Kipps Grapes is a small family owned and operated pick-your-own fruit business dating back to the seventies. They specialize in a delicious variety of grapes and also grow some apples and peaches. Barbara, John and David Kipps took on the family business from their parents 14 years ago.
Working and nurturing the vineyard and orchard connects them with their father. Ward Kipps was a successful radio/TV salesman and repairman. According to Barbara, “He didn’t plan for a vineyard; he just blossomed into it as an escape from electronics.” His side hobby quickly became a pick-your-own fruit business!
Ward even partnered with Virginia Tech’s fruit development program to test grow fruit resulting in the Moored grape variety they still grow today!
Barbara attributes her love of cooking and experimenting in the kitchen to helping her mother Beth harvest and can as a young child. In 2015 she began incorporating their home-grown, picked at the peak of ripeness fruit into delicious products. The apple butter recipe comes from a three-generation family tradition of gathering fireside to peel and cook apples in a huge copper kettle.
Now Barbara brings the small farm in the Blue Ridge Mountains to you in her juices, jellies, jams, and fruit sauces and butters. Try her Grapel sauce as a side dish, on top of plain yogurt, as a marinade for pork chops or get creative on your own!
