Cittaspell a podcast about slowing down remembering who we are and where we came from folks You've been about you to come up on the portion cittaspell so pull up a rock and chair grab a glass of sweet tea I'm gonna sit a spell and visit about our heritage and how we use those traditions and skills Welcome back to season two episode four of cittaspell the Great Tennessee Appalachian food roadshow Just so you know Megan's not allowed to look at me today Because in previous podcast you'll notice that every time she looks at me she drifts away on the microphone so We're so excited. Hey, I'm Chris a white kinship UTSU extension cover the county And would it be a cittaspell podcast if I didn't say we've got a treat for you today It's really it's really exciting today we are at Solly notch You heard one of our special guests in the background. We're at Solly not vineyard in Monroe County, Tennessee I don't have the address 162 Harrison Road Madison Dailton So today one of our very special guests is mr. J.
D. Alton good morning Afternoon there out in just so you know he's very shy and we also have a very special guest mr Jonathan Ray is with us again, and we are so happy Agriculture agent UT extension agent in Monroe County. It's great to be with you crystal As always we're glad to have you all here in the wonderful foothills Listen with us today. Awesome.
So give us like an overview a little bit of a background where we're sitting right now Well, we have to be sitting at Jackson lounge at this present time And it's a whole family farmhouse from the white farm, which is they were a dairy farm years ago We actually moved this this is actually our second building here on the facility, but we actually moved it here as a whole put it on planks and Well, I beans basically we moved in here has a law Foundation and we moved it here as a whole we kind of recreated it here on on the grounds the owner saw it at the neighbor's Facility and said man that vehicle over here our first building was which is now the tasting room It was just a log wheel that we brought here from Mount Erie, North Carolina But this was this was fitting We brought it here it matches with our tasting room We called it the Jackson lounge and we needed some restrooms for our events that we do here for different things open to the public and So we created some restrooms on the backside of the building It's gorgeous where we're sitting right now Chris and I have a mood and odd over So I just like you just step back into the history a little bit when you walked into there. So, um, it's a winery and a vineyard Okay, so give you a little backdrop. I give you a little backdrop So I am JD though the owners brought me on board here when they bought the place and they have a nine I'm a cardiac employment rehab person by degree, so I'll bring I'm freaking around now I mean, I look dance to you JD, but I would have never guessed that well Great, that's what it's all about here. So I Grew up kind of down the road with our wood farm, which is about to an app closest I've ever been it's like my best friend brother whatever name my first child after him So you guys do feeling the blinds there?
So when the owners bought this and they have oh nine I was working for the doctor We had an exercise facility for his patients and he said hey if I buy this vineyard out here said will you run it? I said well, you know if that's where we're going hey, I'm good You know because we had downsize the office we moved to a different office and we turned he needed more exams face, so I turned in to take care of he has another farm and his brother also has another farm over in the wood and so I Actually turned in to the facility maintenance taking care of the farm Horses all the kind of stuff and so hey something different every day So when they bought this and they have a nine-in option there were three owners after the first year one under got out And then we had two owners the brother and the owner the previous owner now Kerry Cox is the one who owns this solely but how I got here is I was working for Dr. Cox and been within probably 12 or 14 years Muscatines have a high-snots a reserve a troll which is an any-optic property So to me now not making any health claims never know you know Obviously you hear four ounces of a red wine and they're talking about the reserve a troll mount So it's good for all kinds of money to say what all their good for because I'm not making you feel things But that's how I kind of bring it all back together with cardiac and pulmonary again because I mean it's wow Bring in family consumer services and act together That's right first and out of those silos y'all I love it. Okay, so how many Acres do we have here is in North Carolina?
So when I started just if you know so may have oh nine they bought 92 acres since then now praise a day We have 208 acres. We have 202 rows. I do six varieties two dark fruits four bronze berries, and I'll name them for you Okay, Nesbeth noble then we go That's the two dark varieties the Nesbeth's more of a tableberry table I don't like to say great a table must it even though most of them are in the great family. It's more that's probably what we remember eating Absolutely, so I'm a In a lot of people come and grandma's we used to go to grandma's on Sundays We used to and that's probably what grandma had and so man we hear that just I mean That's probably the good part about sitting on the fortune listen and talking to people that come here and they say This is just like we have some groups that so oh nine we get a you pick in a nine That would be my first you pick which I learned we were open same days a week.
