Boston Flora

Tag: Stephen Casscles

  • Thursday, February 11, 7:00 pm – 8:30 pm – Growing Small Fruits in Your Backyard, Online

    This Massachusetts Horticultural Society class on February 11 from 7 – 8:30, online, is for those who want to grow small fruits in their backyard or on small commercial fruit farms. Growing blueberries, brambles, strawberries, or currants in your backyard can be rewarding and fun. This class will provide an overview on how to successfully grow these attractive fruits in your home landscape, be it a rural, suburban, or urban lot for ornamental purposes and for fruit production.

    Instructed by J. Stephen Casscles, Esq.

    J. Stephen Casscles is a government lawyer with over 35 years of experience in New York State and municipal government. He has dedicated his life to public service and has practiced law in a broad range of areas such as health, insurance, alcoholic beverage control, gaming, agriculture, economic development, municipal finance, and land-use law. 

    An enthusiastic viticulturalist, Stephen has a 12-acre farm in Athens, NY, called Cedar Cliff, where he cultivates over 110 different French-American hybrids, 19th Century heritage grape varieties from the Hudson Valley and Massachusetts, and own rooted chance hybrids that he evaluates, makes wine from, and lectures about. In addition, he lectures on wine, grape cultivation, 19th century American horticulture and landscape architecture at botanical gardens and historical societies throughout New York and New England. Mr. Casscles operates a small grape nursery that specializes in propagating rare French-American hybrids, 19th Century heritage grape varieties developed in the Hudson Valley, Boston’s North Shore, the rest of New England, and own rooted chance hybrids identified at his farm Cedar Cliff. He is an award-winning winemaker who currently works at Sabba Estate Vineyards, in Old Chatham, NY and formally of the Hudson-Chatham Winery in Ghent, NY (2007-2019) and his wines been covered by The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, The Wine Enthusiast, New York Post, Hugh Johnson’s Annual Pocket Wine Book (2021), and The Albany Times-Union. 

    As a regional historian, Stephen authored Grapes of the Hudson Valley and Other Cool Climate Regions of the United States and Canada, which details the history of the Hudson Valley fruit growing industry, how to make wine, establish and maintain a vineyard, and the growing characteristics of over 170 cool climate grape varieties. He is currently working on two new books, The Prince Family Nurseries of Flushing, NY (1720-1869) and The Life and Times of E. S. Rogers and the Heritage Grapes of New England. 

    In addition to his full length works on grape varieties, grape cultivation, and 19th century horticulture,  Stephen is a frequent contributor to academic and trade journals such as Arnoldia of the Arnold Arboretum of Boston, MA, Fruit Notes of U. Mass Amherst, Horticultural News of Rutgers University, Wine Journal of the American Wine Society, New York Fruit Quarterly of the NYS Horticultural Society, and the Hudson Valley Wine Magazine

    As a culmination of his horticultural pursuits, Stephen advises and lectures at the Fermentation Sciences Program at SUNY at Cobleskill, and has a working relationship with professors at U-1 University Youngdong, Korea, and with many in the Korean grape and wine industry. 

    Stephen can be reached at cassclesjs@yahoo.com or by cell at 518-755-5475. 

    $18 for Mass Hort members, $26 for nonmembers. Register at www.masshort.org

  • Saturday, October 6, 1:30 pm – 3:30 pm – The Joy of Making Homemade Wines

    This introductory class at Tower Hill Botanic Garden on October 6 from 1:30 – 3:30 will cover the basics of making various styles of wine in your own home. Learn how to make red and white wines, dessert wines, seasonal wines such as Nouveau and spring wines, hard cider, and fruit wines. The class will cover the biology behind the fermentation process; and how to crush, process, and turn grapes, grape juice, apples or apple cider, and other fruits into quality wines. An emphasis will be placed on using small and inexpensive wine making equipment to minimize expenses and fuss. In addition, it will detail how to rack and bottle wines for home consumption. Further, the class will delve into how to blend and barrel age wines, and how to correct problem wines so that they can still be enjoyed. As the class progresses, there will be wines to sample so that the students can learn about various styles of wine and the different flavor profiles of different grape varieties. With the the growing popularity of hard ciders, a portion of the class will cover hard cider production and fruit wines. This presentation will be very lively and interactive. Participation and questions about a student’s own winemaking experiences is welcome. Afterwards, there will be a book signing of Grapes of the Hudson Valley which has two chapters on how to make wine, in addition to how to establish a vineyard. Must be 21 and over to participate.

    Instructor J. Stephen Casscles is an accomplished author, grape grower, winemaker, horticultural historian, and lawyer. Stephen has been a winemaker at the Hudson-Chatham Winery, in the Hudson Valley for the past 10 years, but has been making wines from grapes, apples, and other fruits for the past 40 years. In addition, he has a 12 acre fruit farm, Cedar Cliff, in Athens, NY. At Cedar Cliff, he grows over 75 different grape varieties which he evaluates for their prowess in the field and potential to make quality wines. For the past 15 years, Mr. Casscles has been concentrating on growing and evaluating 19th century Heirloom grape varieties that were developed in the Hudson Valley and on Cape Ann and Boston’s North Shore.  Further, he writes wine and grape growing articles for regional and national horticultural and wine industry journals. His research and interest has recently expanded to include the study of grape culture and wine making activities in Korea. $30 for THBG members, $40 for nonmembers. Register at www.towerhillbg.org.

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