by Sharon Curran Wright
Kathie and Michael Boyce had a dream of leaving city life behind, buying some land, and living a different life. To that end, they bought property in Buckingham County and established KMB Farms, where they keep bees, grow garlic and berry bushes, and will soon be making fruit wines.
This summer they will open Muddy Paws Winery, its name a tip of the hat to the 17 dogs that they have rescued over the years. Wines will be made, bottled, and sold on site. The Boyces have been making fruit wines for 15 years, having learned the craft by joining amateur wine groups that met monthly, sharing ideas, tips, tricks, and recipes. Among their favorite fruit wines that they have made are elderberry, raspberry, apricot, apple, strawberry, cherry, and pomegranate. Because they are beekeepers, they also make various meads. Stone fruits for their wines will be harvested from an established orchard that they lease in Nelson County; they plan to grow their own berry bushes and some grapevines.
According to Mike, fruit wines are typically sweeter than grape wines and true to the fruit flavor. A fruit wine will ferment in eight weeks, so a fresh batch will be produced at Muddy Paws every eight weeks. Muddy Paws Winery can do five batches at a time, and they plan to have that many available at the “soft” opening of the winery in late spring. They also plan to open on weekends this summer with a grand opening planned in October.
In addition to offering unusual wines, Muddy Paws Winery will have a tasting room and outdoor seating in a wooded area so patrons can enjoy the natural setting. A fenced-in dog park area will promote play with pets and interaction among pet lovers. Patrons will be able to stroll through gardens and a nature trail. Unique “Wine and Star Night” events will center around a 600-pound antique Newtonian telescope that is 10 feet long and a foot in diameter, built in Michigan in the 1930s. It is powerful enough to see all the planets and some binary stars.
Muddy Paws Winery is located on KMB Farms, an enterprise already familiar to many in Buckingham County. At KMB Farms, Michael grows garlic and sells garlic products including smoked garlic powder and garlic cooking wine. Kathie started handcrafting soaps from natural ingredients 18 years ago and now includes salves, lip balms, creams, and laundry detergent in her inventory. She makes a soap for soothing poison ivy,
pine tree body butter, and goat’s milk hand
cream. In all of her soaps, Kathie sources shea butter from women in a village in Ghana, a business decision that aids entrepreneurship among women in that country.
Both Kathie and Mike love to experiment with ingredients to come up with new products. After discovering that some cleaning products contain chemicals that are toxic to dogs, they created a spray out of natural ingredients that is safe and actually cleans better.
The motto for KMB Farms is “Right Next Door to Nature.” They use no artificial ingredients, and their products are all natural “with nothing you can’t pronounce,” as Mike likes to say. They don’t use pesticides, herbicides, or fungicides. The packaging they use is biodegradable or reusable.
KMB Farms products can be found at the Scottsville Farm Market or on the farm itself. The Muddy Paws website and KMB Farms Facebook page will carry announcements about upcoming events. For more information, call (301) 305-2773.