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Company recycles 96 percent of waste
By Mary Beth Breckenridge
Beacon Journal
Published on Saturday, Jul 05, 2008
Some especially tasty produce spurred Fetzer Vineyards into becoming a leader in organic and sustainable agriculture.
Some years ago, the winemaking Fetzer family added a kitchen where customers could taste pairings of foods and wines, and it created a 5-acre garden to grow produce for the kitchen. The gardener they hired was an expert in organic gardening, and the Fetzer folks couldn't help but notice that the crops he harvested were unusually delicious.
Then they got to thinking: If those techniques grow better veggies, wouldn't they grow better grapes to produce better wine?
And so a new approach to grape production was born.
Fetzer has focused on organic production — and more broadly, on environmental and social responsibility — since the late 1980s, said Ann Thrupp, its director of sustainability. ''We have been pioneers in using sustainable practices. . . . We're known for being good stewards of the earth.''
Thrupp brought that message to the Cleveland Wine Festival last weekend as part of Fetzer's Eco Tour, an effort to encourage gardeners to apply the company's green techniques in their own homes and backyards.
Fetzer's practices, of course, are more extensive than what most homeowners would adapt. For example, the company recycles 96 percent of its waste, has solar panels on its administration building in Mendocino County, Calif., and buys additional power from a company that supplies electricity generated only from renewable resources.
Nevertheless, some of its eco-friendly methods are fairly easy to put into practice. Here are some that Thrupp and Fetzer recommend:
• Feed the soil by planting cover crops, which are mowed or tilled into the ground when they finish growing. Such crops also help Fetzer bring a diversity of plants into the vineyard, which helps to attract beneficial insects and pollinators while staving off pests and diseases.
• Plant marigolds, chrysanthemums, dahlias or clematis vines in your garden. Their aroma attracts beneficial insects and repels those you don't want. Interspersing onions or garlic in a vegetable or flower garden has a similar repellant effect.
• Add nasturtiums as a ''trap crop'' to attract aphids away from other plants you want to protect. You can pull out the nasturtiums when the infestation is high.
• Put up a birdbath or birdhouse to attract songbirds. The birds will eat undesirable insects such as cutworms and beetles.
• Spray pests such as aphids and ants with soapy water rather than chemicals.
• Bait snails and slugs by putting beer in a small plastic container and burying it in the garden so the top is close to ground level. The beer will attract the critters, which will fall into the container.
• If your house has ants, repel them by placing cucumber peels near the place where they enter.
• Use catnip to repel cockroaches. You may, however, find yourself attracting cats.
Mary Beth Breckenridge can be reached at 330-996-3756 or mbrecken@thebeaconjournal.com.
Some especially tasty produce spurred Fetzer Vineyards into becoming a leader in organic and sustainable agriculture.
Get the full article here.
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