Mmmmm ... Ice cream and grapes on Johnson Lane

The Ninth Annual Ice Cream Social Friday at Piñon Hills Elementary School was a huge success. I have never seen that many people at this function before. There were lots of long lines for everything. The grand-prize winner of the two tickets from Southwest Airlines was a visiting grandma named Jean Beagle. And the winner of the $200 gift certificate to Toys-R-Us was third-grader K.C. Coleman. There was one little girl who won a cake walk and thought she only got one green cupcake. It turned out she got to bring home the whole platter. She was smiling from ear to ear. My daughter's favorite part was at a booth where you picked a door and opened it. The kids running the booth sprinkled glitter in her hair, and when she opened the door she got a prize. She loved the magic wand the most. Thank you to all of you in the community who came out to support our children and our school. I am sure preparations for next year's social are already underway.

n Grapes are a very multi-purpose fruit used to make wine, grape jelly, grape juice, homemade smoothies, or just to eat. If you have room on your property or a fence you want to hide, why not consider putting in a few plants? Grapes like our Johnson Lane sandy soil and our hot sunny summer days.

Johnson Lane residents Bruce and Irene Rosin, Craig Sigler, Dar and Gail Cudney and Michael and Roxanne Fettitta all got together last fall and researched just what kind of grapes they would like to plant in their backyards. They spoke to the California Grape Vine Nursery in St. Helena in the Napa Valley. The nursery purchases their one-year vines from U.C. Davis which develops a hearty root stock for specific climates like ours. The 300 plants ordered last fall have arrived and the neighbors are busy planting them. Merlot, cabernet, riesling, chardonnay are among the 250 wine plants.

For just eating, the table varieties they ordered are Thompson's and flame seedless.

Who is going to do all the barefoot stomping? Bruce says over the next four years the folks will have plenty of time read up on the process of making wine and to gather supplies like a small press, barrels and lots of bottles. I hope I get invited to the tasting part of the process. Good luck to you.

n Lisa Welch is a Johnson Lane resident and can be reached at 267-9350.