Radishes and Strawberry Wine!

Linking with Rhonda over at Down To Earth :


Oddly enough this spring I've had an over abundance of radishes even though I planted late.  Usually I sow them in two week intervals hoping one crop hits the weather just right.  This year was cool and wet and both patches I planted produced lots of radishes.  So I decided not to let them go to the compost pile. 

As usual I sat in my swing with a cold beverage and prepped them.

I decided I would pickle them like I do jalapenos.  So sliced into the jar they go!

I put a solution of half water and half vinegar over them and some salt in each jar.  Boiling solution that is.  Then I put the tops on and called it good.

That was a couple of days ago and now they are a beautiful pink.

Well, trust me they are pink, it was dark this morning when I left the house and took this snapshot quickly on the way out the door.  I also stashed Baby Jar in my lunch bag to taste later today!

Remember the strawberry wine I started back at the first of the year?  I bottled it, and it is a very good batch!

I had some extra that didnt' fill the 5th bottle and I might just have to have a taste this evening.  Strawberry wine has a delicate flavor with just a bit of bite and an absolutely intoxicating bouquet of strawberries.  One of my favorites it is!

The Good Life

When the weather turns nice in the spring I spend hours outside piddling in the yard.  I try to do a little every day and just enjoy being outside.  Some things I do are productive and some are not.  But I enjoy them all!

Just a peek under the canvas where I planted some lettuce and such about a month ago.

Ground shot of beets, onions, and radishes.

The weather has turned from cool to hot so most of my lettuce will bolt.  I am going to try growing a heat tolerant variety  in a portable bag as an experiment.  I tried another experiment.  I wanted to make some vinegar with some other bloggin' folks but it failed miserably.

Here it is when I first put the apples and an orange in the jar with sugar water!  I was excited.

Within minutes ants had invaded the jar and were swarming everywhere.  I had to hide my eyes.

That isn't me.  For some reason this little fellow likes to hide.

After playing with kids and doing a bit of gardening I like to rest  in my swing.

I don't really care what the neighbors think.  They seem to love me even if I grow beans in the front yard and drink homemade wine!  I give them a dishcloth from time to time as an overt act of bribery and lately I've been obsessed with making baby doll clothes!

I made her a little backpack too.  The little girl up the street brought me another baby and informed me she wanted a "rainbow dress".  I'm working on that one now.  I'm thinking the tackier it is the more she will love it.

This is a shot of my homemade wine a friend sent me.  Reminds me the lemon balm in the front yard is perfect to make another batch right now!  I have been craving hummus too.

After all that work and the day is ending we go inside and rest some more in the recliner.  Uno is tired from all the excitement of playing in the yard.

He likes it there on my dirty jeans.

And I  thought I couldn't love a chihuahua.

Bottling Wine

Finally!  The day I've been waiting for has arrived.  After the last racking I had watched the airlocks closely and 3 gallons of wine had stopped fermenting.  Time to bottle.  First I had to round up about 16 empty bottles.  I use clear ones for white wines and save the colored ones for my reds so they don't fade from light exposure.  I decided to give them a good scrub in soapy water since its been quite awhile since I've bottled.

I look carefully on the bottom.  I always wash the bottles out when they are empty, but sometimes people who give me bottles don't so I have to be very careful.  Look closely.

See that dark spot on the right?  I have to get that out so it doesn't spoil all my hard work.  When I'm done I rinse them and I'm ready to start!  But first I rinse them with this:

It is potassium metabisulfate.  It kills yeast and stops fermentation I use a little solution to rinse because it is also a sterilizer.  You can also add a campden tablet to each bottle but I don't.    No additives for me! 

I use an assortment of bottles.  Most of them are wine bottles, but anything glass will do as long as I can cork it.  

A friend gave me some labels.  I think she wants a bottle or she thinks I'm a hippie.  Or maybe both.

I start siphoning into each bottle.

I better look under the table next time!  And no, Twinkletoes on the left doesn't have a cloven hoof, that's a hoof for the dog to chew!  You were supposed to be looking at the siphon and the gadget that allows me to stop the flow of wine and switch bottles.

Now we top off each bottle.  I usually get at least 4 bottles per gallon I can cork.   Now its time to cork!  I boiled these corks earlier in the day so they would be sterile and saturated with water.  It is better to do it the night before.

I like these corks because they are short.  Easy to put in and easy to get out.  The corker I bought because I was killing my hands doing it manually.  It does the trick!

You open it up and slide in a cork.

Next you put it on the bottle and seat the cork with a mighty push!

See what a fantastic job it does?!

I get four bottles of the apple raspberry with some extra and the bottom of the jug goes in my glass.

