Eco friendly, cold-hardy, Katuah Muscadine™ & Katuah Scuppernong™ grapes for the Mountains

HighlandLabelnative cold-hardy Muscadine BRNSeal

The first BRN Seal approved Mountain Vineyard                                    

  

 

 

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Muscadine leaves

 


cold-hardy Muscadine

 


Muscadine pie

 


like Muscadine

 


native cold-hardy grape

 


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wine etiquette book

Home of the famous cold-hardy, native
KatuahMuscadineLogo

Jewel of the Blue Ridge Vineyard
specializes in propagating and growing Eco-friendly native, cold-hardy Katuah Muscadine™ grapes (see our registered Katuah Muscadine voucher 2014 here) and cold-hardy Scuppernong grapes bred here in our vineyard (see our registered Katuah Scuppernong voucher 2019 here using natural & biodynamic methods. These special grapes make a great steep slope, cold-hardy crop that can be grown naturally, organically, or biodynamically from which important phytochemicals can be derived for the neutraceutical industry as well as other traditional grapeproducts. Our small vineyard is slowly expanding as a teaching vineyard and offers visitors to our mountains a heritage experience with grapes. Here is the story of how we came to grow these special grapes (note that it will take several minutes for the videos to load):

A TED Talk in 2011: The Story of the Cold-hardy Katuah Muscadine

And another TED Talk:
A TED Talk in 2014: Using Viticulture as an Engine for Economic Growth in the Mountains

Chuck's interview about the vineyard:
Video made in 2015 by Samuel Shumate about the Jewel of the Blue Ridge Vineyard


Farm/Vineyard Tours

Our farm tours are available from May 15 until October 15 each year. Jewel of the Blue Ridge Vineyard is a small steep-slope teaching vineyard planted with native, cold-hardy Katuah Muscadine™ and Katuah Scuppernong grapevines. We have heritage apples, plum, cherry, fig, and peach trees on our farm. We also have Aronia Berry, cold-hardy Kiwis and Buffalo Berry bushes growing here. The views from our 2100' mountain-top vineyard are among the best in the county. On your tour you will get to see our 10' x 40' walapini where the cold-hardy Katuah Muscadine and Katuah Scuppernong grapevines are propagated and wintered over for planting in the Spring. You will see our 100 year old barn, our Scottish Highland cows and calves, our donkies, and our chickens (kids can collect eggs if you are early enough in the day). During season you can also taste our grapes and real muscadine juice, buy some of our Scottish Highland beef, Jeannie's Muscadine Grape-hull Preserves, or our farm-made tobacco stick art items.

Click the "Buy Now" button below to pay for your 1-hour farm/vineyard tour - $20 per adult, kids under 12 free. Then call us 828-606-3130 to coordinate your visit time that is mutually acceptable.

Number of adults in group
Your Telephone Number

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Sustainable Viticulture for our Mountains
Growing our cold-hardy Katuah Muscadine and Scuppernong grapes with a minimum impact on the land is a high  priority for us. We have 30 years experience in  growing  grapes naturally/organically/biodynamically. The result is grapes that taste better and make  better wine. And you can get top dollar from neutraceutical companies who want chemical-free grapes for their phytochemical content used for illness prevention and treatment. Experience has shown that the initial cost to grow grapes naturally/organically/biodynamically may be slightly higher than growing grapes traditionally but you can get a premium price for good grapes grown sustainably. As we move into 2018 we continue our transition to biodynamic viticulture. Our chickens and donkies are now joined by our Scottish Highland cows who will contribute the main ingredient for making horn manure - a key preparation for biodynamic farming. Go to this page if you want to learn more about viticulture n hte mountains and biodynamic viticulture: BiodynamicViticulture
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Katuah Muscadine grapevine starts for sale
We now have the native, cold-hardy Katuah Muscadine grapevine starts for sale (see the cold-hardy temperature profile here). Minimum order is 10 plants. No deliveries. Customers must pickup at our greenhouse during season. Availability is dependent upon order backlog and rate of propagation. Please click on the buttons below to order your red Katuah Muscadine grapevine starts. Next available plants will be in May 2019.

Number of Katuah Muscadine vines you need
Your Telephone Number
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Podcasts of the Mountain Grapevine radio show on 95.5 FM and 24/7 wART radio at www.wARTfm.org.
Chuck wass the radio show host where he interviewed winemakers and grapegrowers around the state of North Carolina, and other places too. Here is the link to view list of podcasts of the radio show:
wART "Mountain Grapevine" Radio Program Archive

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Appalachian Tobacco Stick Items for the Kitchen

Chuck has created Appalachian Napkin Rings, Appalachian Cutting Boards, Appalachian Rolling Pins and the Appalachian Butter Knife, all crafted from from old tobacco sticks found in many of Madison County's old Burley tobacco barns. Here you can purchase useful tobacco stick items - Useful art with history!
Ordering details

 

2020 On-Line Mountain Living Skills Registration

Classes/workshops are cancelled at our farm classroom beacuse of the CoVid-19 virus concern.

Watch here to see when classes resume.

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July 2020 around our Vineyard

Our newest Scottish Highland calf, Rosie, born July 29, 2020

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April 2020 around our Vineyard

Pic of SBJB

Dennis Goodwin and Adam Coulter planting Carlos Muscadine grapevines in our NCSU test plot during the Mountain Grape School "Planting Workshop"

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October 2019 around our Vineyard

Pic of SBJB

Chuck & Jeannie were featured in an article in Carolina Home & Garden Fall 2019 issue.
The preview is here: Publisher's Note
Read the full article here: Carolina Home & Garden Magazine Article

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May 2019 around our Vineyard

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Our new vineyard sign after the wind storm in March destroyed the old one.

