Page County Grown Farm Tour: Wisteria Farm and Vineyard

Wisteria's sign on Marksville Road.

Winemaking equipment.

Today’s post is the fifth in my series of six reprising the inaugural Page County Grown Farm Tour, which took place on Saturday, August 27, 2011. There were more than 40 folks who joined the tour despite hurricane Irene bearing down on the East Coast. We visited several of our local farms: Khimaira Farm, Skyline Premium Meats, Willow Grove Farm Market, Wisteria Farm and Vineyard, Paw Paw’s Honey, and Public House Produce. All of the posts on this topic include the label “2011 Farm Tour” at the end, so a simple click will pull them all up, including some posts I put up in advance of the tour, and the one I made about the Farm-to-Table Dinner.


As I mentioned in an earlier post, I had connected with my neighbors John and Nina at Skyline Premium Meats. While we proceeded to Willow Grove Farm Market and Public House Produce from there, we made a plan to visit Wisteria at the end because it is very close to where we all live. Due to some note taking issues I’ve moved up the post about our Wisteria stop to fifth, and will round out the series with a post on Public House on Friday.

Here’s the write-up on Wisteria from the farm tour program:

Patti (Patchwork Pastures) talks about the sheep to a guest.

"Wisteria is a local vineyard located near Stanley; it is also a working farm with a colorful flock of Romney sheep and free-ranging chickens. Wisteria’s current wine offerings include Pinot Gris, Chardonnay, Viognier, Traminette, Seyval, Merlot, and Norton, as well as a semi-sweet rose blend – Velvet, and a dessert wine – Sweet Daisy."

By the time the three of us arrived at Wisteria, many of our fellow tourists had already been there – and since we live nearby, we were familiar with some aspects of the operation. Winemaking equipment was on display – mainly the grape crushers that are used after the harvest to start the process.

I should note that Wisteria has an annual “stomp,” a celebration that includes a blessing of the vines, volunteer workers helping to harvest - and then, in a throwback to a beloved “I Love Lucy” episode, folks can climb into the vats and stomp the grapes with their bare feet! The event was originally scheduled for the same weekend as the Page County Grown Farm Tour, but they rescheduled it for the following weekend due to the storm. (They kept the time the same: 7am. Let’s just say Mary and I missed it again this year!)

Raw and washed wool from the Romney sheep.

Other farm goods at Wisteria.

In addition to the winemaking equipment, Sue had arranged to display some of the raw wool from the flock of Romney sheep they keep at the farm, along with some farther along in the process of being spun and then woven. The Wisteria crew was joined at their farm by Patti, whose Patchwork Pastures is also one of the Page County Grown family farms. One of the photos has Patti talking to another farm tourist about the Romney flock.

The plums Nina picked and shared.

Acoustic Thunder provided accompani - accompani - music.

There were two more treats in store for us at Wisteria. The farm has a wide variety of fruit trees planted all over it, and Nina knew where there were some plums just ripening – I have a photo of them, highlighting their beautiful color. The second treat: while we were there, Mokey and Hector of Acoustic Thunder were preparing for a “Music under the Arbor” event, so we had musical accompaniment!

The final post in the 2011 Farm Tour series will be about Public House Produce, and it will appear Friday morning.