Smooglenuff Wine: The Vineyard

[Devin]

Continued from here.

Vhalar 15, Arc 721

“I’ve been thinking about where exactly we should plant the grapes”, Devin remarked as he walked through the front door of Smooglenuff Manor, Mrs. Adams, Miranda and the five trainees from Cally’s in tow. There was a wide smile on his face, and his tone of voice was extraordinary cheerful because he loved walking in front of a group of people and leading them and working on projects that would make the Barony (and him!) even more famous.

Being a baron, he decided, as he moved down the gravel-covered path, towards the garden, was awesome. In fact, he had never been so happy and content in his entire life!

“I think that we should plant the first batch of grapes inside the wall so that the local wildlife doesn’t eat them”, he decided and briefly furrowed his brow as he tried to remember if there actually were any wild animals that ate fruit on Faldrass. Scalvoris, he decided, was full of strange creatures. There were very likely some that wanted to do nothing more than to steal his grapes and eat them – or destroy them – among them.

Maybe there were even grape-stealing bandits!

“If we decide that we want more grapes, we can always create a second vineyard outside the wall next arc and put some sort of fence around it”, he continued and grinned as he pictured stalks upon stalks full of delicious grapes, as far as you could see. He would, he decided, establish the most famous vineyard in all of Idalos.

“There is a spot directly next to the garden where the grapes should be protected from the elements, but still get enough sunlight”, Miranda, the head maid, a small brown mouse cadouri that was also a gardener of some skill interjected in a somewhat shy tone of voice and added, “Grapes need a decent amount of sunlight.”

“Speaking of sunlight”, Devin remarked as he had just had a thought and abruptly plucked a couple of miniature sunflowers from a nearby flowerbed. He stuck one of them into his hair, next to the wine leaves because he really liked the color combination and handed the rest to the trainees. The pretty brown-haired woman giggled and blushed.

“Another gift, from me to my visitors”, he explained, grinned and bowed in a somewhat dramatic fashion.

“The volcanic soil of Faldrass is especially good for growing plants, as you can see”, Miranda said once everybody had been given a flower and gestured around the garden.

“So, it should likely be good for growing grapes as well”, Devin added and beamed at her.

“Exactly”, Miranda agreed, and her whiskers twitched a little.

[Devin]

“To-trial we will prepare the site, and tomorrow we’ll plant the grapes”, Miranda told the trainees and walked towards the garden shed which caused Devin to momentarily furrow his brow – because he had wanted to walk in front of the group. In the end, he contented himself with walking directly after the mouse cadouri who was much more relaxed and confident now though because she was the gardening expert. Leading occasionally meant letting someone else walk in front of you, and he really, really wanted to be a good leader. He did in fact want to be the best leader that Scalvoris had ever seen!

“Grapevines need some sort of support, so we’ll put that in place to-trial”, Miranda continued before she hesitated for a moment. “I’m not sure what the best support system for grapevines is, whether we should use a trellis or an arbor or stakes”, she admitted – while she was a relatively competent gardener, there were some things that she wasn’t sure about. “But a simple trellis works for other plants, so we’ll give that a try first”, she decided before she opened the door to the garden shed.

A few moments later, the group was gathered inside the small building. It was rather crowded in there, especially since there were already a lot of tools and bags of seeds and such inside. Some of the trainees eyed the tools with interest. The green-eyed man looked at Devin instead, and the brown-haired woman blushed and looked at the floor that was covered with somewhat rough-looking wooden boards as if she found it quite fascinating.

“I’d like everybody to take a shovel, a bucket, some wire and a hammer now”, Miranda instructed the trainees while Mrs. Adams just looked on. The cook didn’t know anything about gardening, but she was most interested. And besides, the Baron really reminded her of her son that was just slightly younger when she saw him like that, being all helpful and busy.

“Your Grace, could you take the bag with the poles for the trellises, please?” Miranda asked when Devin grabbed a shovel as well before she pointed at a rather heavy looking bag that stood in a corner of the shed. “I don’t think that I can carry it”, the small cadouri apologized before she grabbed a bucket as well as a bit of rolled- up wire.

Devin looked at Miranda, looked at the bag and looked back at Miranda before he abruptly handed her his shovel and lifted the bag. It was heavy and unwieldy, but he really liked feeling strong and powerful and helpful, and besides, he was doing all the work for the Barony. He planned on turning the Barony into the most amazing place on Idalos!

While Devin figured out the best way to carry the bag – in the end, he decided to let it hang over his shoulder – Mrs. Adams grabbed a shovel, a bucket, some wire and a hammer as well, and then they were finally off to the site of the future vineyard, in order to hit things with … other things!

