Cidermaking 2010 October 17th

After much too much prevarication, we've finally got round to some respectable cider-making. There is nothing to it whatsoever, honest.  We borrowed a small press from farming friends and with it a large plastic bucket and a fence post with a metal bar set cross-ways through one end.  Using the fence post, we mashed the apples to a fine pulp in the plastic bucket and loaded the mash into the net curtain, which forms an inner bag to the press.   

Next we squeezed the pulp into a jug until no more juice could come out of it, and poured the juice into a pressurised 40 litre plastic beer barrel (see below). We repeated this until the barrel was full, then screwed the cap down tight.  No sugar, no yeast, no ham, no rats.  It took a surprising number of apples, but a relatively short period of time to accomplish.

 Cider in its pressurised barrel, ready to drink by December.
(Note the sediment settled out at the base)

Having filled the barrel with pure cold-pressed apple juice, we sat the barrel on a windowsill in the cool larder and left it.  The pressure built up, the apple juice corrupted slowly, and fermented. With a little taste-testing along the way, we have found that fermentation ceased by the end of November (when the temperature fell).  The juice is no longer sugary at all, and what we have in the barrel is a dry apply cider of a moderate strength. No doubt we could increase the strength by adding wine-making yeast and sugar.  But it doesn't seem like we need to. The end result is very pleasing, but unlikely to last until Christmas for supply and demand reasons.  There was a lot of talk about secondary fermentation in May, when the larger warms up again, but since the cider is unlikely to survive that long, any questions on that theme are academic. Theoretically it would keep on improving until next summer.

(I) Apple Wine December 2010

December Apple Wine

Although it seems a bit late in the year to start the apple wine, its the first chance we've had.  We're using cooking apples which we picked in September/October from the orchard.  They seem fine and fresh, so we have followed these steps today:

1. Sliced the apples roughly and mashed them in a bag with a meat tenderiser.
2. Squeezed and halved two lemons
3. Added apples and lemons into a large sterilised wine barrel (60 litres).
4. Poured over several kettles of boiling water.
5. Stirred the apples.
6. Covered the apples with tap water (about 20 litres) - we used to use spring water from Malvern but the car isn't up to the trip today.
7. Stirred in 2kg of granulated sugar (all we have today).
8. Added two sachets of 'champagne' yeast to warm water, left it to start fermenting, then added to the barrel of apples, sugar and water.
9. Left the barrel in the outhouse with a clean cloth covering it. 

Mashing the apples

We need to: 

1. stir the apple barrel daily for a week.
2. add a further 10kg of sugar and one more sachet of yeast.
3. remove the apple pulp and top up the water at the end of the week.

Leave it for a week.

Elderberry Wine IV: Racking the Wine

The fourth instalment of the elderberry wine.  Its December 12th, and rather later than planned (it must be said), we racked off the elderberry from one PVA barrel to another identical one.

All we've done today is to sterilise a second barrel using crushed campden tablets, and to transfer the icor into it using a tube and some muslin. As you can see, the whole thing has the appearance of a nasty blood transfusion service or a particularly gory operation. Put the tube into the full barrel which is sitting on a stool above the height of the new clean empty barrel. Suck on the tube until the wine begins to flow, then all that is necessary is to ensure that the one end stays covered by liquid, and that the squirty end doesn't pour red wine all over your clothes and the floor. Its a question of aim. 
The purpose of racking off wine at this stage is to separate the useful liquid (the proto-wine) from the dead yeast cells, the bits of fruit which escape the previous filtration, and unwanted dead livestock, etc. Removing gunk from the wine is good. We should have done this three weeks ago though.

Wine transfusion.

In line with tips from my gardening diary, we have also added 14 crushed campden tablets, which should stop any further fermentation, and help to clear the wine, which at this stage is still cloudy (as expected).

Elderberry Wine III: 23 September 2010

So.... in addition to what we've done already.  The full amount of berries was added on 14th September, nine days ago.  According to the recipe, we've overdone the amount of time that the berries need to stand in the sugar and yeast.  Also, we failed to add more than 4kg of sugar at that time.

Despite this, the fermentation was still carrying on today when we opened the barrel, as evidenced by the bubbling of the water escape trap at the top of the barrel.

