Marching on…
March is already here.
In fact, we are more than a week into it. I am trying to get better about having this ready to go by the first of the month. Maybe next month.
I know it is March but we are going to start with some February stuff first. For those of you not here in south central Montana, we had a lot of snow at the orchard. Over two feet. Most Februarys, we average about twelve inches. We had drifts of five foot and more. In the orchard with all the plants acting as snow fence, it did not blow away as in the surrounding farm fields, which had less than a foot. All that blowing snow made our wonderful drifts.
The snowy weather did not stop us from attending the North Dakota Grape and Wine Association annual conference in Mandan. We had a great time, meeting up with friends we haven’t seen since last year and making some new friends.
As you might expect talk centered around wine and growing grapes, but we also talked a lot about growing fruit and making wine with it. Some of our favorite fruit wines are black currant, cherry, haskap (honey berry).
Christie and I gave a presentation on the fruit we grow. We answered a lot of questions and had some great discussions. We also discussed our transiting out of wine grapes into fruit. We are in a very cold pocket (often 10 to 15 degrees colder than just a half a mile away) and a very high-water table. Our vines die back to the ground every year. This does not kill them; they still produce grapes but they are low on the vine and ripen over a longer period. This die back does not make for good commercial production. While we have a hard time at our place, wine grapes do grow very well here in Montana. Montana has at least 8 wineries and even more vineyards. We have wineries from Miles City to the Flat Head Valley and down into the Bitterroot Valley.
Talking about fruit and grapes here at our place reminds me, I want to let everyone know that in April the Montana Berry Growers and the Montana Grape and Wine Assortations will be having a joint meeting in Missoula. If you are interested about either of these groups, please feel free to contact us, we have information on both of these wonderful groups. We are members of both groups and this combined conference will be a great opportunity for both groups to get to know each other. In addition we will have many presentations covering all aspects fruit and grape growing. The Western Agricultural Research Center in Corvalis, MT provides extensive research and guidance for the best management practices for growing fruit and grapes here in Montana.
It's not all fruit and wine here at Township Road Farm. Christie met with a local pork producer this morning about selling products locally. She couldn’t go to the meeting empty handed so she made a batch of Oatmeal cookies. She’s made these cookies over the years and they are always a family favorite. It’s a recipe from Wheat Montana and uses their 7-Grain Cereal. She leaves the raisins out because who needs raisins in their cookies, yuck. If you love raisins in your cookies, more power to you!
Wheat Montana 7-Grain Cookie Recipe
This recipe was originally on the Wheat Montana website.
3 eggs, well beaten
1 cup raisins
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 cup butter
1 cup brown sugar
1 cup white sugar
3 cups Wheat Montana Natural White Flour
1 tsp salt
1 tsp ground cinnamon
2 tsp baking soda
2 cups Wheat Montana 7 Grain with Flax Seed Cereal
Combine eggs, raisins, and vanilla and let stand for approximately one hour, covered.
Cream together butter and sugars.
Add flour, salt, cinnamon, and baking soda to sugar mixture.
Mix well.
Blend in egg and raisin mixture, and 7 Grain Cereal. Dough should be stiff.
Drop by heaping teaspoons onto ungreased cookie sheet. Bake at 350*F for 10 minutes, or until lightly browned. Makes 6 dozen cookies.