We want to make productive use of the Green Mountain Road farm, so the question becomes what to do?

Dave & DM planted five fruit trees around April 6th, 2011; 2 Apple (Liberty & Fuji), 2 Pear (20th Century & Shinseki) and a Rainer Cherry. We purchased them from Brim's Farm & Garden.

Viticulture (from the Latin word for vine) is the science, production and study of grapes which deals with the series of events that occur in the vineyard. When the grapes are used for winemaking, it is also known as viniculture. Here's a few links related to viticulture, focusing mostly on site assessment (for now):

• There's a book named Oregon Viticulture that should be purchased soon; it's published by OSU Press, which has a page for the book here, including the table of contents
• Open source Oregon Viticulture software that calculates GDD (Growing Degree Days) for locations in Western Oregon
• Oregon Wine Board and Oregon Wine Growers Association
• Oregon State University (OSU) Viticulture and Enology website
• Northwest Berry & Grape Information Network
• National Agriculture Statistics Service Oregon Vineyard and Winery reports
• Have not used this yet, but one can get access to software called A Grower’s TEAM, an online economics workbook for vineyard establishment.
• Western Regional Climate Center Oregon Climate Summaries
• The Pacific Northwest Cooperative Agricultural Weather Network AgriMet Historical Archive Weather Data Access
• OSU Oregon Climate Service
• USDA web soil survey
• OSU extension service for small farms soil testing information
• National Grape Registry
• Northwest Grape Foundation Service

From what Dave has been able to find so far, it appears the farm may not get enough annual sun for grape production, but that's just a guess at this (Sept 6, 2008) point. Maybe we should look into cranberries or blueberries or something like that? The Northwest Berry & Grape Information Network has a wide variety of information on different cultivars. For more specific detailed information, Fall Creek Farm & Nursery Blueberry Variety Charts provide some insight.

Maybe we'll want to raise some animals? Seems unlikely, but one never knows! The Tucker Creek Farm in Clatsop County raises & sells alpacas and maintains a site called The Alpaca Digest. Shows it can be done right there!

Go to the home page of Dave, Donna Marie and Marissa Haskell

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Last updated Sunday, April 10th, 2011