High Plains History; Augusta Metcalf

track one fifth and i mean this is going to be a high plains history augusta metcalf of course for a commercial her father edward g e courson of his family from pennsylvania in search of fortune on the frontier the family again live tomorrow man's land in eating eighty six an area which is now the panhandle of oklahoma augusta began drawing after her mentors applied here we are in at ninety three the family homestead in the newly opened cheyenne arapaho reservation in western oklahoma augusta learned all about living on the rugged frontiers the upper washing calvelli she rode horses rope unbranded cams and still perform household chores at the end of a long day she drew pictures of the day's activities she would sketch anything and

everything that she saw she sketched horses dogs have been born in canada in nineteen oh six a customary jim mccann they had a son named howard the final win here however the medicare fat marriage did not last long she had abandoned the family when howard was to an address to continue to work the farm and care for her young son alone augusta had little time for painting and drawing that she began a tradition that would make her famous across the nation she wrote letters to france which included drawings and painted pictures on the overlords in letters sent it as just painting the game began being noticed her art works where the subject of several articles and magazines including the farmers stockman obama today and life she became known as a sage brush artist and won several artists honors including the introduction into the oklahoma

and the national cowgirl hall of fame augustus see metcalf died in nineteen seventy one although she had no formal training as an artist she produced many critically recognized art works and recorded the history of western oklahoma for generations to come to her son augustus paintings began to be even noticed her art works with a subject of several articles and magazines including the farmer startling oklahoma today and life she became known as the sagebrush artist and won several honors including introduction into the oklahoma hall of fame and the national cowgirl hall of fame and crew in there are wanted i

say fit into that at all i'm sorry just to get out with including in that game including induction into the oklahoma hall of fame and the national counter a lot of things you throw a little bit longer on what we could do you could you just tell me on if you want to put that in but let's let's do that there isn't anything to say when we decided that i'll be like a final paragraph so if you say in nineteen eleven augusta metcalf wrote

ok and she had her first of october he wrote about her is that he didn't lie he okay and say in nineteen eleven the farmers are on the road have a ghost of a half a robot following wrote the following year in nineteen eleven farmers wrote the following about the constant care few of us can escape the primeval sentence that we shall live by the sweat of our brows all of us even though our lots be cast in scenes of isolation and hardship where books and music and art are little known and perhaps a comet schooling not always to behead may reach out for themselves and rise above the daily grind of household duty dc with a beautiful in cleaning farrakhan

now tell me just briefly let's let's put a statement and hear about the materials she used if you could say sing about being self taught his you're talking about that in their rented them in charleston that canvas was expensive and the term she used augusta was self taught her mother had began her education in the art field at around four years old and from then on she painted everything that she saw and felt she didn't have candidates and sometimes didn't have even paper on which to draw her her drawling on a separate and plywood primarily because their butts are now focusing on the many of the paintings in the museum in the collection are on

plywood and they survived the canvas that she didn't do our words not prepared properly as in art as self talk she did not know how to prepare the canvas and so much of the paint is degrading from the canvas paintings but those on mesa night and plywood remain today christine and she painted them ok and tell me about that but tell me about the painting that she sent to two on thomas edison augusta was always trying to attract attention both to sell her art and just because she liked famous people thomas edison was one of her very favorite people he had invented the phonograph and she was enamored with the phonograph and she took a piece of corn on hold corn cotton that just one single little piece and painted in miniature of herself listening to one of edison's photographs

and send it off to him in turn replied and sent her a nice thank you letter which is in the museum today a crate and now we need to do a natural arm oh thank you i say it is now i just turn into rocket there it is thanks to the oklahoma historical society of coordination to the humanities am and you wanted to say the augusta metcalf museum at let's say where hans is a durham and durham oklahoma for contributing to this story do this in pieces of you are we would like to thank the oklahoma historical society the oklahoma federation for the humanities and the know how sorry i'm sorry

