Florida Agricultural and Mechanical University held its annual Grape Harvest Festival on Saturday, August 22nd. <\/p>\n
The festival is hosted by the College of Agriculture & Food Sciences and showcases the variety of grapes that are grown at the Center for Viticulture and Small Fruit.<\/p>\n
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FAMU President Marva Johnson gives opening remarks<\/p>\n
Lauren Baldon<\/p>\n
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College of Agriculture & Food Science Dean Dale Wesson gives opening remarks<\/p>\n
Lauren Baldon<\/p>\n
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FAMU President Marva Johnson, Dean Dale Wesson and event coordinators and sponsors pose for photo<\/p>\n
Lauren Baldon<\/p>\n
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Women compete in the hula hoop competition<\/p>\n
Lauren Baldon<\/p>\n
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Joe Bullard and live DJ<\/p>\n
Lauren Baldon<\/p>\n
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Grape variety sampling at the Grape Harvest Festival<\/p>\n
Lauren Baldon<\/p>\n
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FAMU Entomology displays butterfly and beetle varieties<\/p>\n
Lauren Baldon<\/p>\n
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Joe Bullard MCs with a live DJ<\/p>\n
Lauren Baldon<\/p>\n
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FAMU Center for Biological Control displays their entomology research<\/p>\n
Lauren Baldon<\/p>\n
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Collegiate 100 and Chocolate Waisted Fitness<\/p>\n
Lauren Baldon<\/p>\n
The festival featured over 20 varieties of grapes to taste, as well as vineyard trail rides, wine tasting, a grape-stomping competition, hula hoop contests, water slides, grape picking and several food vendors.<\/p>\n
Student volunteer Sarah Dubuisson says the festival is an outlet for people within the community to come together and meet each other.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s a space built for the common interest, which is agriculture,” she says. \u201cA lot of community, a lot of things to do and people to talk to. Very wholesome, very \u2018FAMUly\u2019-like.\u201d<\/p>\n
Dr. Dale Wesson serves as the Dean of the College of Agriculture & Food Sciences (CAFS) and works as the director over the school\u2019s land-grant programs. He says the harvest festival is an opportunity for the community to experience all of the research that CAFS does throughout the year.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey can enjoy the fruits of our labor,\u201d he says. \u201cWhat I like is that it showcases the research. It showcases our faculty, it showcases our leadership in the wine industry, and it showcases Florida A&M…being a land-grant university.\u201d<\/p>\n
CAFS and its researchers hold 14 patents on grape varieties that they have created. Most of these grapes are of the Muscadine species, which are much larger than typical grapes. They grow in smaller clusters but can be nearly the size of a golf ball. <\/p>\n
FAMU\u2019s patented grapes are resistant to mold, diseases and some local insects. Many of these varieties are sold to vineyards in Texas, as the growing conditions are similar enough that they thrive there.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe put the \u2018A\u2019 in FAMU,\u201d says Dean Wesson. \u201cThis is a celebration of our Muscadine grapes and a celebration of the Viticulture Center.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Florida Agricultural and Mechanical University held its annual Grape Harvest Festival on Saturday, August 22nd. The festival is…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":380718,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[16],"tags":[232,234,233],"class_list":["post-380717","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-tallahassee","tag-tallahassee","tag-tallahassee-headlines","tag-tallahassee-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/380717","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=380717"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/380717\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/380718"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=380717"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=380717"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=380717"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}