MTSU To Assist With Grape Harvest Day Saturday

Middle Tennessee State University students and School of Agriculture Fermentation Science faculty will be involved with the annual Grape Harvest Day, from 7 to 11 a.m. Saturday, Sept. 9, at Lane Agri-Park, 315 John R. Rice Blvd, in Murfreesboro.

Open to the public, volunteers can learn from Rutherford County master gardeners how to harvest grapes at the Lane Agri-Park vineyard. An MTSU destemmer/crusher and press will be onsite. Participants are asked to park at the livestock barn building parking lot.

Volunteers should bring pruners, gloves, hat, sunscreen, water and a clean gallon jugs to take juice home after the harvest is complete.

"It should be a good day for an event that continues to grow," said Tony Johnston, professor and Fermentation Science director, who added that his students will be helping and retired biology professor John Dubois will return "to help man the destemmer/crusher."

Johnston proposed the establishment of the vineyard in 2006 and was involved in the placement of the trellis posts and wires as well as the planting of 200 grape vines in 2007.

Grape Harvest Day is a partnership between MTSU Fermentation Science, the UT Extension and Tennessee State University Cooperative Extension/College of Agriculture. The MTSU School of Agriculture is one of 11 College of Basic and Applied Sciencesdepartments.

For more information about the event, contact Justin Stefanski at the UT Extension, at 615-898-7710 or email him at jski@utk.edu.

For more information about MTSU Fermentation Science, visit https://www.mtsu.edu/programs/fermentation/, call Johnston at 615-898-2421 or email him at Tony.Johnston@mtsu.edu.