[Devin]

“So, as I said, grapevines need a lot of sunlight”, Miranda told them when they arrived at their destination, briefly set her shovel down and knelt down in order to check the soil. “A bit of afternoon shade wouldn’t hurt though. Furthermore, the soil needs to be loose and deep which seems to be the case here”, she continued and nodded approvingly before she put on a pair of gloves and began pulling weeds.

At least Devin thought that she was pulling weeds. He wasn’t entirely sure what the difference between weeds and other plants was. They were all green, and some of them looked and smelled quite nice!

“We’ll need to remove the weeds and prepare the soil before we put the poles in place”, the little mouse cadouri said. Devin wondered if he should help with that or just watch before he abruptly pulled on a pair of very fancy, but sufficiently protective deep red leather gloves because everybody loved a leader who did some of the work himself. Before long, he was pulling and pulling and pulling and dumped the weeds into his bucket.

The trainees followed his example. Even Mrs. Adams knelt down and started pulling weeds. The head cook, Devin observed, seemed to enjoy it, judging by the calm look on her face.

After a while, the young man came to the decision that pulling weeeds wasn’t half bad. It was actually kind of … no, it was definitely not satisfying, not even a little bit, and he was just doing it for clout and such!

[Devin]

Once the soil had been prepared, Devin and the others didn’t immediately continue with the next step. Instead, they enjoyed a couple of (non-alcoholic) drinks and snacks that a servant had brought because everybody, including himself, deserved a little break in Devin’s opinion.

After their break, they prepared the soil further, and finally, the highlight of the trial came. “There needs to be a sufficient amount of space between the poles so that the vines have room to grow”, Miranda said, her whiskers twitching slightly, as she grabbed a hammer and put the first pole in place, with some effort. “It would be good if you could try to create straight lines. It doesn’t make a difference, but it looks nicer”, she said.

“How many grapes do you need for a bottle of wine, if you don’t mind me asking?” the man with the green eyes asked while he hit a stake with a hammer (everybody else was doing the same). He had asked Miranda, but the mouse cadouri looked at Mrs. Adams. Miranda had some skill in gardening, but she didn’t know how to make wine!

“It takes approximately one cluster of grapes to make a glass of wine”, the head cook replied and briefly looked up from her work. “One vine contains approximately thirty to fourty clusters. The standard size for wine bottles is 750 milliliters. So, I’d say that you need about four clusters”, she explained which caused Devin to smile all over his face.

“So, we should get a decent amount of wine out of this first batch of grapes”, he said as he pictured every restaurant on the island eventually serving Smooglenuff Wine to their guests.

“Provided that the grapes grow well, and the wine-making goes well, yes”, the cook agreed and inclined her head before she went back to work, as did everybody else – including Devin who dreamt of (even more) wealth and fame than he already had.

Preparing the site turned out to be a somewhat exhausting and time-consuming endeavor, despite the fact that some of the employees of Smooglenuff Manor, including Miranda’s brother Marvin who was an engineer, eventually joined them so that they would get things done a little faster.

Marvin was also there to make sure that the trellises were stable and fix what needed to be fixed.

After putting the poles in place and securing them, they had to attach the wires to the poles (Marvin had already prepared them beforehand; there were holes and little metal hooks for that purpose), and then they got even more poles and wires in order to create even more trellises!

It was already late in the trial when they had finally finished preparing the site of the first (small) vineyard of the Barony. As he had hinted at during lunch, Devin decided to celebrate that success with a much deserved and highly appropriate reward.

Everybody who had helped got to enjoy a glass of fine wine on one of the balconies of Smooglenuff Manor where they could see the garden – and the site of the future vineyard.

[Jackalope]

Experience: +10 xp

Knowledge:

Tier 1 Knowledges:

Gardening: Grapevines need sunlight
Gardening: Grapevines need support
Gardening: Grapevines need loose and deep soil
Gardening: Volcanic soil is good for growing plants
Gardening: Pulling weeds
Strength: Carrying a bag full of poles

Skillplay: Appropriate to level

Loot: None.
Injuries/Overstepping: None.
Renown: +10. Wine is still a ways away, but people will hear about this project and watch its progress eagerly!
Wealth Points:None.
Collaboration: no
Magic Experience?: no

Comments:

A fledgling vinyard. A pet goat. What could possibly go wrong?

When I was in the Army, I was stationed in deep, dark Rhine wine country for a year, so I can appreciate this. I can picture those poles sticking up in rows and rows and rows all over the hillsides.

This is a good description of the start of a vinyard, and hopefully, it doesn’t take too long for it to mature. Cheers!

Enjoy your rewards!