You know getting things done Harvest oh nine so we have people that this will be my it's 13th harvest 12 or 13 it all runs together after 10 every year has been different So but we have families that come from south and north and they meet here and they've been meeting here Well before it was solid notch when it was the previous owners So I used to meet here now He only did you pick a couple times a year now we do it for the whole month of September in the whole month of October Or as long as we have free I know where I'm gonna be coming in September bringing the family That is so fun But back to my four bronze berries. Yes We have Magnolia Carlos Doreen and my favorite sterling that's a test question Well, I can remember startling Sterling. There is what make what's it apart? You know it's muscadimes are in the great family But I call it a muscadime twain and to me the stirring berry has more of that twain than any of the rest of now Most of the other one all of them except for the nispets are used to make wine out of but steel Serum tops okay, so my mama was telling me that mmm.
I don't know a little while back She was talking about how she used to make juice muscadime juice with her mama growing up She said me I just love muscadime juice is that the the nesmouth would that be well? What would be the ideal one you know that would be a real good one noble turns out to be really well I Think you can do juice with any of them. It all kind of depends on the bronze to the taste and everybody Here's the first question somebody comes in you big big say which is the sweetest yeah well The four of us sitting here right now and all four of us could try the same one and we all are gonna think something's different about the sweetness of them So we can try all six of them now you might think this one's right you might think that was right You might think the other one and I might think two different things so that is such a hard thing So here's what I say hey they're labeled in two row increments out there try them all see which one you like and then feel Because that's that's the key now the other thing is picking on their right now I've seen them in the store a few time and I'm not talking about it Whatever they got they got a they got a transfer from somewhere But there's nothing like picking a right muscadime off the vine when it is its full full maturity and full sweetness When people come to do that you pick does somebody educate them about what a rapping looks like we do our best Absolutely cuz I'm assuming by the names that you've given on so they're gonna be different colors They're gonna be different and here's another little thing They all start green even a dark very start green as they start to ripen the dark fruit turns red Then it turns black and then when it gets dull black is a sweetest it'll be now Just like you know like it's a native but just like you pick a greenberry off of a vine here It's gonna be green till it rocks. Oh, it's gonna be sour if you pick a You can't say that in the window in the For wine production my my consumer or my people who buy from me wholesale They want we call it brick value they want it to be as high as possible now We try to shoot for really high bricks value which is relates to sugar content because you gotta think you gotta have sugar And you know all that makes me yeah, so this is the largest right in Tennessee We are the largest commercial muscadime vineyard in a state of Tennessee That's so cool and I equate muscadime How would you say Jonathan?
Well, we had a discussion before we went on this Worldwide podcast about muscadime or muscadime. How is the correct correct pronunciation? So I think I lost out. I was saying muscadime that's a they corrected me and what I'm gonna say I'm not gonna correct Yeah, I'm gonna say however you want to say what makes you feel comfortable.
Yeah, that's what you need to go. Okay. Well, I'm going with muscadime You know Jonathan you're one of my favorite people, but we talk all the time about how depending on where you're from you say everything differently So are you from Monroe County originally? I am that's our southern Appalachian.
Yeah, I guess you know that we all have and we realize it cuz we live with it, but that's exactly right Well, I think that's a great job here with this and he's worked a whole lot with our UT fruit specialist dr. David Lockwood and JD is and Dr. Lockwood have a great relationship Unfortunately, this springs me and as you all know really cool and weigh it and we've had a little bit of injury here on some of the planning It's JD says you don't think it's gonna really hurt his yield But it it has been on back and you can see that driving in this morning Some of the vines looked you know like they had some frost damage So JD is always trying to improve his production practices And I know he's harvested these for several years and he could talk about his harvest deal and how that's changed There's just so much to talk about and learn about here It's a great place to bring your family and visit and I live really close So, you know, I know the history but when it was a dairy farm and seen the change in ownership and it's just a beautiful place It's probably has one of the best views of the mountains In this whole county that I have an opportunity to work in but just a beautiful view of the mountains I think that JD it's a good thing I don't live in the area because I'd be like I'm gonna come visit all the time because it is the most beautiful Just landscape. It's just beautiful and I did notice like you said some of the vines They look like they had been bit but overall it wasn't it didn't look like a huge amount from the road That's the We had the frost and unfortunately think we got a lot colder than it shows on the reports But there would have been nothing that we can there would possibly could have been something we could have done Have we initially started the vineyard and put irrigation in and had some I mean, there's so you know There's all kinds of debates there basically we're at the mercy of mother nature Yeah, and that's what agriculture is you're a gambling from day one if anybody tells you it's not a gamble They're lying to themselves It is a gamble now.
