Crabcakes and Vineyards

Old Field vineyard, North Fork Long Island.

Merlot grapes, ready for harvest

Perry Baiz

One of the reasons for this blog is to try and remember where i have been and what i have seen, not just for when my memory packs up completely, but also so when the dreaded report writing begins i will be half way there. As I am doing my travel in short trips I have left myself very little time for anything and only managed to get some thoughts down thanks to Greyhound timetables. After a hectic few days, plans for a kayak trip on the Deleware have been abandoned due to rain which means no excuses not to blog.
As a not often travelled country girl i started my trip to the USA by visiting my cousin, Sarah and hubbie, Joe, in Great Neck, Long island New York. After surprising myself by not getting lost travelling from Newark my first weekend was spent being looked after with great hospitality.
North Fork Long Island used to be an area that grow lots of potatoes and cauliflowers for New York, but back in 1973 the first Vines were planted and now a thriving wine industry exists with mostly direct sales to the many tourists that visit each winery to have a $4 tasting and buying for home. Not just a few tourist were out when we visited, but crowds that included families, couples and bizarrely stretch limos full of Hen parties, certainly agritourism that seemed a great success.
Starting out early and driving to the furthest winery on the fork we had a great private tour with Perry Baiz, who with her mother and father farm The Old Field Vineyard
Old field had been purchased by Perry's great Grandfather and her father planted the first vines in 1974 and since 1997 all 12 acres have been vines, 95% of what they produce is sold direct from the farm. Perry and her mother make most of the wine, but they use the facilities at a more modern vineyard to make some and buy the grapes in to make the whites. Pretty much everything was manual, except for netting the grapes with a nifty machine mounted on the tractor. Great emphasis was placed on sustainability and this seemed to be something that was important in the marketing. When pressed why not organic, the risk of crop failure due to mildew and fungal diseases was thought to be the main reason, followed by the cost of registration and inspection. Perry had opted to study Environmental Biology before returning to the farm and found the UK's system of Agricultural education something that she would have been interested in if it was available in the states. Her Brother had decided not to farm and was a stunt man in Hollywood, however he came back each year to harvest the grapes. I'm not sure if his stunts had led to the other farm diversification that included the setting for film that is out soon starring Katie Holmes called the Romantics and it really is in a stunning place. If you love the views and want to have your wedding there you can hire the garden only and beautiful beach for $10,000.00 but bring your own tent, caters, potapotty and insurance. For the inconvenience of 6 weekends a year it suddenly is viable to farm on 12 acres and that is the beauty of being so close to such a huge number of people. But still Perry wished for the investment to put in a new barn with modern equipment and was envious of the city types that had bought neighbouring vineyards as hobbies and tax avoidance, have you heard that before? Maybe a few more films may make her wish come true, i hope so!

New wine barn on neighbours vineyard

And the crabcakes, nothing to do with the farm but that was our lunch in the lovely village of Greenport, where you could watch the Americans at play and see some stunning sailing boats and large speedboats.

Greenport Long Island

Blogging on a Circle

So this is easton circle, the major tourist attraction in Easton and where they hold a farmers market since 1760's or something like, but not on a Monday. Monday is also the day the Crayola crayon attraction is closed, so's the canal museum and pretty much that's it. So while away the time i'm using Macdonalds wifi and not buying anything by sitting on a roundabout with a very nice fountain and weird music from hidden speakers. I'm quite glad i'm not staying longer than 6 hours. I've now been on the Pittsburg greyhound and i should have guessed when the driver said that noone gets off at Easton that it might be a little quiet. To while away the time, in good Nuffield style, i went to the town offices and found the lady in charge of the Easton Farmers market. A lot of thought and effort goes into the market and she assures me that they are thriving (unlike the UK where sales are definately down.) One of the things that helps is that they accept food stamps, as well as supplying a credit card machine for the stall holders to use. It is most definately not a well off area 19% below the poverty line) and not a particularly large town (2008 estimate was 26,080) but i was told that the market supported 28 traders, although they were looking for a new poultry supplier (bit far for Higher Fingle especially by greyhound)!) market pitches were $125 for the season that run each Saturday from May through to October, so by UK standards pretty reasonable which mean that the farmers can charge a reasonable price for their produce.
Things here get weirder as i'm joined on the roundabout by someone else using Macdonalds wifi and who is determined to tell me the history of Easton. I think that's a cue to escape as We get on to the reverse flag at the reading of the Declaration of Independance and the address of the local prison. Hopefully my bus will be here soon and I get to Stroudsburg before dark, but if anyone tells me that no one goes there I will believe them!