Ben Gaeddert, Jewish community member and owner of Hiatus Wine in Wamego, Kansas, recently started a new job with the Kansas Department of Agriculture (KDA).
The Kansas Department of Agriculture (KDA) is doing a grape commodity survey, its first in years. Gaeddert’s new position involves him traveling to vineyards throughout Kansas, keeping track of two insects and looking for a third. While at each vineyard, he also checks for any invasive bacteria issues in the plants.
“If I should happen to catch something in one of my traps or find some plant tissue that I need to look at, I'll take those to the KDA lab [in Manhattan, Kansas],” Gaeddert said. “Either the state plant pathologist or state entomologist will look at them and figure out if what we're looking at is what we're looking for.”
Gaeddert and the KDA’s goal is to collect data from about 45 different vineyards — the same amount as the last survey. A few of the vineyards from the last survey are no longer in business or no longer growing grapes, but once Gaeddert visits each vineyard, he hopes to track down more vineyards to inspect.
There are two different kinds of insect traps that Gaeddert uses to collect pests for research. Each trap is tailored to the species of insect that he is looking for. In this case, both insects are species of moths that look similar. In addition to trapping the moths, Gaeddert inspects for a third insect by looking for its distinct color pattern. The bacteria can also be determined visibly; Gaeddert said bacteria-affected grapes will start to yellow and become deformed.
“I'm the only person doing this in the entire state,” Gaeddert said. “I go almost all the way to Colorado and then pretty much everywhere else too.”
Hiatus Wine
Alongside checking for pests, Gaeddert owns a winery, Hiatus Wine, with his wife, Henri. Before the COVID pandemic started, Gaeddert worked for other wineries; during the pandemic, he decided to open Hiatus Wine in Wamego, Kansas. The Gaedderts sell their own wine in nearby cities.
Gaeddert’s wine experience began when he was a child; he and his father did a science project of “homebrewing” wine. Later on, while living in Lawrence, Kansas, he was surprised by Kansan wineries and began working as an intern, steadily gaining experience. Now, Gaeddert is a certified specialist of wine through the Society of Wine Educators.
“We grow hybrid grapes,” Gaeddert said. “They’re native American vines crossed with the European grapes. The idea is [that] you can get the wine quality of the European grapes with the hardiness of the American grapes.”
In the future, he hopes to work with Kansas City’s Vaad Kashruth to make kosher wine. Although Gaeddert has not been a part of kosher wine making before, he has hosted kosher wine events.
More information about Hiatus Wine can be found at facebook.com/hiatuswineks.