I we don't think that it will hurt our production Well, we don't really know we I have so this has been what I say it was gonna be my 13th I think it's 12, but anyways all of since oh nine. I have never had two seasons a lot I have again I'm a cardiator here person by degree things are supposed to be consistent and the variable doesn't change always But since I've been here the variable change every day wait 15 minutes We're gonna change again It's gonna change again So I mean it's one of those things that I think we're gonna be okay because we got a secondary bug system And we'll have a third bug system has that gotten burned But we have spent a lot more effort and a lot more time and way more labor and trying to cut out some of that That stuff maybe not necessarily to help us for this year. It might help us for next year to come So we're really not for sure and that's one of the things when dr. Lockwood came down.
We don't have enough good research We don't have enough people wanting to hear a podcast about muskett on it. So we're gonna change that So we need we need to be able to get some more information and love dr. Lockwood's heart I mean he's one man, but I can tell me his research was something he's got one plant. Oh wow So again, we're doing some things that we talked about we're cutting some you know We got Sunday planted to the north and the south so we got all they some but do we need more to Sunday We need afternoon, son, do we need you so we're trying to do some things this year?
Hopefully we'll tell you know, here's what I said my first guy here figure out what not to do And don't do it next year so you don't so that's been one of the things that we've had you're a little bit of a research facility here Your sales got some tests. What exactly you got some great folks around here like within about 10 mile radius We've got we used to have about 15 some of the frostback and 12 not some of those guys out So we've got some guys here that we kind of bounce off things together Fox Greeks great folks to work with they help us with harvest they help us with pruning they help us bounce off things If we got issues, but we just don't have enough information to go forward I have some questions of course. I know a lot about what all goes on here We don't only do the vineyard and the musky times, but we also do weddings We have a barn down here. That's got a beautiful floor in it I've been over here a lot when it was putting the floor in that and it's a guess I call it an event barn It's a you know, it's where you could have a a Reception or whatever you amel a lot of catered stuff, but JD's very diversified I guess is my point and we want to do whatever to make this work for everybody involved Well, that's a good point the diversification part of the paper since we got here in 09 have tried to figure out how to take some of the heat off of harvest We are always always always it probably this till the cows come home.
So this week It will be the harvest is what makes or breaks the year But here's the thing when in February of 2012 Tennessee passed what they call a custom pressure law now I'll give you before February 2012 we had you pick here in 09 10 again the first year I was seven days a week Well, I was trying to harvest, you know, 20 tonne load which takes me probably about two days to get the old way I would have grandma come in and she wanted to get five dollars worth of berries litter heart and stop the tractor We went got grandma on took her and she got her five dollars worth of berries and she went home and ate them and had Amazing day and we got finished with that and we went so we said we can't do this seven days a week We don't have to do that some so we were learning learning what not to do so that we could be productive And so we had jellies and jams I met up with a lady that private labels our gellies and jams for us and I did we had a big garden I did chow chow Salses I did anything in the world you could do with muscadines because I was well some of it was out that without the owners consent Because I was trying to figure out how we preserve, you know, if I pick if I pick the fruit I've got five to eight days under refrigeration to get it into something so what do we do? Let's preserve it somehow So let's make jellies and jams and sauces and chow chows and figure out how we do goat milk products We do goat milk lotion muscadine with anything bus and we're messing I'm crazy here But what I found out was nobody was willing to drive nine miles off a 75 to pick up a jar jelly or a thing of lotion Or a hand soap or anything like that. So in February of 2012 when Tennessee said hey What we'll do to help these agriculture guys out? We'll let you partner with the wineries who have production facilities and you can take your fruit So it's called a farm winery you can take your fruit to them They can put they can process it for you.
So we sit down on a table like this and talk with the winemaker We're gonna bring you this fruit. We like it for the taste like, you know, we've got some ideas How we want it to be started out with two ones so they make it for us They put our label on it. We bring it back here. We taste it and sell it right here on the farm now Nine miles off the interstate to buy a bottle of wine is not a big issue So that's what they do and they pick up some jam and jelly and some other things we got over So now what we started out was just you people were open two months out of the year now.
We're open We're open. Well, I call it. It's a 13th But now we're open 12 months out of the year we're open five days a week we're open Wednesday through Sunday And if I'm here and I'm here I wake up here and I go to sleep here If I'm here, we're open the other two days so technically we're not scheduled open But if somebody comes here and they drove from wherever and I'm here and they pull up we open the doors That's just that's kind of what we do. We close at six if you call me at six fifteen and say man I mean cross while you become up come on.