oklahoma foundation for the humanities and that pakistan which is located in far west of oklahoma near the town of durham oklahoma hey end and he's a contributing writer for contributing to date for contributing to a story here i'm elaine and i'm just like ok for the thank you for having a high plains public radio i'm elaine adams enter of oklahoma thank you for listening in bankia this elaine thank you for high plains radio ocean thank you for high plains public radio is selling adams from the museum in durham oklahoma

live track two about this is the turkey creek vineyards that ross lake is a great and now i'm for western oklahoma and i'm talking with tiny atoms and he's telling me about was standing here looking out over wonderful wonderful scene of a lake of blue water and then a sloping hill of grapevines they're growing and toward the water and were licking and tiny at the chardonnay grapes right and i just asked you what sound how do you go about meaning the grapes isn't that is that is a chardonnay grape or certainly a wine bottles of chardonnay is

variety all of what are called of indifference grapes the biological limb for them is the disability for all which is a biological way of saying european wine grapes but they didn't start in europe while we're confident that business than ever are originated in its asia minor other are broader europe we think five or six thousand years ago i had been developing there ever since they came to this country three or four hundred years ago they came to oklahoma as recently as twelve years ago are vineyard was the first tenured oklahoma entirely positive indifference great getting back to the name of their own numbers of varieties of interest rates and they're called things which have become familiar as types of wine has to do a lot with the labeling requirements and the federal requirements for making wine about the shirt and a

great is a white great that it makes it very very popular white wine and it's done quite well for us and the winds here are about forty years old and they're taking on all or developing a lot of what we call a variety of flavor that is to say you can recognize the wind by the flavor that's given to them by the vines and by the variety how how long does it take for our own it did before you can produce wind farm from the grapevines him and evidently they need to grow for a while that's true a food plan saying until you get some appreciable harvest is about three years but is generally thought it takes five years to develop a full harvest and after that the mine will produce virtually for ever oh they're great guys in europe they're reproducing several hundred years and it does that taste of the wind changed with

it with the age yes it started to get better this area of a sense of feeling of perhaps and prejudice that winds don't produce good wine until fifteen or sixteen years so that can or another or two lawyers were well on our way ok that shows you how much i don't know because i always thought you know age you need to gauge the wind that meant you make the wine you put it in a bottle and then you made it but it also has to do with the age of three of the stock grant that's absolutely correct and of all were very happy event as our guys get older we find that the quality of the line the flavor of the complexity is increasing as noticeable year by year ok we're looking at what it did you have to say past are seeing here because because their wildflowers out and grasses on this prairie slope and then your row upon row upon row of of grapevines with supports and

looking out over that wonderful blue water i lived in california for a while in an ad it almost except for the heat for the intensity of the sun here and it almost feels like i'm back in the napa valley was interesting because one of video one of the ideas of having a vineyard was that we felt at this location i looked like wine growing come to the country that we've seen all over the world and that together with some of the soil types encourages to try to start a vineyard ok and now let's talk about the supports i'm seeing these wooden supports actually what it looks like is a small size telephone call that has banned saad through about three feet from the top and then kind of folded over and there are these side supports the key is sticking out in there all along here are those

designed so that so that the grapes grow in certain directions or is there a reason for having that's shape of support this particular trial the system we developed it was it's similar to a system of devised by tv monson who is a legend in the american but a cordial sane ah it was a further developed amazed as a so called sin ever double curtain and wait improvised further on it for the site and basically it's a way of developing what we call a divided canopy life we looked at it we will say that there are two actual areas of the canopy that is to you that leaves an area that's producing wine what are we going for here our sobering on blonde yet

another white great variety and that's usually grown in bordeaux in france and occasionally sold as celine dion blog or a few may belong on and it's the yeah it's the major ingredients of what we consider to be white bordeaux the charlemagne is generally grow in burgundy in france and its a new ingredient of white burgundy it's a mostly in this country is sold as a reliable as charlotte you have said i wonder what you know hear that you had just recently and had to apply of funny side is is earl howe as a lot of upkeep to your vines wild yes as is very labor intensive as they say and a lot of the fungicide that we put on his cell if you will is preemptive war he's trying to forestall an outbreak of fungus oh

