Changes at the Vineyard 

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Hello All!   Pat & I (Bill) would like to thank everyone at the vineyard this year for a great season.

We would also like to thank everyone for all the seasons in the past.  After 50 years of working with grape vines, we have decided to shut the "VINEYARD ONLY" portion of our farm down.  Due to lack of pruning support and the vines getting old and in some decline, we will no longer be selling grapes in the fall.

(More on the vineyard below)

OUR HONEY OPERATION IS STILL GOING FULL STEAM!! AND ALL OF OUR CUSTOMERS WILL STILL BE ABLE TO PURCHASE HONEY - ANY TIME THEY WANT. 

(Make sure sure subscribe to our blog for notifications and how to purchase.)

Orders can easily be placed in advance -   You place the order, I send you an email when it is ready and you PICK IT UP ANY TIME YOU WANT - DOESN'T HAVE TO BE WEEKENDS. (Click here to order honey RIGHT NOW!)

HERE IS A  LIST OF LOCAL MARKETS IN OUR AREA THAT ALSO CARRY OUR HONEY:
Brookwood Fruit Farm, Almont
Foglers Fruit Market, Rochester
Rochester Cider Mill, Rochester
Peacocks Poultry Farm, Troy
Past Tense Cider Mill, Lapeer
Country Smoke House, Almont

More on the Vineyard over the years ...

Pat and I started growing grapevines many years ago in Troy, Michigan. We had about 2/3 acre of vines  - this seemed to be a lot more than we needed so we started selling them.

This is when we met Karl Bailey, a retired MSU Extension agent who had many acres of French Hybrid grapevines. (Karl was in his 70-80s an I in my 30s)  He grew a lot of new varieties that I was interestyed in.  (Bailey Vineyard is now a subdivision on Adams road - the grape crusher used for years on our farm belonged to Karl.)

We were very interested in the newly developed varieties that grew well in our Michigan climate.   Our move to our present location in Dryden allowed us to expand our vineyard.

During this Troy-Dryden period our 3 daughters Andrea, Mary and Elizabeth were born.

We had a lot of wine grapes -  Baco Noir, DeChaunac. Chambourcin, Delaware, lots of White Hydrids - many of these varieties we dropped over the years and replaced with others if they did not grow, produce or sell good enough.

Seedless grapes are always popular - but it was very difficult to keep the birds away from them. We grew Suffolk Red, Einset, Himrod, Lakemont and many more.  For a few years we were taking boxes of Canadice Red Seedles to Vans Valley in Romeo.

We made a lot of Suffolk Red grapes into raisins.

Bird damage was always a big issue.  You work all season to produce the grapes and right before harvest the birds start to peck them - even more damage in a dry season.

We have used 2 different noisemaking bird alarms that make "birds in distress sounds", Bird scare eye ballons, & mylar refective tape.

For a few years we had a whole acre covered, 8ft up in the air, with bird netting.  It worked pretty good, but became a nightmare to repair when some wind came through.

After that we mainly covered individual rows with 17 ft wide netting we put on and off every year - it was a lot of work.

For many years we pressed and sold gallons of grape juice - just like the cider mills.  For that we had to keep a freezer down at our sales stand. Early season juice used a lot of DeChaunac and Foch, later in the season we included Concord.

The last few years we started removing a lot of vines that were not producing or like Canadice - the birds were just to hard to keep away.

This last year we planted some squash where the Canadice used to be - but the deer/racoons ate most of it.

 Questions we get asked a lot:

• You have white grapes planted next to red grapes - doesn't that affect the color of the new grapes?  No, grapes are propagated by making cuttings and rooting them - If you grow the seeds, that is when you get variety changes.
• Can we get grape cuttings from you and grow them?   Theoretically, yes - but over the years I have found it is much better to buy strong rooted vines from places like Double A Vineyards, that I have purchase from for many years.
• You have grapes and honeybees - does that make grapevine honey?  NO - Maybe in some areas where the bees have ONLY grape flowers to visit, but in our area the honeybees are more interested in other flowers.  When I am in the vineyard during full bloom, I rarely see a honey bee.
• How do you keep beetles off the vines - We have always used what MSU Extension Program  recomends - one that is effective is Seven insecticide.
• Who prunes your vines.  We have always tried to get youths 13-19 yrs old during their spring break at school.  Many time it was their first job and a learning experience for the youths. Lately it has been more difficult to find people wanting to work. Recently we have used a lot of Home School kids - they work out pretty good.

Well - enough rambling - We just received another website order for a gallon of honey.  Honey and candles can easily be ordered and picked up from our farm or shipped to you.

Closing the vineyard has given us a lot more time for honey producing activites.
We welcome any of our long time customers to leave a comment at the top of this page.

Bill & Pat Schnute