DETROIT — As a priest in the Catholic Church, Msgr. Daniel Trapp knows all about working in the Lord’s vineyard. 

He also knows a little something about working in the earth’s vineyards, having experience tending to grapes and vines of his own. 

The pastor of St. Augustine and St. Monica Parish on Detroit’s east side and associate professor of theology at Sacred Heart Major Seminary has been growing his own grapes in a vacant city lot at Canfield and Van Dyke for the past several years. 

Msgr. Trapp, who has experience owning a vineyard in northern Michigan, was inspired by the Hantz Woodlands projects near his parish to start the vineyard, which he hoped would help the community by providing jobs and an annual harvest.

Urban farming is springing up throughout the city, but Msgr. Trapp said the vines also hearken back to the city’s early days, when settlers would plant crops to feed their families.

Photos by Valaurian Waller | Detroit Catholic