Turtle Creek Winery at the Farmers Market

Cheryl Edgar, Sustainable Braintree's president, explores wine choices with Kip Kumler from Turtle Creek Winery.

   For the past two Saturdays at the Braintree Farmers Market hosted by Sustainable Braintree we've been dealing with damp and rainy weather which throws a curve ball into our outdoor plans for the market.  Due to the generosity and support of our community-based venue Mayor Joseph Sullivan has granted the market permission to operate inside the Braintree Town Hall Cahill Auditorium during inclement weather days. No other farmers market, to our knowledge, has this type of backup plan in place.  This ensures that our supporters will continue to experience a pleasurable market day regardless of the weather.  Bringing the market inside also guarantees vendors with perishable products will deliver their items to their customers in the best possible condition.  Growers and vendors with refrigeration will remain in outside in front the town hall as there is no danger of product destruction or deterioration.  So although the weather may be unpredictable you can always predict the market will be operating on Saturdays from 9 to 1, rain or shine, throughout the month of October in our usual location.  Don't forget to mark your calendar for the Special Thanksgiving Market on November 19th.

  Our Featured Vendor for this coming Saturday is a brand new vendor to our market and we're proud to introduce Turtle Creek Winery to the fold.  Kip Kumler is the owner and winemaker for this small scale winery hailing from Lincoln, MA.  Kip has been diligently working at becoming a member of the market and will be joining us on alternating Saturdays while sharing the space with Coastal Vineyards.  The goal is to provide a wide variety of locally produced wine choices each time you visit the market.  Both Coastal Vineyards and Turtle Creek Winery will be present at the Thanksgiving Market to provide a broad spectrum of wine choices for your holiday table and for gift giving as well.

   Turtle Creek Winery has not only survived in our harsh New England climate, but has thrived in it.  Surprisingly, Rome, Italy which is south of some of Italy's most notable vineyards, is just about the same latitude as Lincoln, MA.  In fact, the annual heat accumulation in this location is higher than the Burgundy region of France and similar some areas of Napa Valley and Carneros, CA.

   This winery has won several gold and silver medals from competitive national wine competitions in California and beyond.  The reason for their success is because they approach winemaking as a fine craft and pay close attention to detail making the outcome of their finished products unique with depth and sophistication.  They produce about 500 cases of wine annually.  This means that each bottle of Turtle Creek wine is one of only 75 cases from that vintage.

  Although this is a small scale winery they have made substantial investments in technology to respect the integrity of the grape and how it is handled as it goes through the process of becoming bottled wine.  This allows them to take full advantage of different yeasts, computer controlled temperatures and peristaltic pumps to ensure the gentlest handling of must and wine.  In larger wineries everything moves faster sacrificing the integrity of the wine for the sake of economic efficiency and flavors tend to be blended away.  Turtle Creek has the opportunity to experiment and respect each wine individually.  They grow their own premium grapes in Lincoln and have contracts to purchase only the finest grapes available for some of their wines such as the Chardonnay, Cabernet Franc, Cabernet Sauvignon, Pinot Noir, Zinfandel and Riesling wines.   If you'd like to taste Kip's baby you're in for a treat if you purchase a bottle of the Syrah-it's the bomb!

  This is a great time of year to drop by the market to purchase high quality local wines brought to you direct from the vineyards.  The growing season will soon become a memory so make a point of joining us at the famers market while we're still working diligently to bring this venue to the community.  The market is located at the Braintree Town Hall Mall at One JFK Memorial Drive, Braintree, MA.  For more information visit us at http://www.sustainablebraintree.org/food.  See you on Saturday.