Strawberries!

It is time for the old guy, the one with the beard, also known as the winemakers father or Nolia and Sadie’s Pa Pa, to write a blog post.

I am also known in other circles as the strawberry grower. We at Prellwitz Produce are extremely happy to be able to provide the strawberries that go into the Wiskonsan and Lead Shot strawberry hard cider.

The most asked question when the winery was being built was will you make a strawberry wine. Although Ryan the winemaker is partial to great Wisconsin grape wines he had no choice but to make a strawberry wine. By blending the best of both worlds he was able to come up with a winning wine we call Wiskonsan. It has become a very popular wine. If you have not tried it, you should, it might surprise you even if you are not a fruit wine drinker.

Now to where I fit in. We, my wife Diane and I have been growing strawberries for more than twenty years and have developed a following of people who love strawberries. We have around 12 acres of berries that we pick every year. We allow you to come to the farm and pick your own (PYO) or we hire local school kids to pick berries for you that we sell in a building behind the winery. We have some awesome young people that pick a lot of berries, some days they pick more then we can sell so those berries come up to the winery and get pressed into juice for wine. It is a win for both of us as we never have to hold berries over to try and sell the next day and Ryan gets the strawberry juice he needs to make the Wiskonsan. When I started farming 40 some years ago, I had no idea where it would lead me.

To be where we are now was not on the map, but I would not change a thing. It is exciting to be where we are now, serving people who enjoy the products we produce and the experience we provide.