We make it happen Your time is six o'clock and crawl for just saying But we have definitely had a diversified and then the event side has been a whole other whole other ticket Was obviously I know maybe in this podcast we're not talking about COVID, but when COVID happened we basically shut it over two months I shut the gate I said all the staff home and look we've got great a great team a great staff here That's why this place looks like it does but we shut the gate and we were delivering products over the fence Bless your heart. They would call an order. It was really I mean who knew that that would impact every I mean nobody knew so there again We've had I've been here for 13 years There's never been a season the same and then we had COVID and then we had a jar shortage everybody started camping So what did you so I couldn't so I have freezers full of musculine way to be able to get some more jars I can go to production with jams and jellies because I'm at zero now. It's lids.
Yeah, there you go It's two jars and lids. There's a nationwide shortage But don't go and hoard it up if you see them don't buy 50 packs if you're not going to use them But yeah, there is there has been a shortage and you know We have to talk about COVID a little bit because it's a spill is kind of born out of COVID Yeah, and born just like you said that causing that shortage of everybody I was saying had a wanted to grow their own food and they were at home and then they wanted to preserve their own food And so we had to tell them to throw out my crap. That's right. We just you know, we just gently got it on Yeah, just a little disclaimer you're gonna see some products out there because there is a shortage Suggesting you use them like multi-use lids.
Those are not okay. Those are not tested. So some you know folks are taking advantage So just out of curiosity and you might already said this but what exactly is your your title your role here because it kind of sounds like it's everything Well, you know, we all have those days Whatever, but my title basically is vineyard manager So that consists of the grounds the harvest the arrangement transportation Tasting room tasting room staff Wine production get the fruit there Who does your jams and jellies She private labels where I met up with her back in 2009 fantastic her name is Lenny Hart and that's what she does for a living She goes to all the markets and Chattanooga. She's looking at Cleveland But she goes to the markets and Chattanooga That's what she does.
I met up with her through Michael Wakefield suggested that I meet up with her and I've been using her ever since And we've come up with some crazy like I do a musket I'm chow chow which I'm gonna give her the credit for but she said I would always go in there now. Here's what here's a prime example. What would happen during that? I would go to her house.
We would finish harvesting or whatever and I'd be like oh, I've got you know Two boxes of musketines or so many gallon or whatever. I need to bring them to you so we can make some whatever So I would go in there I'd leave here like at 637 because I'd you know or closer to the park and I would get to her house about 45 minutes to her house And she would have something cooking on the stove so her home is her certified kitchen She would have something cooking on the stove and I would go in there I want to stir it, you know, I want to stir the ball I want to do whatever and I'll take some of that I say you know what if you make some of that with musketine Like she's doing chow chow one time. She said no there is no way So she made some after I left I kind of wanted to see it. I hope she didn't listen to this I didn't see and her husband tried and he said that's the best chow chow you've ever made Now here's what I found out since I've been doing this musketine was a great blender flavor Okay, so it blends well with all kinds of different tomatoes Cabbage onion.
I mean, I love this never get it's a great book. So you got that sweet. Uh-huh. You get some sour you get some heat You get me it's just it's really cool.
So we've created and thank goodness that Tennessee past the custom crush law and 12 We took advantage of it in September of 13 We started out with two wines are most still our most popular wines now sweet water and dragon can do those are our two traditional semi sweet very bold musketine flavor I'm glad you just said dragging can you I want to see if we just had the same thought because that reminded me of us We were kind of discussing it before we started podcasting Can you tell us the origin of the name? So soli is Cherokee Indian and we feel like the Cherokees found less than I was before anybody now You will not read that in a history book You're probably not gonna get that anywhere else, but we feel like they found it far So we're trying to give credit back where credits do so what we have done with the name of the place And some of our minds are named after Cherokee Indians. So dragon canoe was won Obviously, Sally was this thing we do use like the rivers high-wacy French brawl things that kind of are related to this a or Some of the Cherokee nation that we know of and I have no idea the answer to this question Like so I don't even know if this is you know, there's no no questions I'm asking on to just Appalachia or that they grow other places we just happen to be I mean they grew wild here forever So Walter Raleigh came over and they were talking about this for you know, so I mean they grow them up North Carolina's big George's big Arkansas's big Alabama's big so it's a southern grown here's here's the here's the thing the biggest thing is it doesn't get too cold So that it snapped, you know, zero degrees or in the teens. We're okay I had a gentleman call me last week that was talking about and he's a little bit higher elevation than we are He gets down to zero and he actually had some muscadimes planted He actually saw him split over the winter because it got so cold We happen to be knock on wood the guy that bought the place that put the vineyard in he put the vineyard in the right spot And planted it the right way in the fact that north and south of orientation We got great wind flow through here.
