The topsoil and subsoil of a stretch of land can be removed by truck and then replaced in a state that mixes subsoil clay and topsoil together, or just clay on top of everything. It will then be gradable and easy to run machines over.
Some chipped-up tree branches and leaves, composted together, are enough to make a living bacterial environment that would otherwise take 10,000 years to create.
It can then be planted with grapes and marketed for something like $22 a bottle, on the basis of investment, prestige and a mysterious thing called terroir. The prestige is based on the investment. The terroir is an expression of the bacterial environment of the soil and how it reacts to sun, slope and minerals, which is known in Canada as a job for the girls in marketing.
Bella Vista Goes to the Dogs
Truth is, Canadians want royalty, and there are people happy to play along. This “compost” is not spread evenly over the land, but selectively, where it can contact the roots of the grape plants and help them adapt.
I’m not sure what this is intended to do.
It is possible to import the ideas of residential development and landscaping on a large prairie city to a small mountain one, and show the locals how things are done in front yards all across Edmonton. It just takes a little practical application of common sense principles and an end to agricultural know-how and scientific blah-blah-blah.
Get things done.
That’s the thing. Let the marketing people take care of the rest.
Do you know, you can buy a mid-to-low quality French or Spanish wine, grown on a true terroir, for half the price or less of wine made from French varietals on the land above, at twice the quality? It doesn’t matter. One loves one’s local aristocracy and the chance to tell yourself that you have joined it. The entry cost is just $5 a sample, waived if you buy a bottle.
The guy in the back right knows about all this.
Canada is a drug, and it works.
Categories: Agriculture, Earth Science, Erosion, Ethics, landscaping
Okanagan Okanogan 