Tonight, we strained off the fruit, separating from the icor (burgundy-red juice) with a coarse muslin bag.    We transferred the liquid from one 60l barrel to another, newly sterilised with Campden tablets, using a jug and the muslin as shown in the photo above.  We squeezed out the fruit as much as possible to extract every ounce of juice remaining in the fruit. By the end of the process of washing the fruit through with more water, and squeezing it out, we ended up with the sixty litre barrel full of purple-coloured proto-wine.  Assuming that fermentation will continue, we have also added a further 7 kg of sugar, bringing the total to 11kg - which should hopefully result in a dry red wine which is drinkable.  

The next stage will occur 4-6 weeks from now, at around the end of October, when we'll rack off the sediment - strain the wine through muslin again - at which point the primary fermentation ought to have ceased. Until then, the barrel is back into a warm outhouse with a water escape airlock on top to release the gas produced by the action of the yeast and sugar.

Raspberry Jam

Raspberry Jam in the making

The raspberries from the allotment are just about ready to pick now.  The first fruit have been ready for about a week already, and there are many small green set fruit remaining on the plants, which suggests that the Durham crop will continue for the next few weeks at least.

Robin's Recipe:

1. Take raspberries and sugar in equal weights
2. On a low heat, warm the fruit until the berries start to break down and liquify
3. Slowly, while stirring, add the sugar
4. Increase the temperature until the fruit/sugar mix achieves a rolling boil (no lid on the pan)
5. Stir occasionally for about 20 minutes. 
6. Check to see when jam is ready by dropping a blob of it onto a cool plate.  If the blob sets and wrinkles when pushed with your finger, then its ready. If not, keep boiling it.
7. Pour mixture from pan to a sterilised pot.

Elderberry Wine II

The Durham Elderberries

Another 4kgs of elderberries from the St. Margaret's allotment hedges behind the house at Allergate.  I've just added 2kgs of sugar, 4 pints of boiling water and another sachet of wine-making yeast to this jam-pan full of fruit.  I gave the mixture a good mashing up and a blend to release the fruit juice, and when the whole thing has cooled down, then I'll combine this second batch with the elderberries which we gathered from the hedgerows around Duns Tew on Thursday of last week.  

All together in the same 60 litre barrel, we will have around 8kgs of fruit, which we hope we can top up with water and leave once the primary fermentation has gone on for about a further four days from today.

Allotment: September 2010

Rosie Weeding the Main Beds

As usual at this time of year, the weeds are getting out of control.  In the picture above, we look across the main vegetable bed, which we planted with a green manure clover seed earlier in the year.  It also contained our garlic, onion and shallots.  Out of shot to the right are two lines of rainbow chard, spinach and love-in-the-mist.  

Rainbow chard

Rosie is digging the onions, which haven't been great this year.  Probably we put them into the ground too late without any prior composting of the soil.  The main bed really hasn't been a great success this year, other than the chard, which as usual is fantastic.  

Behind Rosie in the pictures above and top are the scraggy pale beans, which have been awful this year, and behind them, the rhubarb, which has been great.

Hannah downs tools for drinking.

We have undertaken the following tasks:

• harvesting artichokes, onions, shallots, autumn raspberries, Victoria plums, chard, spinach, and rocket.
• weeding creeping buttercup, comfrey, and thistles from the main bed, paths and 'grassy' area around the shed.
• digging new bed between the blackcurrant bushes and summer raspberries.
• moving rocket, mint, marjoram and horseradish to the new bed.
• moving gladioli to newly weeded bed by the gate; and hollyhocks from the main bed to the gladioli bed and in front of the shed.
• buying onion sets and daffodils to be planted on our next visit.
• harvesting elderberries for wine.
• trimming the boundary hedges. 
• fire

Artichokes

The Olde Elm Tree

Rosie Moving the Hollyhocks

Weeding

 

Digging

 

Some of the September Crop

 

Clearing the main bed

 

Space for the next crop

Rhubarb Wine 2009: Bottling

The 2009 Rhubarb, from the allotment has been sitting in a 60 litre barrel since about May last year.  Its now clear and dry, the sediment has settled, and we felt that the time was ripe for bottling.  The first stage was to clean and de-label 80 bottles using the overnight soaking and a good scrape-down with a knife.  This is the least fun part of the operation, and took several days to accumulate the requisite empties. Ho I suffered.

