Grape Pomace

Grape Pomace

Grape Pomace. I’m Greg Martin with today’s Fruit Grower Report.

Anyone who has made grape jam knows you wind up with a lot of left-over skins and seeds after juicing the grapes. It’s called the pomace and imagine having to deal with truckloads of the stuff like wineries do. Jean-François Pellet or JF is the winemaker at Pepper Bridge Winery in the Walla Walla Valley and he talks about how they handle grape pomace.

PELLET: We do a couple of things with it. We had a compost company but we used to compost it but we have a fair amount of high potassium in our soil and we couldn’t figure out why we were having high potassium in our compost so we used to use it and composted with other things.

He says they stopped composting the pomace due to some problems and have now found a better use.

PELLET: What we’re doing with all our pomace, it actually goes to a feedlot and they feed cows with it. I know other people obviously like in Europe, they will distill it too and make grappa or brandy out of it.

There’s been a lot of research done on how to best utilize grape pommace instead of dumping it in a landfill. Some of the more interesting ideas have been to turn it into biodegradable flower pots or even a gluten-free flour substitute that can them be used to make some very interesting and delicious baked goods. All the better than it remaining a waste product.

That’s today’s Fruit Grower Report. I’m Greg Martin on the Ag Information Network of the West.

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