ORGANIC BASICS*
(UNDER CONSTRUCTION)
In our own lives we know that just being physically fit does not in itself guarantee overall health. You can work out day and night but if you're homeless, jobless, and your air and water are polluted your prospects for health is dismal; similarly, with the vine.

Do your farm workers have housing and healthcare? Are you using too much diesel fuel in your tractors? Are you contaminating the ground water? In short - if the environment of farming around the vine is not healthy, it will be difficult to maintain a healthy productive vineyard. This is the concept of sustainable farming. Reduce, reuse, recycle, renew, retain, and revere.

We sometimes think of our own health and the health of a vineyard as a three-legged pot. If personal health or organic growing is one leg and environmental health or sustainable farming is the second - what is the third? In our lives we know that to be truly healthy and happy we must eventually consider our spiritual health. Believe it or not this is also true of plants and indeed all-living organisms. Grapevines exist in a natural living stream that reflects from deep in their soil to the cosmos above.

Biodynamic farming, based on the philosophy of Rudolf Steiner, is one of the ways we are studying to learn more about the natural spiritual world of the living systems around us. Drawing on elements of homeopathy, using the natural cycles of the moon and planetary alignments and immersing ourselves in the deeper understanding of the farm as a living system can all lead to healthier vineyards. A pot that stands firmly on three legs.There are many reasons to incorporate the farming methods we collectively call "traditional farming" into the way we do business at Frog's Leap.

But by far the most important and most exciting to us is reflected in one word - quality. In the Tao it says "what is rooted is easy to nourish". We know that what is well nourished is also more flavorful, better balanced, and longer lived. Wine made from fruit that is more flavorful, better balanced and longer lived is exactly the same - wines that are deeply reflective of the soil and climate from where they come. Something to think about with your next glass.

Cover Crops
By caring for our soils, building their
organic fabric using composts and
cover crops, the soil literally comes
alive. The earth is well-prepared to
provide nutrients and minerals in a
balanced diet to the vines.

*Content temporarily borrowed from Frog's Leap