By Dakota Antelman — [email protected]
With garden shears and five-gallon buckets, volunteers and town staff went to work, prepping historic Concord grapevines for a move.
The micro-vineyard that has flourished at the former Welch’s headquarters on Baker Avenue also includes Niagara and Everest grape varieties. With Welch’s gone, developers plan to redevelop the area for housing.
Locals put their heads together to save the grapes and lauded the site’s owner — Taurus Investment Holdings — for its help.
“It’s good all around,” Orchard House volunteer and gardener John Althouse told The Concord Bridge.
Concordian and grape expert Tim Parker prepares a cutting from the Concord grapevines at the former Welch’s headquarters on Baker Avenue. Photo: Dakota Antelman/The Concord Bridge
Timothy Wheeler House board members Ray Andrews and Phil Swain helped prune the grapevines and hope to grow the plants at the Walden Street senior living facility. Photo: Dakota Antelman/The Concord Bridge
The Welch’s vineyard used cuttings from the original Concord grapes grown by the plant’s originator, Ephraim Wales Bull. Gardeners sliced new cuttings on March 28 and planned to redistribute them.
Later, an outside crew will dig the vines’ roots out of the soil with construction equipment.
Concordian and grape expert Tim Parker said the Hugh Cargill Community Garden will get grapevines. The Orchard House and Timothy Wheeler House are also getting some.
The Orchard House is one of several sites around town getting transplanted grapes from a micro-vineyard on Baker Avenue. Photo: Dakota Antelman/The Concord Bridge
Hugh Cargill Community Garden Coordinator Michelle Wiggins cuts through a grapevine with help from Hugh Cargill gardener Tim Parker. Photo: Dakota Antelman/The Concord Bridge
Natural Resources Director Delia Kaye said some of Concord’s farmers asked for cuttings.
Staff in the Minuteman Technical High School horticulture program were interested, according to Town Planner Elizabeth Hughes, who said she’d give some to the current owner of Bull’s Lexington Road home.
“It’s very risky moving them,” Parker acknowledged. Organizers are hoping for the best.
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