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March 2019 around our Vineyard

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Kutlet is the newest member of our Scottish Highland family on our farm.
He was born March 28, 2019

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February 2019 around our Vineyard (not really)

FWgala

The NC Fine Wines Society Gala in Winston-Salem on
February 16th gave Chuck & Jeannie
a chance to get away from the vineyard for a while.
Also seated at the table is Elaine Ryan and her hubby,
Peter, also members of the French Broad Vignerons.
The dinner was a delcious 7- course dinner paired with fine NC wines.

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December 2018 around our Vineyard

KatuahSign2KatushSign

Added a few signs to help visitors remember the names of our grapes and cows!

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October 2018 around our Vineyard

walapini
Dr. Mark Hoffman (Small Fruits Extension Specialist from NCSU in Raleigh,
his Masters candidate student, Xiaonan from China,
and Dennis Goodwin (Board member of the NC Muscadine Grape
Association) visited Jewel of the Blue Ridge Vineyard
to collect yield data for the Katuah Muscadines.
Chuck attended the special December meeting mentioned in the article.

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August 2018 around our Vineyard

walapini
Chuck taught a "Mountain Living Skills" class on Knife & Axe Throwing.
WLOS Channel 13 TV was on hand to document some of his throwing techniques.
Here is the link to the TV spot: WLOS TV spot

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July 2018 around our Vineyard

walapini
Started building our walapini this month to winter over our
Katuah Muscadines and Scuppernong grapevine starts.
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June 2018 around our Vineyard

Temp profile
Finally have some temperature data confirming the cold-hardiness
of our Katuch Muscadine and Katuah Scuppernong grapes.
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May 2018 around our Vineyard

JeanniePreserves
D'Vine Foods delivered our first commercially made batch of
Jeannie's Muscadine Grape-Hull Preserves May 1, 2018!
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April 2018 around our Vineyard

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Our newest Scottish Highland family member,
Sandy Hamburger II, born April 12, 2018
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March 2018 around our Vineyard

JeanniePreserves
This is part of the first 350 Katuah Muscadine to be wintered over in
our greehouse so they can be planted early in Spring to improve
winter kill survivability in the mountains. Not easy!
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January 2018 around our Vineyard

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Jeannie supervising her recipe at D'Vine Foods as they make the first
batch of Jeannie's Muscadine Grape-Hull Preserves on January 18, 2018.
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Our Scottish Highland cows having breakfast at 12F on January 17th.

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November 2017 around our Vineyard

coldscups
Chuck Set up and moderated a video conference with Fermentation
Festival attendees in the Madison County Copperative Extension Office
and Dr. Fred Breidt, Fermentation Specialist from NCSU in Raleigh NC.
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September 2017 in our Vineyard

coldscups
Chuck is all smiles with his first scuppernong crop. It took him 5 years
of special breeding to develop the first self-pollinating,
cold-hardy scuppernong he named the Katuah Scuppernong.

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May 2017 in our Vineyard

MayinVineyard
It's May! All the Katuah Muscadine & Katuah Scuppernong
vines are pruned and pushing leaves.

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April 2017 around our vineyard/farm

Dogwoods
It's Spring! Dogwoods are blooming all over the farm.

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March 2017 in the pastures

Paddy    Jenny
Our newest Scottish Highland calves -
Left is Paddy O'Beef, born September 28, 2016
and right is Jenny, born October 19, 2016

Rainbow
May showers over the vineyard 2016
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NewCalf2016
New Scottish Highland heffer calf born to Ros on March 23, 2016
we nicknamed her "Cutlet".
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Chuck & Jeannie were featured in the
February 2016 Citizens-Times newspaper article
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Chuck was master of Ceremonies for the
2015 International American Ginseng Expo at UNC Asheville.
Ed Fletcher - NCNPA Board Member on the right, with Sam Lundsford - a local star of the "Appalachian Outlaws" TV reality show - in the middle.
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PR
Our November 2015 newspaper article
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RosettesCalf
Our donkey, Oh Pear! and her first colt, Gabriel,
born March 25, 2015. He is so cute!
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Click here to see our Photo Gallery
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Click here to read the May 2017 Article in The Mountain Xpress,
"Get growing with WNC's grape guru"
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Click here to read the April 2017 Article in The Laurel of Asheville magazine, "Jewel of the Blue Ridge Vineyard - Living with Grapes"
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Click here to read the September 2014 article in WNC Magazine,
"Muscadine Mania"
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Jewel of the Blue Ridge Vineyard and our Katuah Muscadines were featured in 2001 "Place-Based Foods of Appalachia: From Rarity to Community Restoration and Market Recovery "
Click here to read the article on pages 8 & 9.

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CONTACT US

Grape Growing & Wine Making Information
e-Mail (replace (at) with @):
Chuck (at) JeweloftheBlueRidge.com
Telephone: 828-606-3130
Mailing address:
P.O. Box 4
Marshall NC 28753 USA
 

Plant Sales & Meat Sales Information
e-Mail (replace (at) with @):
Jeannie (at) JeweloftheBlueRidge.com
Telephone: 828-606-3130
Mailing address:
P.O. Box 4
Marshall NC 28753 USA


Jewel of the Blue Ridge Vineyard Consulting Services

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Useful links:

French Broad Vignerons

Jewel of the Blue Ridge Vineyard Consulting Services

Biodynamic Viticulture (preparations, planting calendar, rhythms)

Source of Biodynamic Preparations Earth Legacy Agriculture LLC

Winery Licensing Alternatives for North Carolina

©2019 Jewel of the Blue Ridge Vineyard