we do it periodically throughout summer i need to mention that the use of chemical fungicide says about the only thing we do or chemical nature oh the fertilization is by compost law liberation we use is by killing a law that by hand killing and we're trying to keep it as close a natural enclosed organic as possible all we're hoping perhaps in the next three years to develop ways that we can do without the fungicide them and to say that there are two wires would support two areas of the canopy and pay up but the point is is to get more sunlight are on the foliage and on the graves also we're trying to encourage the grapes to clear the

clutches to hang down from the advice from a stream of mine we find that this provides some protection and particularly from hail ah but also we find that the clusters that are in the shade to ripen more uniformly and seem to have a better quality flavor than those which are ripe and in full sunlight on the other the other thing that this does is it separates all the foliage hot and so we get good drainage downhill and the drink is important because otherwise we get a buildup of fungus some insect plant life in the mines so we're anxious to get the whole fine structure as open as possible and get as much natural ventilation this cuts down on the need for insecticide and fungicide printing grapevines this is how i've always thought as an art and have to be at an artist have this sense that somehow

either checks to the trainer how did and how did you learn to do to race to grow these graves took a few courses the culture dating but basically we've learned right here it involves an ale the relationship between you and the vines and you're trying to determine how the winds one or arrange themselves in the most productive than official manner and ice i think there are lots of it terry's interview is about crying was an attempt to make them into a science but i think you're right it still remains in our disagreements you're a great interview and i'm canny and nineties an extraordinary these are all started a mac were trying to develop to get about sixty clusters provide all of you are but you can come and tell the closures on this one you find that we've just about made

it what is there what's the timeline here for growing grapes when did they set on end and when the harvest well we have what's called blood break which is where maybe the bug swelling we get four huge in the early too little april and we have what's called aphorisms but ultimately may and fruits are following thereafter are and then to the next event is a great song with a great start taking on their core they're ripe and color and that file a rehab ripening obese usually graze on takes place in early july and then we have the right great by early august and we pick them through august in early september he this is different from california where they have but great perhaps in march and they don't think the grapes until late september early october the

difference is the intense limelight that we have here a lot and we don't have quite a long time the fruit on the vine being exposed to the wind hail insects fungus and what have you i mean you're you're vineyard is is that as i said sloping down and hell's going toward a i think a sizable lake here seventy five acre lake and is there anything about the lake that helps them in is there is business increase the humility that you need help oh yes we think that it does again one of the other one empty of verities of of raising rates is that if you're near want her art you get better butter fruit and there's two thoughts want is to a shearing off from the

water on does something to the winds and the grapes to improve the quality and recently i understood that see reflected sunlight which provides an added amount of heat and light on the virus which also help ripen rates have id water urine your violence heavy irrigate water a lake and we could be for flood irrigate at the base of the minds we don't hear it at all the time or every time this year we have inherited and also for some years we irrigate for two or three months sometimes virtually no they don't take as much water as a factor or maybe get more rains down here you probably mr morain sound in a review of your wager between eighteen twenty two inches a year is a little bit if they come empty in the most convenient time you ok well we're at about fifteen minutes

we have plenty of time that air there things that you think we should cover about growing grapes or you think they're about ready to go bad car the pittsburgh a new president why plant mr dallas wondering if you plan to be greater than art because of the wetlands is here for his story old they're all planning on the contours of this is very light so oil and if we planted them with a rose going up and down the hill after the first big rainstorm whole vineyard would be vehemently our and so the on each row of lines actually forms of terrorists two arty forestall or washing out and also attaches the water and helped re charge the water table that much