Sorry knock down disease Let's sometimes don't have as much disease as you're for the infrastructure You're something you're a concourse and some other things, but it's not that it's you don't have to do anything But right now knock on wood I can say that we spray the vines the foliage with nothing now I do spray a chemical to kill a crass underneath the road because you got 35 acres I mean, it's just time. We're very small staff here very close knit staff my dad's be 70 Nine this year. He's been with me since I started in oh nine I got the same taste been really since oh nine. I've got one other person And so we're just really small got two people in the taste room that kind of cover that I actually have a girlfriend you to that was an intern here that we've hired on and she stepped up She kind of handles our event things.
I Mean she's kind of been she now is making the schedule for the taste room So she's come from student to she still here with us and that's awesome It takes more people the owners very active in what we do here. He's here He has a farm in the wood that he lives that when he's here He travels a lot as well, but yeah, it's just a it's just the co-currency of what we got going I mean, it's the team. That's what it. I mean, that's why it's what it is.
That's why it works. Yeah That's awesome. So that's back to I love that Cherokee Indian story thing That may be my favorite part of all this of course We have a lot of Indian history in this county, but JD's website is spell that JD's yeah Wrong, so I'm sorry so it's Tia silent so it's T S a l I and our website is solenauts.com So it's T S a l I N O T C H calm and now, you know with this pandemic thing We talked about that just a minute ago in March of last year's the first time I've ever went and shipped directly to consumer That was gonna be another question. Don't you?
Don't you do is get it here and there's still some of our products? That's the only place you can get it. We have one wine called chicanha. It's very near and dear to my heart We took only a thousand pounds as we thought how's it gonna work?
So we have a neighboring vineyard actually to winery silver springs vineyard, which is down in riceville and he does wine life He's grandpa. He's gree and so he does a he does a different take. So here's a cool thing I told you that we had to start with now. We have ten and I've got three more in the words It's a pretty short amount of time I mean that's not that long third ten to twenty one and some of them have to be aged for a couple years We got one that we oak age and that takes a couple years to do that We've got some that's being made here in the back.
So we're a winery is well We're not only a form monitor. We're a winery as well. So I've got some making in the back But it's just to take the fruit that's grown right here and that you can make it a good zig in different ways And it turns out fantastic. What's a what's the future plans JD for this?
I mean sounds I'm sitting here listening to this and you're talking about I mean you've added a I know a whole lot of stuff There's a new warehouse facility here. Yes, you know we had to do that to grow Our first warehouse was a way small and so we had we had to do some things to kind of grow here and things have been growing And so what we'd like to do obviously a Vint such some of the things that we want to try to freshen up But again, we have to deal with a day-to-day basis of the growing of the grass the growing of the great That's what puts great and feeds my family So we have we're always focused there, but we're trying to like I said the event things You know obviously last year was nothing it went from hey We got a bunch of events and nothing all the just about that So we're we're rescheduling some of those and some of those are happening this year But we're starting to book some weddings and doing some smart things like we've got a fundraiser for the Boys and Girls Club Here on Saturday So just trying to that's probably the one thing that we're trying to explain them now talking about the fruit or the agriculture side of it Once we can consistently sell and not have years of that. Here's what I worry about I promise you Jonathan you call me and you tell me you want five ton I promise you I'm gonna bring you five ton I don't have to call you back and say man the fruit and I got hit by the frost up. That's kind of a challenge and there's no Simple way to estimate how much tonnage you're gonna have for a year just to give you I went from anywhere from 65 tons a year To the last couple years has been well over a hundred so last year a year before last year about 150.
That's nine semologues Last year we did about a hundred forty two times you think about the size of a muskadon That's a lot of muskadons can make it That's a lot it's a lot are They're not they don't have to be like refrigerated or anything in the semi we ship them under refrigeration They'll keep two to three. You know I said I got five to eight days That's really cold, but I can keep them from I feel good about keeping them I don't like to keep them at 24 hours. Honestly, but let's say we get caught in the field and it's rain I need somewhere to hold over I can do 48 hours I like to have them to the winery no more than 48 hours now. There's been certain certain circumstances that it's taking us a little bit We had a breakdown the machine but thank goodness we upgraded last year We got ready to a brand new harvest machine that was built for us over in North Carolina And it changes the game for us So I would like to talk a little bit about that if you're a real little come back to so We used to pick when we bought the farm the owners bought the equipment with the farm as well and it had a M8200 that was bought a dulie tractor in Athens, Tennessee So they bought it there.
We had an old great picker from France. It was a brawn now It is a sister company to New Holland, which I thought was really cool I find out they didn't really know anything at the new hall dulie tractor But and that's okay, so that thing was like working with ancient I mean it was so you take a machine that's supposed to pick grapes You can burn it to make it pick must be enough now it worked and we did it for a while But man, we figured out quick that it wasn't very efficient. So what had to happen? Pickin with that way it take a six to eight weeks to harvest the fruit So we we fought that for some time.
