High Elevation Wine Farming Works without chemicals

(while most other regions depend on them)

If it's not cold, and it's not dry, you're going to have pest, disease or fungus problems. Most U.S. wine regions don't offer both which is why farming organically is nearly impossible.

On the extreme difficulty end of the spectrum, Virginia (2% of US wine production) is too hot and too humid. Summer rain fuels black rot, downy mildew, powdery mildew, and botrytis. Only three vineyards in the entire state are certified organic.

The Finger Lakes (0.5%) are cold, but still humid. Same diseases.

California (81%) is dry, but pest pressure is extreme. They fight Pierce's disease, phylloxera, and leafroll virus with a mix of chemicals and integrated pest strategies.

Fighting all of these issues is while remaining organic can be like fighting against inflation by holding treasury bonds. Its just not affective enough and is the main reason why only 0.4% of the wine grapes grown in the USA are produced organically.

The best way to avoid these issues is to find a place that is just cold enough to kills pest and just dry enough to stave off infection while also not being too cold and too dry to be able to actually farm.

Only small pockets of these zipper zones exist around the USA and they do come with their own challenges, but Colorado's West Elks AVA is one of them.

Here we farm at knifes edge between the Rocky Mountains and the Utah Desert. At 6,000+ feet, the winters kill off most threats and the arid summers prevent mildew.

The tradeoff? Most vines can't survive here and even the ones that do get frozen back to the ground (destroying an entire vintage) every few years.

Despite being known as a finicky grape, Pinot Noir thrives here. Chardonnay, Gewurztraminer and Riesling do too.

Our Wine Region is small, but this climate allows us to punch above our weight.

Not the prettiest bratwurst, but: the pig was raised on my property, the pig ate food out of my garden, all other food was non-soy, non-GMO, I killed the pig, I butchered the pig, I ground the sausage, several herbs that went into the seasoning were grown on my homestead. Overall, I would say the flavor is fair to good. I need to work on my seasoning recipe.

30 years ago, I’ve decided to stay in the big city and earn my fortune, with the goal of moving “home” someday. Three years ago, when my youngest went to college, my wife and I agreed to pull the trigger and move to the woods and grow as much of our own food as we could.

To me, this plate of “OK tasting” bratwurst was worth all the effort. This is the best meal I’ve ever had. Doing the work and knowing that I’m supplying my family with healthy, nutritious food is the reward.

Don’t lose sight of your goals. If it doesn’t happen tomorrow or next year or it takes 30 years, you can achieve what you set your mind to.

#homestead #permies #grownostr

Not the prettiest bratwurst, but: the pig was raised on my property, the pig ate food out of my garden, all other food was non-soy, non-GMO, I killed the pig, I butchered the pig, I ground the sausage, several herbs that went into the seasoning were grown on my homestead. Overall, I would say the flavor is fair to good. I need to work on my seasoning recipe.

30 years ago, I’ve decided to stay in the big city and earn my fortune, with the goal of moving “home” someday. Three years ago, when my youngest went to college, my wife and I agreed to pull the trigger and move to the woods and grow as much of our own food as we could.

To me, this plate of “OK tasting” bratwurst was worth all the effort. This is the best meal I’ve ever had. Doing the work and knowing that I’m supplying my family with healthy, nutritious food is the reward.

Don’t lose sight of your goals. If it doesn’t happen tomorrow or next year or it takes 30 years, you can achieve what you set your mind to.

#homestead #permies #grownostr

You can thank me later

People who call something bikeshedding almost always want to downplay the importance of things they oppose

One of the nicest things about Nostr is that I don't consistently get pushed videos of people being attacked, abused or killed.

Underrated feature IMO.

GOOD MORNING 🤘

Florida tag renewal was my painful introduction into anarchy. Forced to give big brother your census information, and you get to pay them for their "service". Let's not forget that to use a debit card has a convenience fee. All these ladies behind their glass boxes will retire to become HOA presidents.

Hello, World! #introductions

Fuck Ripple. Fuck Greenpeace. Thanks for the dope skull though.

Not a single person wrote that I made a mistake selling some Bitcoin

For sure the mstr larps on Twitter would not have reacted the same way

Thanks everyone for the encouragement 🙏 😌 grateful for my frens here on nostr

Now that I think of it some people in my immediate family don't even know I bought a house yet

1st Floor System

2nd Floor System

You got your PE?

Dude... Some structural engineers are retarded. For real. You guys would not believe some of the shit I see as a Truss designer.

It been a great day at the beach with BitBees. Doesn't get much better than that.

Muting for comrading me.

Establishing dominance over the neighborhood

You were prolly right across from me, one south, if it was Tamale Time. They had a line all day long. Hopefully we’ll catch y’all another day.

Spot 70, west side, across from State Farm. I hate I missed y’all! I was hammered and never can check my phone, much less social media usually, except to take payments. We are 3 spots south of the MLK monument. Our new schedule at Palafox Market is every 2nd and 4th Saturday, so we will return in 2 weeks. I hope we get to see you one day ♡

Palafox Market is pleasant and no rain today, yay!