moore and then of being on the country were released as tara says the irrigation device we just poured water into the terrace and it runs down the length of the terrorists and ends the ground and so it serves sort of two or three gift and functions all if we didn't have this kind of sorrow all if we didn't have the slope we would plan the old when the plant the the road's going to yourself oh that's an accepted way of doing it but since we have this limitation of soil on the washing possibility well this is the way we've also the reason for the sloped trial a structure at the top is that we are trying to get more sunlight on the town the blinds on the canopy ought to make up for the fact that i we don't have the wind going north and south and he finds very very successful in that mindset looks like varying stages of

of grow certain age i looked at an area where it looks like it's you've just to set some out they don't have the big overhead support said to slow polls in the studios with those is sometimes we put out just the last month or month back in april i guess are and then just above that which are fully trust are some lines are two or three years old and then of course these are your ten or eleven years old we're adding to the vineyard all the time we had about old this year we had and i think four hundred lines are and will probably keep on doing that until we reach a total of about six thousand times how many people are working here accurate and others to about sports we have a summer intern a young man who started a vineyard or in your craw for years for five miles away and he's getting firsthand exposure on how you how you would do it in you why did you love farming experience before there's a

farm and so and i've always enjoy gardening and says this isn't really all that difficult but hey what a wonderful place i do every never knew it would be here but it's great it's great to see you i live on the telling people that being an architect was a very big help in doing this because i'm an architect typically starts a project with a clean sheet of paper very close and writers other things that have to be acknowledged but basically you started hanging from the very very first an hour ranger and also the knowledge

if you're if you're courageous enough for two hard enough to start with a clean sheet of paper and figured out from the very beginning this much more rewarding where the city has been so far he said when we're attacked the cia went to college and got an undergraduate degree in injuring an architect architecture from princeton university in new jersey and after a stint in the navy i got my graduate degree in architecture from rensselaer polytechnic institute in new york and i was a registered architects for about almost forty years practicing in vermont and in texas and oklahoma and also doing projects virtually all over the country and also some abroad so he came from a yard

has some flanked on both sides by an architect from new york clinton you are so beautiful zingerman's reuben you know you said you were in texas and oklahoma did you ever work with greece golf where you're around that that was that was he was hearing he was in texas that right when you're really local home university but he said those unfamiliar with them and he was probably gone and you again to tyler texas

ms buchanan yes we'll take this as tax rate than at turkey creek vineyards and we are in the water or the winery and tell me how it works in the home of the water i probably should start by saying who you are or is this is what this package of concrete is what we call a crash pad that's for others a traitor and during harvest we move a windy press and a crusher here all the fruit is picked by hand in the vineyard and we bring it down here in trucks and trailers at me put a mechanical crusher on top of some of those tanks that you see inside

of a shovel all the grapes into the crusher guy basically ms teresa graves believe every shovel in the grapes which includes the skins and the pope in cities in the pits in the stands and he leaves it get all crushed up and then we then except for in the case of white grapes that says for twenty four hours and that those who promises of called extraction and separation op whereby a natural enzymes in the fruit start separating the juice from the pope and the skin's also the acids attend to extract some of the flavors from the stems and that gibson those seeds and then the jackets skins to add flavor to the wind was also there in that period all solid matter that is a skin cell phones to the top can leave it's about two thirds of the tank full of clear juice

so we insert a probe into the tank and we pump up the clear juice and we plugged into the tanks and that bit becomes are usually our premium on the restaurant that we put in a press to repress the dickens out of that art and this is the stuff that has most of the those flavors derive from the gibson season the skins and all that and some of these are very attractive and some of them are not so attractive so we want to very carefully measure and monitoring control just how much of this material goes into the finish line so we separate these two do fragments differently or separately and then quite often we blend them back together we've been some of them back together for the finish line in the case of the red wine is actually goes through and fermentation caught on the skins are we add yeast and goes through

about seven to nine days of fermentation and the same the separation process takes place and we pump out he could wind pressed the rest have continued for inflation differently or org separately and the white wines would complement of his tanks and ed easton those fermented for five days and the two winds go through about four or six weeks and a thought for integration and other stabilization process is and then we put them in cold storage for about six weeks and after that we bought in the bottom leaves the winds were about other for six weeks and achievement by that time there during the war although we always like to keep a longer aging are you our white wines are generally not reasonable to drink after about six to eight months the red wines company lawyer and so that is basically the process we do everything here

