Yes, I do realize that is has been a whole month since I last posted.
I can't really say that it's because I've been too busy cause, even though I have been busy, it's more that I am not very good at following through with these sorts of things. What, you may ask, is the category that blogging falls into? Anything that requires follow-through, I guess. I mean, I can run a chicken-filled household (not literally - I mean we no longer have chickens actually living in our house), I can meditate regularly, I do my laundry and shower on a regular basis. So what is it exactly - what is the element that causes the inevitable shirk? Is it that it is computer related? Perhaps. Is it that it involves more than one form of technology, thereby causing me to have to perform multiple tasks in order to complete it? Most likely. Or is it that I would just rather be watching cartoons....um...I think we all know the answer to that one.
So, during my most recent hiatus I have made 3 batches of blackberry wine. I can't remember if I posted anything at all about blackberry wine - so all together it is 3 batches. The first two are one gallon (plus about a half a wine bottle extra for topping off) batches and this last one is a little over 2 gallons. I just kept picking blackberries and freezing them and then put them all into a bag in a crock and added the appropriate amount of sugar and water and whatnot and it came out to about 2 gallons. But to this last one I also added the two teeny clusters of pinot noir grapes that Baron had growing on his little starts.
Pretty cute. I squeezed them all and added them in with the blackberry pulp. See me squeezing the teeny grape.
This is the squeezed blackberry pulp, sugar and water waiting for the yeasty goodness to be added. It's bubbling away in the basement right now. I will take pictures of it - really, truly I will. And I will post them. I promise.
So there you have it. My (most likely) last batch of wine for the season. I am so glad I got started doing this. It is so much fun and has been one of the major highlights of my day for the last few months. It's so easy too. Any of you Crafty Carol Cult followers out there could easily have some wine a brewin' in your kitchen or tool shed. And let me tell you something! It does not matter one iota (I don't think I have ever typed that word in my life) how clean your winemaking area is! As anyone who has been to my house can attest - my basement is FILTHY. It is dirty, dusty, unsanitary, just plain nasty and cramped too boot! And yet I have 5 batches of wine gloriously fermenting away down there and none of them have turned to vinegar. I know because I've tasted them all and man-o-man....all I can say is it's gonna be some damn lucky saps who are graced with a glass of one of these brews.
Baron just started a 5 gallon batch of a porter down there too. Actually I think he did most of the work in the barn and moved it to the basement for the fermentation. From what he tells me there is a special addition of 25 pine needles.