You know how to mechanic here that was own staff with us and you know getting the machine even to run We first got I mean no one how to use with that kind of time. Did you have a lot of waste? Exactly that machine lost a ton of fruit. I mean literally tons of fruit on the ground.
So we were getting 65 75 ton We thought man, we're got this. Yeah, this is awesome. It's like man. Look at all this on the ground You can't scoop it up and put it in a bucket.
So what we would do We would fight it and then my buddy Randy at Fox Creek He had bought a harvest machine for his vineyard and so one afternoon We've been fighting all day. It was three of us dad sent to myself We picked 15 boxes I mean all day I'm talking about starting at eight o'clock and just because of the way the machine that we used to have the brawn is you had To pass through the row and you feel the hopper and once you got that hopper full Then you had to get to the end of the row and you had to dump it in the bins that you load on the truck to take it Well, that would take forever I might have to pass it at least short rows three times these rows over here took me well over an hour 1281 feet take me well over an hour to pick one row So we hit 15 boxes. I got hung up on two vines. I was frustrated.
I saw the cavalry I've heard the story of the cow where he's coming. I saw Randy his harvest machine coming over the deal I said boys let's put our stuff to decide he's gonna come in We're gonna feel this order because I was in a but I need to get out tomorrow He came in 18 boxes about three hours. Oh wow I said take that machine that we have take it back and set it on fire All day and it's like we knew it wasn't a fish but making that jump and making that transition That's a growing thing that we can use $100,000 on him. He was like you use it one month out The I mean so again, let's roll the dice and so we fortunately when you append a paper it though You know you said you were getting 65 Um 65 tons.
Thank you and now you're getting double double that When you think about that wasting like you said the muskadines are your bread and butter so to speak So we did it obviously seeing his machine work It's a machine just like we thank goodness for ag enhancement that helped by that machine with us And so but is designed to pick muskadines it is wider it is longer it feels on the fly So it takes 20 minutes to pick 1281 feet now where opposed to it took over it took over So the efficiency I can pick faster than the laundry can take now So now that's so that's so that's now that's a hold up. I can only take 20 time every second day And we have actually have a meeting about that the call your wine group up in pigeon forts are fantastic for Tennessee wine for Tennessee Vingers they want Tennessee fruit they I will say it again if it wasn't for them They want Tennessee fruit now. We got some great wineries across the state But call your wine group is dogmatic on taking Tennessee I love that too. That's so good.
And the thing that we do here at Salt Lake Nox I want to give the best quality fruit that we can give now We've had some heartaches headaches and blood shed and tears rolling down your eyes because we have dumped some fruit that I felt It was sub-power, but I think that's the reason where we are today is because we did that early I had some fruit that was going over to middle Tennessee I called the winemakers shot in pictures and said look man, I just don't feel good about this He needed the fruit he needed to make production, but I said man this is not good fruit I would sell us to my grandma So by doing that I said I said you don't need to really need it But if I can get up, I mean I'm gonna drive four and a half hours to you you're gonna look at it You're gonna say man, this is horrible. Jamie why'd you even bring this to me? So I said so we made a call I said look it was over three times I dumped it in the garden at the time you talk about crying I cried like a baby I thought man, this is we're about to fold up You know, but I think that it's set the difference because we're gonna take you the cream of the crop You like grape wine with grapefruit you make great jelly with grapefruit. So that's how it works.
You were building that reputation and it's important I know what else I was looking at Megan trying to remember my time. I thought I'm tailing it You're a wealth of information and I just was sitting here and I decided that JD and Jonathan are gonna go on the road with us Forever all podcast because I just think they have been fantastic. Well JD's only available after harvest He's got a little over between now and the end of the harvest is September and October, right? See I was here today.
We do start you pick up us here's the thing some people Timing wise some fruit comes wrapper. So the very people start calling first a September I said yeah We love to have you and you will be open this week whatever the day is of the first First day in September will be open but it's kind of like on the Easter egg You might have a right one here, but you might have to go over you know But as the weeks go on the better that gets now for me going to the winery. I want to cream the crop I want the hybrid value we start testing bricks. We start looking at them were 15 were 17 were 18 We're not too So we start then we'll make a call on what variety's going where we in who now so we first started to be sold to Two places now we're selling to about four Potentially five so I mean it's really expanded it's taking us a while our state organization Tennessee Farm and Wine Alliance You said on the board for that for a couple years great It's just like a co-op of knowledge of wineries and vineyards kind of coming together because we've got some hurdles in Tennessee That's across with alcohol and and and for us.
