{"id":15059,"date":"2012-11-01T07:02:12","date_gmt":"2012-11-01T13:02:12","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/wordpress-367309-1145705.cloudwaysapps.com\/?p=15059"},"modified":"2012-11-01T07:02:12","modified_gmt":"2012-11-01T13:02:12","slug":"cleveland-community-vineyard","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sustainablog.org\/articles\/cleveland-community-vineyard\/","title":{"rendered":"A Toast-Worthy Community Vineyard Grows in Cleveland"},"content":{"rendered":"
<\/a><\/p>\n I thought I\u2019d take a break this week from sharing eco-chic fashion news and instead tell you how Mansfield Frazier, longtime activist and Hough resident, is transforming his Cleveland community one grapevine at a time.<\/p>\n With years of gardening experience<\/a> and dreams of starting an urban vineyard<\/a>, 69-year-old Mansfield and his wife, Brenda, were awarded proceeds from a grant funded by Re-Imagining Cleveland<\/a> and Neighborhood Connections<\/a>, a program of the Cleveland Foundation, to develop three abandoned city lots.<\/p>\n Mansfield and local volunteers went right to work clearing, layering and leveling the lots\u2019 topsoil and trimming existing trees. A decorative fence, support stakes and wires also were installed to protect the now 294 Traminette and Frontenac grapevines growing in the vineyard known as Chateau Hough<\/a>. Take a look here<\/a> to see how the project has progressed since 2010.<\/p>\n As a well-respected author and journalist, Mansfield hopes the vineyard will be used as an avenue to teach horticulture practices and entrepreneurial skills to neighborhood youth, residents reentering society from a time of incarceration, and others with disadvantaged backgrounds, as he, too, has used community resources to turn his life around after serving several prison terms.<\/a> Furthermore, the vineyard will become a symbol of economic growth and hope in a neighborhood most famously known for the\u00a0riots of 1966<\/a>.<\/p>\n A useable yield of grapes is expected to be harvested next year and then the actual process of winemaking will begin under the guidance of vineyard expert Giancarlo Calicchia<\/a>. Mansfield foresees the crops growing to supply a local winery under the same ownership as Chateau Hough and have plans of adding a biocellar<\/a>, which will be built in a nearby abandoned house, to the estates. He and his crew would like to grow shiitake mushrooms and other produce.<\/p>\n Similar to urban gardens in Chicago, Detroit, Kansas City, and Baltimore<\/a>, Hough\u2019s vineyard is creating vital \u201cfruits\u201d of self-sufficiency, pride and empowerment, revenue, and an abundance of knowledge within the community and for its members, things which lasts far longer than wine alone.<\/p>\n Image credit:<\/strong> lpwines<\/a> via photopin<\/a> cc<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" In Cleveland’s Hough neighborhood, resident and author Mansfield Frazier is working to rebuild the community through an urban vineyard.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":125,"featured_media":15060,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[6153,8,6154,1777,6155,394],"yoast_head":"\nThe Fruits of their Labor<\/h3>\n