For many years, JPI has conducted many research efforts along “intuitive” (or colloquially – “seat of the pants”) paths, and while we arrived at many worthwhile insights, we feel it is now time to expand our research in the future. That future work will not only include such intuitive research projects, (this time with data, documentation and “controls”), but also larger projects with an emphasis on practical application in farm scale situations.

Here you can find information on projects already underway, or planned to begin in the immediate future.

JPI is also at the beginning stages of an “ashing” research project involving the pest Nutria that is causing widespread damage to levees and marshes in the New Orleans area. The Nutria is a kind of marsh rat imported from the Andes to be raised in captivity for fur which was accidentally released into the wild when flood waters impacted the place of captivity. This is a minimum three year project, and one hoped for result is a clearer understanding of the best time to conduct the ashing when “Venus is in Scorpio,” since Steiner’s exact meaning is subject to several interpretations. Initial expense is modest, but when it becomes possible to do serious field testing, significant funding support will be required.

BD #500 Joint Fellowship of Preparation Makers Project – In the Fall of 2009, JPI joined with preparation makers in four other regions of the country in a project to determine what measurements, laboratory and sensory observations, could be relied upon to judge the quality of finished BD #500. The project is in its second year of examining this question. The ultimate goal is to find factors which could be used at the “kitchen table” to ascertain the quality of BD #500. This project is self-financed and additional funding support would allow a broader range of testing. Any funds received that are earmarked for the BD #500 project will be equally distributed among the five different sites involved. (Those sites include, JPI (Jason Martin & Hugh Courtney) in Virginia, the Hudson Valley Regional Group (Malcolm Gardner) in New York, the Viroqua Group (Brian Wickert) in Wisconsin, the BD Regional Group (Wali Via) in Oregon, and Grgich Hills Winery (Joey Brinkley) in California.