A34-Lancaster Farming, Saturday, December 15,2001 Kingsville Branch Serves Grapes , Growing Industry KINGSVILLE, Ohio There’s more than one way to eat a Concord grape. You can suck out the juice, chew up the pulp, then spit out what’s left of the pulp, seeds and skin. Or, simply, you can wolf it down whole. Children discover these meth ods and more at the Grape Re search Branch in Ashtabula County. The 25-acre facility, an outlying branch of Ohio State University’s Ohio Agricultural Research and Development Cen ter, hosts an estimated 600 visi tors a year, most of them stu dents. They walk the vineyards, taste the grapes and take home samples of freshly squeezed juice. “The kids get a lot of senses excited,” said Greg Johns, branch manager. “The tastes, the sights, the smell of the ripening grapes. The parents I run into say their kids talk all about it.” Including how to chomp a Concord. It’s not like eating a Thompson Seedless. “A lot of kids don’t have a clue that grapes are grown in Ohio,” Johns said. “They’ve never eaten a Concord grape. It’s one of the things I bring up: How do you eat it? It’s got seeds, the slip skin (the skin comes off like a bag), the in sides are gooey and juicy, and be tween myself, the kids and the teachers, we talk about the differ ent ways we’ve learned to eat them: whether you suck the juice out and spit the slimy part on the ground or eat the whole thing or what.” Concord is the most widely grown grape in Ohio. It’s used mainly for jelly and juice. But its acreage has fallen because of low prices: $250 a ton versus $2,000 a Eg LI PAINTING All Types Interior/Extcrior r Including Aerial Work Specialists in Sand Blasting and Spray Painting Farm Buildings, Feed Mills, Roofs, Tanks, Etc. Also Roof Coating •, Water Blasting • Waterproofing on Stone and Brick Buildings Fisher’s Painting 4056 A Newport Rd. Kinzers, PA 17535 On Rt. 772 Across From Pequea Valley School 717*768*3239 ton for Pinot noir. Some Concord vines have been abandoned or have been replaced by higher value wine grapes. That’s mostly the case at the Kingsville branch, where Con cords serve as teaching tools but aren’t used much for research. Wine grapes, instead, are the focus. Studies look at pest, weed and disease control, the effects of compost, and the performance of a wide range of cultivars, clones, rootstocks, spacings and training systems. The grapes, picked in fall, are trucked to OARDC’s Wooster campus, where they’re analyzed and made into wine. Why focus on wine grapes? Demand. Only about 30 percent of Ohio grapes are used for wine production, and Ohio wine mak ers, who import about half of what they need, are eager for more. As a result, more Ohio grape growers are getting into wine grapes. And more Ohio wine makers are growing their own, too, to re duce reli ance on im ports and to better con trol quality. >sxu The branch was established in 1984 when OAR D C leased 25 Silo I'nloader leilmolosv lakes a (.ianl I cap lor vs aid! CALL US TODAY FOR A VIDEO AND BROCHURE • CABLE ALLEY • WASTE HANDLING EQUIPMENT • FEED HANDLES SCRAPER DUMPS-TANKS-TILLAGE APPLICATOR BELTS - FEEDERS - CONVEYORS ■Sgg 77?ese Dca/e/,s For Dcztnilti Now... HISTAND’S FARM & HOME SERVICE Ronje, PA 717-744-2371 acres on state route 84 from the Ashtabula County Commission ers. Planting began the next year. The site was chosen for its closeness to Lake Erie and to grape growers. Lake Erie moder ates the climate for grape grow ing; Ashtabula is Ohio’s top grape-growing county. The branch has four acres of wine grapes, among them Char donnay, Riesling and Cabernet franc; a half acre of Concords; a shop/office/storage building; a re cycling tunnel sprayer that slashes pesticide use and drift; a trickle-irrigation system for some of the rows; and a cold-storage unit. A new storage building is planned. Johns is the branch’s sole full time employee. He coordinates the research, cares for the vines, and, as needed, hires part-time and harvest help. He also gives dozens of tours “We really hear MILK. FT DOES ABODY GOOD. uantum SYSTE M HI ■■ . . JHBBWJfWHfI?|H 'W>- liwtvivWlftßFivilli^l Towers lose just 3% to 7% because of gravity, feed weight and a good unloader like the Big Jim QUANTUM System. QUANTUM can be installed in any type of 20' to 30' forage 5i10... conventional or oxygen limited and will make your tower silo even better! The Silo Unloader Experts FRANKLIN’S HOOVER EQUIPMENT FARM SERVICE Tyrone, PA 16686 Laceyvllle, PA 814-684-1777 717-889-2407 HARRY TROOP Cochranville, PA 19335 215-593-6731 LAPP’S BARN EQUIPMENT SALES & SERVICE Gap, PA 17527 717-442-8134 JAMES L. HOSTETTER McVeytown, PA 17051 717-896-6388 good things about them after ward,” he said and works with industry people. “Grape growers and wine makers in Ohio are different than any other fruit growers,” he said. “There doesn’t seem to be the competition, the keeping of se crets, that I’ve seen among grow ers of other commodities. You can be starting a vineyard and a winery right next door to another vineyard and winery, and (the owners) will be helping you all along the way. They’ll loan you their tractors and their sprayers, and they’ll tell you how they did something. “They’re very friendly people,” he said. “They share everything. They don’t hold anything back. I love working with them.” Johns and colleagues respond in kind. 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Educa tional events including Ohio Grape and Wine Day, Winter Grape School and the Grape Twilight Tow are held. “We provide the industry with a baseline of information, said OARDC Director Steve Slack on a recent visit to the branch. “The studies done here help form the foundation for a lot of what’s done in the industry.” Details about OARDC’s grape research program are at http:// www.oardc.ohiostate.edu/ grapeweb/. For more information on proj ects and tours at the branch, con tact Johns at (440) 224-0273 or Johns, l@osu.edu. OARDC is the research arm of Ohio State’s College of Food, Ag ricultural, and Environmental Sciences. VDUIMAXX SOLLENBERGER SILOS CORP. Chambersburg, PA 17201 717-264-9588 STAR SILOS Myerstown, PA 17067 717-866-5708 GLADHILL TRACTOR MART Frederick, MD 21701 301-863-6060
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