Corvallis Gazette-Times from Corvallis, Oregon • 9

Gatette-Timea, Coivalln, Oregon, Wednesday, February 7, 1973 9 Winemaking Family Affair For HiHsboro Clan i 'A r--Jt -at i unused for several years. It was located on a gravel road 4tt miles south of here, about 20 mile3 from Portland. The summer was spent in obtaining the necessary licensing, state and federal, to operate a winery Finally Oak Knoll1'1 became Oregon's bonded winery No. SO and that fall produced its first batch of wine 4,000 gallons, all grape wine. Marketing of that first year's production began in August of 1971.

The Vuylstekes took a modest ad in the Hillsboro Argus, the local weekly. nerspaper. The newspaper ran a story about the new local enterprise. "From there on it was word of mouth," said Mrs. Vuylsteke.

Buyers from a large Portland department store (Meier and Frank) turned up, tasted and took on the new local wine. So did buyers for some smaller area wine shops. In 1971 production was expanded to 13,000 gallons, including fruit and berry wines. "Here we were in the middle of this wonderful fruit and berry country," said Mrs. Vuylsteke.

"We felt we should advantage of it." By last spring the couple felt so con-' fident of the winery's future that Vuylsteke left Tektronix, where he had worked 14 years, to devote full time to Oak Knoll. He is, however, only on leave i of absence. The 20,000 gallons produced this year includes eight types of fruit and berry wine and Eve types of grape wine. The latter includes a Zinfandel, produced from grapes grown at The Dalles, which is not yet aged sufficiently to market. In addition to their sales to wine shops the Vuylstekes sell much wine (1,600 gallons in December) through their own retail sales room and tasting room at the winery.

So busy has the daily tasting time become that the couple recently their first employe a woman to assist during the hours the winery is open to the public. With that exception the Vuylstekes handle everything themselves, from By Roberta Ulricn HILLS BORO (UPI) RwiTuylsteke is the manager. His wifeJHarj, is vice president. Their six children bottle the wine and label it. Oak Knoll Winery is strictly a family affair but it's far from a quaint little backyard business.

Operating in a former dairy, Oak KnoOJast year turned out 20,000 gallons of its l3 varieties of wines and its label is seen on the shelves of some of the region's more prestigious wine shops. Vuylsteke, a bearded electronics engineer, and his family got into the wine making business more or less by accident. It all started 10 years ago with a bumper crop of blackberries. The couple was living in Beaverton (. and the blackberries grew in profusion.

"We made pies and we froze berries and we still had berries," Mar Vuylsteke -recalled. "We hated to see them go to waste." So they decided to make a little wine to use up some of the berries. They looked up a receipe in a book and made one gallon of wine. "It turned' out real good," Vuylsteke said. "So we started making more and more.

Pretty soon we had the garage converted into a winery. Friends would taste some of our wine and lots of them -wanted to buy some." As they experimented and expanded their amateur wine making the Vuylstekes' interest grew. They read everything they could on the subject. Finally they decided they might as well go into the wine making business. They obtained backing from a silent partner and began searching for a suitable location.

In May of 1970 they found what they considered the perfect building. The concrete and hollow tile structure which keeps the wine cool in summer had once been a dairy but had been buying the grapes and fruits all from Oregon growers to distribution of the wine. The Vuylsteke youngsters Ron 16; John, 15; Steve, 14; Tom, 12; Doug, 11, and Sara, 9 work after school and weekends bottling and labeling the wine. John also has the job of scraping the charcoal from the interior of whiskey barrels in which the wine is aged. The Vuylstekes have no plans to grow their own grapes or fruit.

"Growing is a full time job and a winery is a full time job," said Vuylsteke. "You can't do them both and do them right." With storage space for 100,000 gallons there are definite plans for expansion, however. The Vuylstekes plan a trip to California to study wineries there for the first time before they expand, however: Up to now they have learned everything "from books and experimentation." Vuylsteke said he considers wine making "an art which means that everyone does it just a bit differently." His own secret is keeping down the amount of sugar and water, which are added to all fruitwines, "so that we retain the natural tartness and taste of the fruit." Much of what the Vuylstekes have I learned, Mrs. Vuylsteke passes on to amateur wine makers in regular classes she teaches. The winery also sells wine making equipment to amateurs.

The Vuylstekes said they feel the rising interest in amateur wine making is good for commercial wineries such as theirs. "People make wine and like it and then they want to try other kinds," said Mrs. Vuylsteke. "Then they come to They said they believe the rising in- terest in wine will mean expansion of the wine industry In Oregon, where the Liquor Control Commission lists eight wineries currently bottling and selling wine. The others among the 50 bonded over the years are not active.

J' ft 5 rd (c a v-v -I 1 i.i What Corvallis Cooks I Family Project' The entire family gets into the ad at the Oak Knoll Winery in Hillsboro. Three Vuyl Oak Knoll Winery it strictly a family affair, with Mr. and Mrs. Vuylsteke at the helm and the six children bottling, labeling and clears ing up. (UPI) steke boy John, Ron and Steve label the latest batch of wine at the family winery.

Whipping Boy Of Inflation? Green Giant Not So Jolly JLet your friends fry America favorite pasta By George Gladney Of The Los Angeles Times LOS ANGELES The Jolly Green Giant hasn't been in such a jolly mood lately. There was even a growl or two heard a few weeks ago when an east coast newspaper ran a cartoon depicting him shaking pocket change from an elf-sized consumer clutched upside down in the giant's huge hands. The caption read, of course: "Ho, ho, ho." Nobody laughed or even smiled at the headquarters of Green Giant Co. In Le Sueur, Minn. Robert C.