we go the fruit a week we pick the fruit we question an impressive prefer and it stabilizes and bottle it isn't really our own firm everything's done right here is a cover up that comes in a nutshell so these bottles and looking in here these bottles that are there are lined up in cases is there a name for those trying to those diamond shaped tracks ok no imax here those were made last year last fall and when you're enduring image and so these are our all you have left all the

things wa about how many bottles so amazingly can tell me how many bottles you produce here every fall last year we produced about six tons of great and we made about i'm sorry or five times great we made something over six hundred gallons of wine art and all of that will make about three thousand bottles of wine can be here we expect to make about twelve thousand gallons which will make about five thousand tons of corn ok you do the bottling here and that you put the last quarter of the sea also the labels and everything on the manager here ok and how you market for wines and how someone wanted to buy a bottle of turkey creek vineyards wine where would they go to get it they have to come here to buy it we we don't do any marketing and stores are hoping to

sell wine at festivals i'm hoping to develop a shipping clientele right now the marketing of our wine is cardinal larger effort in the county to encourage tourism and so we would like to have eighty eight i'll take a winery experience of people could come to the area and experience along with everything else and we try to maintain a good supply of quality wine to support that kind of activity and we have lots of things going on here at the winery and close by because there's the calf art museum and there's a lake right right by our feet here on is it used for recreational purposes also somebody time to buy wine could take it they use the lake in some it is we encourage people prominent in and picnic enjoyed the premises and leave an incursion common fish a by appointment

and we try to keep the numbers down so people can enjoy it ok and if somebody know we have listeners are the work of the northwest kansas over into colorado so that might be quite a drive to come here although i can tell you right now it's worth the drive but if somebody well i couldn't make it take to contact you for shipping wine center at the president on the shipping is a little bit it's not clear law and it depends on the laws of the state of the recipient well we can sell on why and should just anyone out of state was otherwise qualified to receive it however there's a question about collecting taxes and also the possibility is falling into the hands of minors and it's suffice to say it so wrong it's a difficult issue with the present time by law were not allowed to sell

off premises well except to a liquor stores and restaurants are working on ok and so you really encourage people to come here because of the experience of seeing a wine this conference and start to finish when we're trying to work together with other destinations in the area to operate they fought authentic to resume experience which includes tasting wine and drinking wine ii anything else you want to tell me about about this space this process here the tanks is this obsession to call our operations room all these tanks are useful for inflation storage all the other major usually it's interesting that so like seventy eighty percent of the wines produced in the world was produced and wineries about this idea to about a size between about two thousand and five thousand gallons it's

typically a farmer who has a few readers are greatly bias more fruitful his neighbors up and down the road and he makes a few thousand gallons of wine and assault and sold within fifty kilometers of where it's made up a larger all want our producers that we hear about and we see all are really the minority wine as a cultural thing comes from places like this song of the world and so there's ample of this is by way of saying there's ample forces at a scale equivalent to the skies wondering well it's very neat and very efficient at it looks like everything works very well here is that is a great wall space in here too at the racks table and chairs in and a nice place to look at your wines and the list of ones that you know

we find that there were always very happy it's a happy place and they enjoyed being here and he enjoyed kissing them on caring for bubbles away and it's something i wanted to come here for a wine tasting out what they need to call you have time or more hours or from ten to four on saturdays from jiang through october and if they want to call us up to make arrangements as they can visit most any other time and tell me where you're lucky to get up three a half miles and south into miles east of durham oklahoma were six miles from the texas panhandle border no one else can tell you that ok well this is good man singing and now i'm fred basics i'm now standing at the door of the tasting room at turkey creek vineyards and now i'm far west oklahoma and

now it's well with a trip down here