Suttons Bay-based estate winery and vineyard, Shady Lane Cellars, recently earned a competitive, national farming grant from the Sustainable Agriculture Research and Education, or SARE.
The grant provides more than $11,000 in research funding, enabling the team at Shady Lane Cellars to conduct trials with new sustainable soft pesticides on 10 acres of the property. Vineyard and Facilities Manager Andy Fles of Shady Lane Cellars submitted the grant application in December 2023. The funded project begins this month.
“A primary objective is to reduce the impacts of pesticides in the vineyard ecosystem, the surrounding environment and on the vineyard workers,” Fles wrote in his application. “Another objective is to investigate more effective products for bunch rots, thus allowing for greater yield and increased quality parameters. We are also seeking to grow grapes with less chemical residues at time of harvest.”
