Solitude Springs Farm & Vineyard

09/04/2026

The vineyard made it through the frosty morning just fine. Now a couple more weeks of decent weather would be nice.

08/14/2026

We installed another section of 6 ft high top wire to accommodate a few larger vines. Toward the left side is ES 9-7-48, with one vine over 6 ft and another just under. On the right side of the picture is Skujins 675 coming in at 7.5 ft. (now growing along the top wire) and to its left is Trollhaugen (just below the top wire). Next year there should be more reaching that wire if we can supply the amount of water they need. And to think that until last year we thought we’d never have to put up a trellis. 🤔

08/12/2026

Aren’t they just so cute??? Grapes are enlarging on 10 of the 12 cultivars that bloomed last month. With the extended warmth, we’re still excited to see if anything is edible by the end of September. That is, barring premature consumption by any of the myriad of critters that appear to enjoy exotic (to Fairbanks) fruit and plants.

07/24/2026

This week’s flower harvest…Sweet William, delphinium, and campanula. Our second week of blooms and they just keep coming! All over-winter easily at the farm.

06/29/2026

Well, so much for a "heavy rain event." Looks like we got chinooked out, receiving only 0.06 inch of rain. No worries...the vines are loving the weather. We'll just have to water once more. Good thing we hauled in water before all that rain made the road soggy - psych!
Today is fence day. Snowshoe hares are in the vineyard already. We'll see what we can do. Losing all the foliage mid-season doesn't lend itself to productive experiments.

06/28/2026

More Vinifera Chronicles: We have flower buds! And then the hares appeared 😪. Turns out our transplanted Gewürztraminer has a small flower cluster on it (that formed here last summer). Yeah! But the hares mowed off the top 1/2 of its shoots. Boo. It is protected now.
That means our Gewurztraminer clone has adequate soil and air temperatures in the summer and enough protection in the winter. The final stretch (and it will be a stretch) is will it ripen sufficiently to be edible?

06/26/2026

The farm is being INVADED by honeyberries! Seedlings are slowly establishing an understory. A tasty, but unexpected outcome. Likely crosses between Blue Bell and either Tundra or Borealis.

06/14/2026

Catching up on vineyard work...and playing with Vitis vinifera (again).

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After testing this vine for over 5 years, we decided to move it fro...

06/12/2026

A new discovery on the farm!

06/11/2026

A few things are blooming around the farm: honeyberries and leopard’s bane (Doronicum ‘Little Leo’). Coming soon will be apples, serviceberries (saskatoons), aronia, ‘North Country’ blueberries, and a taller version of leopard’s bane.
We stumbled on leopard’s bane by accident during a shopping spree at Lowe’s. It is the first non-native flower to bloom on the farm and is attractive to pollinators. In the interest of cut flowers, we went seed shopping for a taller version. Out of the 50 seeds we received, one sprouted. Turns out the germination instructions were the opposite of what it needs. Nevertheless, leopard’s bane loves the farm and is multiplying rapidly.