It's not about the line is here. Here it is. Here's bottom line We pick the fruit we can preserve it. I can put it on the shelf so I can be open 12 months out of the year So I have to come here and people will not drive off nine miles off the interstate about Georgia They just won't do it right but they will drive nine miles off the interstate and we've got the lossy We've got bit and we've got you know sweet water valley farms We've got a gazina places to see right here and we got to get them off the road to do that And so we've gone from no billboards now.
We have no boards now We you know so but that is the main thing I take a perishable product What's it you do with me because the dairy guys would love it if you could figure out how to preserve that like we do here But they do make some bucks as some you know Anyway, that's not know that I Now have a question to ask though I mean that was the thing they were growing their own products They were doing something but they had something to preserve it so they could go back and visit December Yeah, January February when everything was still dormant until it until spring came out so you can start back again So that's the whole process of why we put mine in the bottle. That's exactly the story We want to tell yeah, we talked about city spells sitting on the portion We want to talk about East Tennessee Apple active the great food and products that can what makes it special and that's exactly and why why did it why did it? You know like you said my scones were native here They grow here. Well, why did we need to figure out a way to keep them?
It's like we walk like hey you need to come to Like you said this area right here is a hotbed culinary hotbed It really is like what Jay Jay just said it was funny He just literally ran through our podcast Because we've done element means smoking out a tramp we've done we're here now and y'all we want to mail you a couple We have sweet water belly in a couple of weeks, but you know he keeps saying drive what? Nine miles off the interstate or whatever the view alone I mean I would drive off the now that I know I felt like I've been sleeping on this place I didn't realize you know, even if you don't want to come and get a get one or get musketons even though I'm going to pick my scones Just come in and see in the whole the whole place. It is really really beautiful Place we need to thank you Jay Jay Jay for all your work, you know ensuring that we have this great crop and you know If you're not involved in agriculture or this industry, you don't realize all the work that goes in this It's not just one day we pop up So hey, we want to make some wine or make some less than juice So there's a ton of work and a ton of people that are supporting you and helping you and and you know The our woods and all your farm family community down here that help support all the work that you do But we really need to thank you for all that and all of our farmers You know they provide all this great wonderful food for us so we can go off and do podcast and do whatever it is We do during the day just enjoying our food at the dinner table People because people don't understand I don't think you know We are very fortunate to live where we live so as we have so many gardens and we have so many opportunities to see Farms in action, but I know in the big city The bigger cities they don't ever see and a lot of cow food comes from the grocery store and there is a disconnect And people don't always understand the work that goes into farming and the process that is into it This is a random side side story, but I was at an event a farm day one time and there were some kids They're from Memphis. This is part of Tennessee, but barely right I mean, it's a different atmosphere and they had never seen chickens or pigs or they were so amazed at the cows in the chickens And the pigs because they had never seen them in real life before That's exactly right.
So here's a great thing that we got to do a few years ago Obviously we used to right here from this farm. I've got three Well, not more than that, but three I've got a goat farm Let it makes goat products with our musk and I'm juice and I've got the dairy farm that I refer to as our wood And we used to have a school group come from Chattanooga every summer and they had like I don't know if it was a STEM program or I'm not for sure, but she originally graduated from Madisonville High School graduated Carson Carson so she originally from here she would bring her class She was the principal of that school and in the summer time So we would get the goat farm baby bring it up baby goat and talk about goat Blame would bring a baby calf and talk about a cow and talk about the production and then we would talk about musk and All the world agriculture were all shooting I don't have to feed any animals and I'm not as as they are But it's just a different mode and to be able to see three different types of agriculture in one place It was amazing to look at their faces and their chins would and they were their mouths would literally drop But they were filling this with Go pros and so that what they had to do is they had groups they had to see what they and then they presented at the end of the thing But so here you take technology to somebody like us and you're talking go pro we're looking at them like so we're at all what they're doing Because they're recording with this camera that's like this, you know We got a camera that's like this can't even fit in the room, but they're teaching us and we're teaching them That's the cool thing about that I mean what a heck of a circle that was to be able to watch that and for them to look at a cow or look at a goat and be like It was amazing now. We have not been able to do that in the last couple years, but just it's just amazing Yeah, and I feel like a just tastes better when it's local Hey, you know the story behind it. I'm like oh man, it just it means more like I don't know how to explain that Hey, this is from right down the road.
