Grape-picking season brings households to Ever After Farms

POMONA PARK, Fla. — The grapes are ripe — and it’s time to choose!

At the Ever After Farms Vineyard in Pomona Park, harvest season is underway, giving guests the possibility to seize a bag and decide recent grapes proper off the vine.

For households, grape choosing is about greater than bringing house a bit of recent fruit.

Nine-year-old Kash Cahoon says the plan is to show the grapes into one thing they will take pleasure in later.

“We’ll in all probability simply mash them down into jam and can freeze,” Kash mentioned.

And while you’re younger, there’s additionally a bit of pleasant competitors concerned.

The winery is a manicured panorama with the texture of a California orchard.

For 14-year-old Ambar Diaz, who’s homeschooled, a visit to the winery turned an academic discipline journey after she discovered about it on-line.

“There’s different kinds of grapes. There’s Dixie Reds over here, which are the ones used to make wine. The ones over there, I think they’re called Supreme. And they’re delicious. They’re wonderful,” Diaz mentioned. 

Darrell Thomason manages the 30-acre property, together with seven acres devoted to grapes.

While a number of varieties can develop in Florida, one grape is especially effectively suited to the state’s local weather.

“The muscadine grape is a southeastern grape that has been cultivated for this local weather,” Thomason mentioned. 

Jenny and Ralph Cahoon created the Ever After Vineyard expertise, combining their love of farming with a possibility for households to benefit from the open air.

Jenny says agriculture runs deep in each of their households.

“My people grew up in agriculture, and his people had been the identical means. And on this farming world, we get to have a day job that we get to do each single day,” she mentioned.

But the winery gives greater than grape choosing.

It can be a vacation spot for weddings and different celebrations, with greater than 900 occasions scheduled this yr.

Ever After Farms operates 9 completely different farms throughout Florida, every providing a distinct agricultural setting.

“This specific one is grapes, however we vary wherever from cattle to citrus to lemons and limes, blueberries proper on down the road,” Jenny Cahoon mentioned. 

And then there was the all-important grape-picking competitors between Kash and his 11-year-old sister, Daisey.

After the grapes had been weighed, Kash got here in with 8.5 kilos.

But Daisey Cahoon narrowly took the win with 8.8 kilos, incomes bragging rights — a minimum of till their subsequent grape-picking rematch.

Owners say grape-picking season is underway now and is predicted to proceed by way of the center or finish of September.

For extra info go to Ever After Farms.