Subscribe
Community
Family, friends turn out to plant new cash crop
Grapevines grow on old tobacco soil
Wednesday, April 8, 2009
 Click here to enlarge this photo Staff photos by JESSE YEATMAN
Samantha Johnston, 17, helps drill holes with an auger controlled by Roger Lavoie at a farm near the Golden Beach neighborhood. Thousands of grapevines were planted Saturday on 2 acres.
|
E-Mail This Article
Slaves, servants and sharecroppers all worked the land called Long Looked for Come at Last and some were eventually buried there in a large family plot. For hundreds of years, the soils there grew tobacco, but recently the Conrad and Byrne families started raising grapes as an alternative cash crop.
Friends and family got together under the sun on Saturday and planted new vines on 2 acres in one day on the farm off Golden Beach Road. It was a project two years in the making.
"This is our biggest planting yet," said Gerald Byrne. "Because it was so big we knew we would need a lot of resources, a lot of help. This was the big day."
All told there were about 52 volunteers.
"A lot of growers came to help," said Bernie Byrne, Gerald's father, who lives in Vienna, Va., and there were old college buddies who came to help, too.
Family came from as far away as Boston and Seattle for the mass planting.
About 2,400 vines were planted that day of the Petit Verdot and Barbera varieties. One is a black grape and the other is a red grape. They are originally European vines and like to keep their roots dry. Southern Maryland soils drain well and are good for grape vines, Gerald Byrne said.
Several other varieties have been planted and tried out at the 244-acre farm. Vines are growing on about 4 of those acres right now.
Two years ago, a section of the farm was cleared of trees and the soil was prepared for vines, including the eradication of microscopic worms that feed on grapevine roots.
It takes about five years for vines to reach maturity, but a crop can be harvested as early as in three. After the first harvest, the vines will produce on an annual basis.
If cared for properly, "they'll live over 100 years," Gerald Byrne said. "What we're putting in here today, with a little luck, will be here long after we're gone."
The vines came from a nursery in California — an investment of about $8,000. Selling grapes can net $5,000 an acre.
"They do require lots of care and feeding at first," said Bob Schaller, director of St. Mary's County Department of Economic and Community Development. "And it can be … profitable, but you have to have a long view for it." He, his wife and two daughters helped out with the planting that day. "We had a good time," he said.
Gerald Byrne is a member of the Southern Maryland Wine Growers Cooperative, which is working to establish a winery in Leonardtown. With the aid of the town of Leonardtown and St. Mary's County government, the winery is hoping to start selling wine by the summer of 2010.
The old State Highway Administration garage at Route 5 in Leonardtown is being gutted now in preparation for its reconstruction.
There are 17 members of the cooperative, growing more than 13,000 vines on 20 acres collectively. When the vines are mature, there should be enough to make 8,000 gallons of Maryland wine.
A state 10-year buyout of tobacco began in 2000 that paid farmers for not growing the crop. Grapes, corn mazes and nursery plants are among the crops now being raised on farms that formerly grew tobacco.
See related stories