This you know you put an aim to it. You're like this came from JD So I'm a Jd musk That's true I have to agree it does taste better We do know where it's coming from and then not to mention all the economic benefit of that, you know Supporting local people providing local jobs Jd's got several people he mentioned, you know that works here and This is just like a map of auto parts store in our county You know, it's a business itself and that economy the economics part of it is a really important to our community and our culture and And our well-being our food safety part, you know, we got a lot of little small farms We're a lot safer than having one great big hot huge farm, you know But just a great place to visit is the address again JD is 162 Harrison Road Madison, Bill Tennessee And your GPS your iPhone or whatever you're right to the front gate and just a great place to visit There's a ton of people that come here and just make pictures. I've seen I don't know how many people walk in past So we do we're the backdrop we used to be the backdrop of probably about 175 photographers And then I'm trying to figure out how to make that work for the both those Getting pictures from them to help promote what we do unfortunately that didn't work out well because the pictures they were taking although They were awesome. It's just not something I could use as a It's a kind of publication to help so long story short now.
We have a photo policy and a fee for that And so that's ongoing kind of deal. We probably have a hundred now It's I mean it's less prom season was upon us. So we had started out with cross Creek They had prom night. They had probably two dozen three dozen people We had or see mex County was next then we had some boya then we had sweet water So last weekend we had McNend Central, but we probably had three or four hundred people here It's crazy.
Well, I truly appreciate you taking time today and talking to us. I have really really enjoyed it Megan and I we have had we laugh because we're like this is so fun Like we're so excited and it's so fun because we just love hearing about how things work how things grow You know the whole process and you have just been awesome. I'm telling you're going on the road with us You and John at the boat John the nary John. I have a hook up.
Well, I appreciate JD too I have never asked him and I had brought tons of groups over here We've done everything I wanted wagging tours of the vineyard and just whatever it is JD is always accommodated me And I can never pay you back for that I got a tab for you Working that down, but you know I appreciate that relationship we have and it's just a whole win for our whole Community really it is a great little jewel here among the foothills. It really is. We really appreciate you JD Is it okay if we take some pictures and stuff around is that allowed? And you can go on to on Instagram We're actually called facts of life at AC s a lot family and consumer scientists And then you'll find a city spell on Facebook So kind of see what we're talking about and then we all really come see come visit We always try to do some kind of short video pictures of our podcast because we want everybody to be able to see As well as here because I just think that really helps when you see how beautiful and you're after hearing everything You say they're gonna be like I've got to go I have to I appreciate you guys thinking of us.
I'll also eat Jonathan. I appreciate him because he you know Some of these things we wouldn't know about and be able to help spread the word because we're so kind of focused here to I'm a little anal probably in a few ways I like things to be a certain way so we need to spend a lot more time here to farm and not able to get out and do You know we do some wine trails, Tennessee wines is a great place to look up. I think it's Tennessee wines.com. We've got a upcoming It's in China Tennessee and Chattanooga and all that stuff was shut down my code But I mean a lot of times we're not able to get out here Jonathan's out there doing what he does You guys are doing what you do so you guys can think of and that would be a great fit for us And you you guys want to thank y'all because y'all don't get the word out for us because we're kind of total vision here on the farm We got we got a moe.
We got to get this. We got to prove this So I appreciate y'all for what y'all making and I are pretty passionate about Agriculture and about family consumer sciences and just crossing those lines and showing how they work together and how they're in our Woven and I think this was just perfect a bit of more perfect example of agriculture and family consumer sciences together Well, we appreciate you. So I think that's gonna wrap us up today Just down the road just water valley for us. So look us up Try to create a new wine trail.
We had a wine trail going on that it was too far. It was about three and a half hours So that's really too far. So we were working on this and in the pandemic. Yeah, but we're hopefully 2022 we'll get it together.
It won't be the foot heels wine and cider trail be the foot heels wine and cheese People be following our footsteps because you literally can follow in our Say you said you get focused on mowing us a seat. We just can't leave we just keep talking I'm sorry You get focused on your you know what you're doing, but you were recommended to us It was so funny when we were talking about well, you know, well We're gonna do these podcast number one Jonathan Ray's like I know who you need to talk to You go to this one and then our assistant I have a place for y'all to go to see a visit here and said well, we already have that scheduled Dr. Janet Fox so she's being in Louisiana the past I can't remember how many years But when they moved to Tennessee to when she accepted this position and they moved to Tennessee She's checking out all the local you know local attractions and local areas and doing different things and she was like I know where I mean she came to us. She was like, I know where you need the podcast I don't know how long ago it was I can't remember it was it's been within the past few months that she's visited But yeah, she so you're out there man We really appreciate you tuning into our next episode where we'll be at sweet water valley farms and look us up on Facebook and the Graham until next time