Next up are:

I like to keep the label on there so I know how long they've been fermenting.  Sometimes I put the kind of yeast too.  You can really make this as detailed as you'd like.  I just drink it and cook with it and I like not knowing exactly what it is going to taste like when I pop the cork so I don't keep a lot of records.  I do, however, have my favorite recipes.

When I've emptied the three jugs I have enough left over for a bottle of blended wine and some more in my glass!  I put them away in a cabinet I can close and keep dark.

I was down to 3 bottles!  I am saving a bottle of strawberry and the one second from the right is dandelion.  The dark bottle on the end is blueberry.  It isn't very good to drink so I use it to cook.  Makes a fine marinade!

In a couple of more weeks I hope to have some mixed berry ready to bottle.  These three were from concentrates. They are always ready quicker than those I brew from fruits.  I don't have to rack them as much for one thing.  Concentrates make perfectly fine wines and are much easier to make.  I can have a decent table wine ready to drink in 3 months.

Til next time!

Cheers!

Ahhhh the Wine is Fine

I finally got around to racking my wine.  This is the task I will happily do while supper bubbles on the stove.  My goodness!  Are there nine gallons there?

The one in the center front I'm going to rack first.  Turns out this was the mixed berry that had the awful mold on top if you recall that post.  It tastes very good.  Not sweet which is a good sign.  After 6 weeks of a slow ferment it is doing very well.  I watch as it siphons.

This is the dead yeast and solids from the berries.

Here you can see how handy the tip is on the siphon. While some of the solids and yeast getting into the new bottle isn't harmful you definitely don't want this gunk in there.

 Remember the strawberry I started?  I am amazed at this color!  I have never had strawberry wine this dark!

You can see the dead yeast at the bottom.  I have been very pleased with this yeast.  And the taste of this wine is already quite smooth, and again it isn't sweet.  I'm on a roll!

Doesn't that stuff look good enough to pour over ice cream?  But trust me it isn't.  I pour it in the compost bucket instead.  Once I put the air lock back on the jug you can see it is already beginning to ferment again.

Next up are the batches that have been racked at least once and/or made from concentrates.  If there isn't dead yeast and material in my siphon I don't have to wash it out between batches and the work goes fast from here on out.  This next one is an apple raspberry from a concentrate.  It is new to me.  It tastes lovely already with the aroma of raspberry and a hint of raspberry after you swallow.  This will be a good wine.

If you like a wine that doesn't have a lot of "bite" you will like these made from apple juice.  Very mellow and the raspberry keeps it from being bland.

What flavor do you think one is?

No it isn't bourbon.  I know I know I live in the bourbon capital of the universe, but it is illegal to brew bourbon in my house so I have this cheap imitation.  This is apple cherry.  It is much milder than the apple raspberry.  And how about that color!  Love that rosy goldness don't you?

I can't bear to throw out anything drinkable so I do this.

It is a bit murky and it isn't as tasty as the first sips when I siphon but it isn't bad.  When I can drink "the bottom of the barrel" I know my wine will be very good when its ready!  And if I let it sit for an hour or so it will clear considerably.

As I look back over my work I notice all but one are reds or rose.  I must have been thirsty for reds!  I have two gallons that will most likely be ready to bottle very soon.  One is a plain white grape table wine and the other a mixed berry.  I can't wait to replenish my wine cupboard because it is nearly empty.  You must be thinking that is a lot of wine and you are right. I will get about 4 bottles or so from each gallon and I will probably bottle a gallon a month over the next 6 months.  I use a bottle a week on average so I try to keep the supply on hand at the rate of a gallon a month.  I had stopped brewing for awhile so its time to play catch up!

Of all the wines I tasted tonight I am the least impressed with the white grape wine.  Country wines grow on you because they vary in flavor.  I like to have a "plain" white grape on hand because when (not if) I brew an inferior wine I can blend it with the white grape and have a very nice end product.  In fact, if you look at the label of store bought wines you will find that many of them are blends.   And please, exercise caution if you buy a blackberry or blueberry or some such wine.  It is a blend.  I, personally think it is a marketing tool to disguise bad grape wines.  Not a criticism mind  you, this is an observation.  After all, that IS what a vitner DOES!  It is too painful to waste all that hard work and love and time and effort and hope and all those wonderful by products of winemaking and yes I made this run on sentence on purpose.

Now for some wine art.

That is what you see from the bird's eye view down a just racked gallon of wine.  This was a concentrate so that is all dead yeast on the bottom.  Good thing I don't have a decent camera or I could get dangerous!

Supper is ready!  This is the leftover turkey from Thanksgiving, leftover tomato juice, spices and some frozen basil from the garden that I need to use!

I really should have put a glug of wine in there!  See!  I told you it goes fast!