Next, we open the barrel and lift it a very short distance onto a strong low stool. Gently gently, so as not to stir up the long settled sediment.  While it was recovering from this upsetting move, we washed out 80 bottles inside using a solution made up from campden tablets with water. By the time this operation was completed, the wine was ready to go.  I used a multi-thickness of muslin over the intake end of the decanting tube.  With this in the barrel, gravity and a little initial suction did the rest.

We do about 25 bottle at a time, then cork them using the little corking gizmo to prevent the fruit flies getting in.  The flies were very keen today. Drunk on the fumes no doubt. But we defeated them in the end.

All in all, we filled 80 bottles exactly before the cloudy must at the bottom of the barrel started to appear in the siphoning tube. At that point, we stopped and fed the residue from the barrel to the fig trees outside the kitchen, by way of a reward.  The rhubarb is a light delicate pink colour, and quite dry. Very pleasant.

Banbury Elderberry Wine

Thursday 9th September 2010
Using the recipe in the previous post:

We are starting with 4 kilos of berries (which we weighed after we had stripped them from the stalks with a fork.)
In the 60 litre barrel, we add 5 pints of boiling water; and
Stir in 2.5 kilos of sugar.
When it cools, we will add one 5g packet of winemakers yeast, but no citric acid at this stage.
We will cover the barrel top with a cloth to allow the air in and keep the flies out.

On Tuesday 14th at the latest (presuming we don't collect more fruit to complicate the process), we will have to move to stage 2.

ELDERBERRY WINE RECIPE : Whytes Home Wine Equipment

ELDERBERRY WINE RECIPE : Whytes Home Wine Equipment

This red wine made from the bluish berries of the Elder Tree is well worth making. A very popular wine, deep red in colour, a full bodied, tannic wine that imitates a good quality commerical red table wine. The recipe can be adapted to make wine from dried elderberries or sloes all the year round

FRESH ELDERBERRY WINE (recipe to make one gallon of wine) OR USING DRIED ELDERBERRIES

Fresh Elderberries 1.5 kilos (3lbs)
or 250 grams of Dried Elderberries
White Granulated Sugar 1 kilo for dry wine
Or White Granulated Sugar 1.25 kilos for a medium wine
Or White Granulated Sugar 1.5 kilos for a sweet wine
Citric Acid (1 teaspoon)
Yeast and Yeast nutrient
Water

1 Campden Tablet
Potassium Sorbate (Stoppitt) as directed

EQUIPMENT NEEDED TO MAKE ONE GALLON OF WINE

5 litre/1 gallon white plastic food grade bin and lid
5 litre/1 gallon demijohn either glass or plastic
Cork with hole and airlock
Fine nylon Straining bag
Syphon
Hydrometer/Trial Jar (Optional)

RECIPE

Strip the fresh elderberries from the stalk by using a culinary fork, then weigh the berries and crush them in a food grade white polythene bucket. If using dried elderberries or sloes put them directly in the bin and pour on 2 pints of boiling water and dissolve the amount of granulated sugar required. Once cool - approximately 21C (75f) add the yeast, yeast nutrient and citric acid.

Cover well and leave in a warm place to ferment for 4/5 days.

Strain of the liquid into a glass demijohn, top up with cool boiled water and fit a cork and airlock. Continue to leave to ferment for approximately 4 to 6 weeks. When the wine has finished fermenting (test using a hydrometer, the reading should for a dry wine read 0.998sg.). Rack again in one months time. The wine should be stored in either a glass demijohn or bottled. If storing in a demijohn, top up with cool boiled water or red wine up to the neck of the demijohn and add one campden tablet and 1/4 teaspoon of Stoppit. Rack again in two months time.
The wine can be sweetened if necessary . This wine can be drunk within 3/6 months or left to mature

TIP: Adding an extra kilo of blackberries (2lb) at the bucket stage makes an excellent Port style wine

August 24th (2010): Bees, Plums, Apples, Pears

August 24th 2010: Hightown Road, Banbury

Bees, plums, apples and pears. It seems like a good idea to me to use the Blog TAGS function so that I can keep track of monthly activities over the years in Durham, Oxfordshire; and also to tag years so that we can see what we achieved on what year. From now on, I'll tag posts by month, year, location and activity, so that assuming one is spared, the data will slowly accumulate through the years. I may even try to back date some of the info so that I can see what was ready at what time of the year in which part of the country. I usually fail to keep track of all my gardening endeavors, but this should over the course of a year or two build up into a reasonable archive of data.

