Vineyard opens winery

Cambria, Minn. — Wine connoisseurs alert: Morgan Creek Vineyards opened its winery and offered its first vintages in May. Owners Georg and Paula Marti have produced about 2,000 gallons of French, German and American-style wines from their one-acre vineyard near New Ulm.

The state’s newest vineyard is already the fourth largest grape winery in the state. The Martis offer five distinct wines: Redtail Ridge, a semi-dry red, and Riesling, Gewürztraminer, Delaware and Morgan Creek Myst, all white wines.

Minnesota has a good climate for grapes — the Minnesota Grape Growers Association estimates the state’s commercial vineyards cover 100 acres. But harsh winters have slowed the development of a commercial grape industry and make for extra work for growers. Every fall the Martis and their four children pull vines off the trellises and bury them to prevent damage from winter cold.

Extra work hasn’t deterred them from realizing their dream, however. “We’ve worked six years for this opening,” Paula says. “It’s very exciting, and yet feels so familiar because we’ve imagined the winery in our minds for a long time.”

For more information, write to Morgan Creek Vineyards, Rt. 2 Box 214A, New Ulm, MN 56073 or email to: martiMCV@AOL.com.

Pursuing poultry power

Litchfield, Minn. — Central Minnesota growers are working with a British company to build a $70 million electricity plant fueled by turkey manure. The proposed facility would burn half a million tons of turkey litter a year, generating enough electricity to supply a community of 67,000.

The project began last fall when Litchfield turkey farmer Greg Langmo contacted Fibrowatt, a London energy company that has commercialized technology for making electricity from waste. The eight-year-old company operates three poultry waste-fired power plants in England.

Last October, Fibrowatt officials visited Minnesota to survey the state’s turkey industry, which produced 46 million birds in 1997. Early this year, six central Minnesota counties formed a coalition to promote the venture. More than a dozen communities, including Litchfield, Willmar, Benson and Melrose, have expressed interest in a power plant.

In May, the Minnesota Legislature designated $200,000 to help develop turkey manure-fired electricity. This summer, state and local delegations will visit Fibrowatt plants in Thetford and two other British communities.
The project likely will need both state and federal energy subsidies to go forward, Langmo says. Supporters are seeking to add turkey litter to the list of state-approved renewable fuels, making waste-fired power plants eligible for a 1.5 cent per kilowatt payment annually. A further 1.7 cent subsidy is proposed in the Poultry Electric Energy Power bill now before Congress.

Burning turkey waste for energy would help solve a growing manure disposal problem, says Jack Johnson, AURI’s waste utilization specialist who is providing technical assistance to the project. Odors and fears of water pollution from stockpiled turkey manure are raising environmental concerns and public criticism, Johnson says.

Langmo agrees: “The counties are saying to turkey growers, ‘solve this manure problem.’ Burning turkey waste for electricity would provide a perfect closed-loop bio-mass system. ... We want to be good environmental citizens.”

B20 gets a boost

Medina, Minn. — Federal, state and county government and agriculture officials were on hand April 16 for a national biodiesel kickoff in Medina. Winter testing of biodiesel in Hennepin County road maintenance vehicles yielded positive results The tests were sponsored by AURI, the Minnesota Soybean Research and Promotion Council and the Legislative Commission on Minnesota Resources.

Hennepin County is one of the first governmental bodies to utilize biodiesel in its fleet. A change in the federal classification of B20, a blend of 20 percent soy-based fuel and 80 percent diesel fuel, has qualified it for Energy Policy Act credits. EPACT credits are granted to state and federal governments using alternative fuels in their fleet vehicles.