, just gorgeous.

 

[heatherd]

Welcome to the forum Ed!

 

[ceeaton]

Howdy Folks,

My bio is short and not that impressive:

Ed, I don't think too many around here worry about an impressive bio. What we are interested are those grape varieties you have 100 vines or so of! Several of those are on my list to investigate as I'd like to put a few vines in the back yard, eventually. Keep us in the loop how your harvest goes this Fall and hopefully for many Fall seasons to come.

Welcome!

 

[MisterEd]

Rocky,

One big change to Jasper from when you were there is that we now have an expanding elk population in the area! Jasper is at the epicenter of it. They were re-introduced about ten years ago by Fish & Game Commission and are doing well. I have actually come across them on this side of the Buffalo River. They are huge compared to our local deep population.

Ed

 

[MisterEd]

Craig,

I am always willing to share my late winter cuttings with folks. Expansion is always a good thing for supporting our hobby and industry in this country.

Ed

 

[MisterEd]

I'll get off my duff and post some vineyard shots in near future. Ed

 

[hounddawg]

welcome Ed,
from another Arkansas hillbilly, north east corner right up in the Mo. boothill instep.
Dawg

 

[MisterEd]

Dawg,
We all know there is a turdpot full of wine grapes growing in southern Missouri. Ya'll call it Norton while we prefer Cynthianna: genetically no difference.

 

[hounddawg]

my area about all you'll run across is some possum grapes, and now and then muscadines, one these days i am going to try to make a batch outta both and/or either of them, i got into all this for one reason that became two reasons, 1#health 2#occupy my time,
elderberries that's my main aim, but i try bout anything i can get my hands on, but i would like to acquire a few cuttings say around February, let me know what you want between a few cuttings and bare root shipping ,, last year i cut my garden from 60'x220' to 40'x40', using that ground to expand on elderberry, grape(just not yet) and muscadine (again not yet, and some Arkansas freedom 45, a tame blackberry that's upright/erect no trellises needed, every time i start something i end up back in the hospital an my nephews, let my new stuff die, computer addicts...
good to see a few locals,this site and 99% of it's people are Devine to say the least,this dog will hunt) ....shucks keep me in mind and toward the end of next year well can try a bottle swap, i do wild blackberry, apple/pear/crabapple blend that i love myself, cherry, strawberry, and bout anything that pops up in my freezer,
i do country wines but even the purest give info freely which blows my mind, i before always found purest kinda stuffy but not so round hear for the most part. this site has become very important to me on the chosen family/friend level,,,,,,, in ferment/bulk ageing i got 6 gal, elderberry, 6 gal sweet cherry, 6 gal wild blackberry and a 18 gal apple pear blend that since i got cedar rust i have no crab apples this year so i'm giving grape tannings a try to replace the bitters or as they say it the finish,
Dawg

Dawg,
We all know there is a turdpot full of wine grapes growing in southern Missouri. Ya'll call it Norton while we prefer Cynthianna: genetically no difference.

 

[Masbustelo]

Dawg I have a question for you. How many pounds of elderberries did you use per gallon? Pardon my Northern grammar and spelling.

 

[hounddawg]

i like 5lb per gallon water, i make up a 6 gallon carboy (after fermenting) an 2 or three gallon, 1/2 gallon, 1/5 bottles an jugs to top off with, i never top off with water nor wine, and i always freeze my fruits an berries...
Dawg

Dawg I have a question for you. How many pounds of elderberries did you use per gallon? Pardon my Northern grammar and spelling.

 

[hounddawg]

LOL,, an no please forgive my lack of gram crackers an spullin,,,
oop's i meant spelling an grammar,,, i spent 20 years doing traveling construction across the U,S.A. before my years of travel i did have notions about my northern fellow Americans, but after crawling through about ever inch of America good an bad i found we are all more or less the very same, (PLEASE NO NORTHRENERS COMITTE SUICIDE AFTER READING THIS) as a matter of fact we people of earth are pretty much the same and without governments to stir up chit wed pretty much all get along, i look at it like this your country your ways,,, our country our ways, but that's way to simple for a politician ,,,
Dawg

Dawg I have a question for you. How many pounds of elderberries did you use per gallon? Pardon my Northern grammar and spelling.