BEES

So. Today. we opened all of the hives up at around 18.00. The day is windy, and alternating between heavy thundery rain and bright hot sunshine. The bees seemed quiet and not stingy at all. We did use a fair amount of smoke on them.

HIVE 1: Yellow Carnolean Bees (EZ bees): Swarmed in July: re-queened themselves: building back up fast: four or five full frames of honey to take off at least. This was our biggest, most productive hive until July when it swarmed during our visit to the Scilly Isles. The hive seemed to be queenless for a while, but following advice, we left it alone, checked three weeks later and there was brood, eggs and larvae in the brood chamber, so all must be well. Having ost the majority of the colony, this hive is still building slowly back to strength.

HIVE 2: Black Native Bees (Lloyd Tredell) on five frames of a nucleus. Not building up very fast. Perhaps a larder brood box for them to move into? No super. This colony is our smallest. Another 2010 queen who arrived in a queen cage, which we placed with three frames from HIVE 1.

HIVE 3: Black semi-Native Bees (Lloyd Tredell) on 12 frame brood-box with two supers on top, only one needs to be spun off. The hive still needs a crown board. This is one of Llyod's queens from last year, I think. This colony was also quite small when it arrived in 2010, and build up from 4 frames.

HIVE 4: Mixed English Bred bees (Jackman) on twelve frame brood box with one super on top, which will need to be spun off in about one week from now. This is the newest colony, it started this year 2010 with five frames from a queen bred this year in Malvern.

Hive 1 recovering from having swarmed in July.


PLUMS

The plums are ripe on the trees now, likewise greengages. We have picked a trug-full a day for the past two days, and there are many windfalls. This is exacty the right time to be taking the plums (Victorias) from the trees in Banbury. We are experimenting with a dehydrator using a mix of plums, apples and pears, but I'll report on that in the morning, when the process is finished.

APPLES and PEARS

The apples and pears aren't ready quite yet but the fruit which has been attacked by things is dropping off the trees, and so windfalls are providing apple juice (as recommended in someone else's blog, referenced below). The Conference pears are not quite ready, but we have a small Williams, which has produced a few pears for the first time since we have had this house. These are ripe and ready to eat now.

Capped Honey from Hive 4

Hive 4 August 24th

George resenting the use of his trug for plums

Mac OS X v10.6.4 Update (Combo)

Mac OS X v10.6.4 Update (Combo)

How and when to prune your Apple Tree with pictures.

How and when to prune your Apple Tree with pictures.

Beeswax recipes

Some useful things to do with beeswax....

The Bee Buzz

Rendering Beeswax

An article on rendering beeswax.  Seems useful.

The Bee Buzz

What to Do with Windfall Apples

 

Click on the Picture for this piece of good advice. We have masses of apples at the moment.  This seems to provide some good ideas.

Mother Earth News

Honey Flow

Honey Flow, July 2010

We have just taken off the honey-containing supers from our first and third hives which are our large colony of yellow carnolean bees, and a smaller colony of native English black bees from Lloyd Tredell. Despite a solid smoking, the black bees, only a four-frame nucleaus one month ago, were very reluctant to lose their honey supplies today, and I am typing with a rapidly swelling venomous thumb. They can also sting through denim. Nonetheless, from one super and five frames we have about 35lb of honey. I'll add more bee-related news when I return from Durham on Friday.

Thanks to Robert and Clare Knight of Middle Barton for the loan of their most excellent antediluvian honey extractor, which is still going strong.

Allotment First Visit: 7th February 2010

7th. February 2010

With Hannah and Rosie, this is the first visit to the allotment for 2010, which sets the staring point for this baseline study of what we do, when in the allotment.  

Our starting point is this: the allotment is basically divided into quarters, left and right of the path, and in the shade of the tree and out of it.  

Shady Left          - path -     Shady Right

Unshaded Left   - path -     Unshaded Right