Gerber Vineyard"One Man's trash is another man's treasure" is never any truer than at the home vineyard site located next to the winery. On the U.S. Department of Agriculture's Soil Survey of Josephine County, a good portion of our ranch is classified as a dump. The mining dump was created over a 50-year period during the late 19th and early 20th centuries and has produced a wonderful vineyard and winery site. Gold mining was the big draw to the Illinois Valley when the first settlers arrived. In trying to search through and process the rock within existing and ancient stream beds, dumping grounds were created. Our ranch is covered with about 20 acres of placer mine rock tailings. The rock was washed from nearby Althouse Creek through two separate tunnels (the longest is 1200 ft) our 100-ft lower elevation than the creek created unlimited dumping capacity. What must have been a low-lying, Swampy piece of ground was transformed into a well-drained site. As the rock exited the tunnels and poured out the flumes that spread the material, the tailings became self sorted. There are three distinct gradations. 1. Big rock, basketball size and larger, which is closer to the tunnel's exit. 2. Gravel 3. Silt Today the larger rock areas grow trees, pine and cedar mainly. The winery and surrounding grounds are located on top of 10- 20 feet deep gravel deposits. The vineyard is grown on the gravely and silty areas. The rock tasting room at the winery is built from the mining tailings and shows the diversity of the rock. Oregon jade is one of the more interesting types that can be found. Not only did the previous owners help transform our vineyard grounds into a desirable site, but history allowed us the ability to establish the grapes. In the early 1970's when we got this crazy notion to grow wine grapes in a location no one had ever tried, farms in the Illinois Valley were comparatively inexpensive. Cattle and dairying were the only viable agriculture in the valley and they were on a slow decline in economic viability. We were able to purchase prime vineyard property for cattle grazing land prices. The historical change that allowed this opportunity was the advent of plastic pipe which provided an economic means of combating frost. Up until we planted our vineyard no one had tried commercial horticultural crops in the Illinois Valley because of spring frosts. Now it is a common practice to sprinkle water on frosty spring nights and the major obstacle for premium wine production has been conquered. Gerber is an 80-acre ranch, with 20 acres of vineyard situated next to the winery. The last 5 plantable acres will be planted in the year 2000. Presently planted at Gerber Vineyard:
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