Blueberry wine ferments in Layton Hastings' barn in Dayton, Tennessee, where he and his father plan on opening a winery on May 7, 2015.DAYTON, Tenn. -- The blueberry and blackberry bushes and the muscadine and grape vines growing on 30 rolling acres along state Highway 60 have roots that draw deeply on the Hastings family's history and love for the land.
Sitting on the front porch of the family home on Thursday, Layton Hastings and his father, L.V., said there's something savory in those ties to share with people, and they hope to bottle it in the form of wine.
Surrounded by lush green pasture divided by stands of fruit-producing plants in varying stages of spring bloom and fruiting, the family farm in East Dayton is where Layton Hastings hopes to launch a winery business.
The younger Hastings' vision for the land is a retail store fashioned after the family's small homestead, built when 81-year-old L.V. Hastings' mother bought the property back in 1941.
The elder Hastings first tried his hand at wine-making when he was maybe 4 years old or so. In those days the family of eight children, led by his widowed mother, lived in Martin, Tenn., near a plum orchard.
He collected his plums and juiced them for his first attempt.
"Best I can remember I hid it behind the front door. ... All I had was sugar to put in it, nothing else. I don't even know who told me how many days it took to make. I left the lid loose so it wouldn't bust the jar," he said.
"I thought, 'I'm going to taste of that.' I opened it up and I turned it up. It was good," he said. "And I sat it back behind the door and never saw it again."
Someone else thought it was good, too, his son speculated with a laugh.
L.V. Hastings, who assumed ownership of the farm in the mid-1960s, said he didn't make any more wine until more recent years when the family farm was producing lots of fruit.
"I started making wine here because we had so many blueberries and so many muscadines and stuff," he said. The family sold the produce to folks who stopped by, but when the excess fruit started getting overripe, he decided to start making wine as a hobby. He and his wife made the first batch from persimmons around 1995 and he kept building on that experience.
Now Layton Hastings, 39, envisions a small operation that incorporates his father's recipes into a retail business set to grow slowly.
"I always wanted to do something here to be able to make money and live off the farm," Layton Hastings said. "It's almost like I can see it happening."
The Hastings men refined the elder's recipes, and they think they have a winner when they complete the steps needed to license their operation under the label Hastings Vineyard and Winery. The first step was to get approval from the Dayton City Council, and the next steps include a health department inspection and state and federal licensing.
Dayton City Recorder Tom Solomon said the City Council on May 4 approved a motion to amend an ordinance that blocks the idea at the moment. Rules on the books now limit the alcohol content of beverages manufactured or distributed inside the city to 5 percent alcohol by weight.
"As far as the city goes, we're not in opposition to it at all," Solomon said. "I haven't heard any opposition from anybody at all."
Dayton officials will craft the ordinance changes, keeping in mind some changes to state law that take effect in 2017. The rewritten rules also will benefit another family looking to open a brewery, the Monkey Town Brewing Co. in town, Solomon said.
Layton Hastings talked to the father-son brewery team's youngest member, Kirby Garrison, on Friday, he said. Hastings believes such businesses attract people from all over and will be a booster for each other, the city and Rhea County.
"I'm excited for him and he's excited for me," he said. "We're paving the way for bigger things."
Contact staff writer Ben Benton at bbenton@timesfreepress.com or twitter.com/BenBenton or www.facebook.com/ben.benton1 or 423-757-6569.