Cosgrove, the big food firm's chairman and chief executive, recalled on a recent visit here, "It took us a couple of days to cool down from that one. We were afraid the Giant trademark was becoming the ultimate whlnnini? hnv of inflation 1969-70 period, profits were seriously; hurt It had to step up merchandising expenditures. Earnings dropped to $5.8 million in 1969 and to $4.9 million in 1970 from $7.1 million in 1968. As part of its effort to diversify and end strict dependence on the ups and downs of supply and demand for food, the company last year bought the J. R.

Thompson a Chicago restaurant Green Giant now operates 45 restaurants, with seven more scheduled to open this year. Attracted, too, by the fact that 25 per cent of the food dollar is spent on meat, Green Giant'shocked some persons by moving directly into the meat business. "We entered that because we ielt the market was ripe for change," says Cosgrove. "We think consumers axe ready for table-prepared meats not just kitchen-prepared meats." With the meat business, however, Green Giant's green thumb hasn't been too successful so far. Cosgrove, for example, blames a turndown in third-quarter earnings on unprofitable operations of its Copeland Sausage Co.

and Bam a Meat Inc. meat processing units. These firms, together with the third company of its meat division, the profitable Schweigart Meat produced a pretax loss of $1.7 million in the first nine months ended Dec. 30, compared to a $1.4 million profit a year before. The group's sales totaled $44 million, up from $38.9 million.

planting and grazing restrictions, production should increase, resulting in lower prices paid to farmers and maybe by consumers, too, Cosgrove said. He doesn't promise that Green Giant's prices will drop, but be said prices will stabilize at least But Cosgrove is not happy with another part of Phase 3 continuing controls for the food Industry. Unless they are abolished, be warns, crop expansion measures won't do much good. Because the government continues to control price increeses and profit margins of food processing firms and other middlemen like Green Giant, Cosgrove says many cf them won't be able to expand productivity to match raw material increases. Cosgrove thinks, that some of the complaints of high food costs have been escalated all out of proportion to their real validity.

He says demand for the Green Giant's premium-priced, boiMn-the-pouch and other convenience frozen foods products is as strong as ever. If shoppers really wanted to cut food bills, it seems to Cosgrove these products would be the first to be scratched off shopping lists. A strong Increase in food supplies could hurt some food firms, but not Green Giant, contends Cosgrove. That's because today Green Giant no longer grows all its raw products. The last time the company faced an overabundant food supply, during the r- I MM Cosgrove said that irate food shoppers, who saw the wholesale food price index rise by a whopping 5.7 per cent in December, are wrong when they blame Green Giant and other food processors.

Prices have been rising, Cosgrove said, because food demand has continued unabated while the Industry's ability to supply those needs has not kept up. Now that the Agriculture Department has loosened crop controls under Phase 3, releasing about 25 million acres from Tell your friends how much you love Creamette pasta and why! Send them a couiwn good for one FREE package of Creamettes Macaroni, Spaghetti or Egg Noodles, Let them discover for themselves how tender and delicious pasta can be. them see for themselves that Creamette pasta never sticks together. And while you're at it, fill in your name and address, too. We'll send you a free coujwn, too.

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"I think the cereal box is the most Important tool parent can use," he said In a telephone Interview, Evans, observing that his own seven children always read the cereal box on the break-' fast table, said the box stimulates Interaction between parents and children. "And that's more Important In developing their intelligence than their school curriculum or the amount of money spent on their education," he said. The cereal games Evans designed art divided Into three categories, one is railed "Sounds Fun" and teaches reading skills. A game In this serves deals with the loot; and shows large pictures of an eagle and an eel tnd small pictures of a weatherrane pointing east, an easel, and an equal sign. Besides Identifying the pictures, children are asked to find and circle 121 long sounds in the text of the package.

Another gsme focuses on the letter and asks the child to name everything with that letter fat picture of a red rhinoceros running from a rabbit. The second cate Kory, "Show Him the Wy," encourages parents to teach their By Susanna McBee Of The Washington Post WASHINGTON In the old days a cereal box was good for all the keen things you get for the top a Captain Midnight decoder ring, a glow-in-the-dark medallion, and even a deed to a square inch of land in the Yukon. Now, in the next few months, millions of kids will be In for new treat a cereal box that Is, in itself, a game that teaches Uwm how to read. The idea comes from a 37-year-old teacher tn Cupertino, who spent l1 yean persuading the Quaker Oats Co. of Chicago to try it on boxes of Life, a high-protein oat cereal Beginning In April and continuing for the next six months, 10 million life cereal boxes with kssons on bark and side panels will go to food warehouses aQ orer the country.

The teacher. Brent Evans, who works at a learning center for educationally Handicap chMreo in Cuppftino, a suburb of San Jose, tuts long hem Inii-rrstcJ In how a child's his uitcllifccnce. children to do something by doing it themselves. If the parent wants his child to Identify things he sees while, say, riding in a car, the parent should name a few things first, "Parents should do things like read, listen to music, or show curiosity if they want their children to do them." Evans said. The third category, "Brain Builders," tests such skills as knowing up from down, right from left in front from behind.

One game asks the child to tell whether a rabbit is doing something with his right foot or left ear. Another asks him, "What Is silly about Oils picture?" and shows a locomotive with a flat tire. Evans has also developed "Instant play and learn games" to accompany each category. For Instance, a suggested game In the "Show Him the Way" category Is one where parents and children change roles. "When we do that at my house," Evans said, "my kids end up teaching me things." Asked what he did with cereal boxes when he was a kid, the teacher recalled.

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