I see now that I wrote about my projects last week, but failed to explain what was in our CSA box.   Well, we got 1 bunch beets, 1 bunch radishes, 2 quarts sour cherries, 1 pint blueberries, 1 pint wax beans, 3 cucumbers, 3 small zucchini, and  a head of red leaf lettuce.

We'll start with the beets.  I separated the greens from the roots and will be making roasted pickled beets ala Alton Brown's recipe . I usually fiddle with recipes and make them my own, but this one is SO GOOD that you'll eat the whole jar in one sitting.  Trust me.

The beet greens were stored in the refrigerator and later chopped and sauteed along with chopped swiss chard, bacon, salt and pepper, and a sweet onion.  We ate this with a loaf of crusty bread and it was a perfect light dinner on a 90 degree day!



At this point, I actually had 2 bunches of radishes waiting to be eaten.  I did a separate post dedicated to this because I came up with a radish salad idea that takes the bite out of radishes. And I was PROUD of it!




The blueberries were eaten before the day was out.

The sour cherries were pitted and made into Blackcap/Sour cherry wine (it's still bubbling on the counter!).  

I made the wax beans plus about a quart of green beans from my Mom's garden into Dilly Beans!   I wait all year to make these!

The cucumbers were eaten whole by my husband and kids.

The lettuce was washed, chopped and kept in a bag in the refrigerator for easy green salad making.

AND the zucchini will be grilled tonight in oil and garlic to go alongside some BBQ chicken.

ENJOY!!

I've been processing away all day today.    

I pitted the sour cherries and had about 4 gallons of frozen blackcaps in the freezer.  It is OFFICIALLY time to make Blackcap Jam and Wine!

Here's this years first small batch of Blackcap Jam!

Follow the link above to find my original recipes for these. 

This year I'm doing a variation on the Blackcap wine recipe that includes 2 lbs of pitted sour cherries.  For the fruit, you just add 2 lbs Blackcaps and 2 lbs Sour cherries.  Mash, add dried cranberries (or golden raisins) as suggested let set 24 hours, and carry on from there just as the instructions from the original post tell you!

First, you pit the Sour Cherries!

Put all of your frozen fruit (cherries and blackcaps) into a large pot, add raisins (or dried/sweetened cranberries), and top off with 4 quarts of water.

Cover with a hand towel and set sit 24 hours.  This is actually 2 different batches of wine. One plain Blackcap, and one Sour cherry/blackcap

See the original recipe here!
Have Fun, and Happy Fermenting!!!

As of 2 weeks ago, the storms have started.  This usually marks a turbulent time for changing weather and seasons.  The crows (which seem to disappear every spring when the migratory birds arrive) are making their presence known and the geese are flocking together into noisy airborne groups.  I've been picking blackcaps in our backyard for the last month and they stopped producing this week.  I ended up with about 3 gallons (full ziploc bags) of berries that I put  daily in the freezer to keep.  


I took out the frozen berries and made them into black cap wine, and jam.

Black cap wine is something that I made for the first time last season and it turned out fantastic.  Deep red, sweet, and wonderful chilled in a pretty glass.

Summer 2013 Blackcap wine

Enjoy!   And Happy Harvest!

A few weeks back our wild rose bushes were in full bloom.  There were enough flowers to fill many, many quart containers and the smell was divine.  I stopped picking after about 2 quarts of petals had been harvested (my eldest daughter was done getting pricked by the thorns at that point) and brought them inside to make rosewater.  


I had it in my head that I'd be using the 2 quarts of rosewater that I ended up making in tons of different recipes, but then my fascination with strawberries took over and I lost track of time.  A few  weeks later, my rosewater was still sitting in the refridgerator, looking forlorn...  and I decided to use the whole container in one go!

The result was an amazing smelling sweet rose petal wine!

We picked 6 quarts of strawberries on the Summer Solstice, as you may recall.  2 for eating (and pancakes), 2 for wine, and 2 for strawberry rhubarb jam. 

I got the wine going right away that day and it has been wildly fermenting ever since!  Yep, needed a blowoff tube again with this batch.  Never a dull moment around here!

So here's the recipe for preserving the flavor of the Summer Solstice, that'll be ready just in time for the Winter Solstice... when we can ALL use a little more sunshine (or at least a reminder of it).

Mash the sugar into the berries, then add 2 quarts of water.  Let the mixture stand covered with a kitchen towel for 24 hours. 

Stir mixture and then strain the liquid into a 2 gallon carboy (I actually put mine in a 3 liter carboy... and had to discard some of the liquid to make it fit). 

In a mason jar, make a yeast starter culture by combining the wine yeast, yeast nutrient, and orange juice.  Cover, shake vigorously, and let stand for about an hour until it gets bubbly; then add to the must.

Add the lemon juice and tea stir with a skewer or chopstick, and airlock the fermentation vessel.  Allow the mixture to ferment to completion.



When it has finished fermenting (no more bubbles are coming out of the airlock), bottle, cork, and cellar the wine.

Wait at least 6 months before sampling.

When my Grandma immigrated  from Germany to the USA she didn't bring much with her, but she did bring a chunk of rootstock from her father's Strawberry Rhubarb.  Strawberry rhubarb differs from regular rhubarb in that it generally has a smaller stalk that is a pretty pinkish red color.  My grandma, my mom, and I all have offspring from great grandpa's rhubarb plant growing in our yards... mine's a little small and sad, but mom's was big this year and she's been harvesting. 

I have to admit, the sunny warm days over the last couple of weeks have made me manic.  Like the kind of manic where you can't stop moving and doing even to sleep.  So, I channelled the energy, had a fantastic birthday, Mother's day, and visit with my brother and his wife, and concentrated on the abundance of dandelions that have finally sprung up all around us!    I already wrote an entry on the how-to of Dandelion Wine making when I excitedly realized the 2013 batch was ready to try back in March during a late season snowstorm.  But I've been so preoccupied with dandelions lately I'm feeling the need to share a mostly picture entry documenting the creation of my 2014 batch of wine!


Spring has finally Sprung!



There are SO many Dandelions this year and the girls love to pick!

My helpers!


Filled up the under-seat compartment... pink wagons are SUPER handy...



6 cups of dandelion petals... my fingers were numb at this point!

Dandelion must at the bottom of our 5 gallon food grade bucket (it ended up being about 1 gallon of liquid/petals/other ingredients).  The bucket was then covered loosely with aluminium foil and left to ferment for 3 days...




Today I strained the liquid and racked it into a 2 gallon fermenting vessel with an airlock on the top.   It will be ready to bottle in about 3 months!

This has been so much fun! One of my very favorite hobbies!

I love Spring. The green grass, the birds singing, and leaves on the trees and the WEEDS in my lawn!   Especially Dandelion.  I love Dandelion.  Early on in the season (probably next week or so for me), Dandelion greens are ready for picking and eating.  Over the winter, their bitter sap goes down into their roots as the green tops go dormant.  No sap = Sweet(er) leaves.  This is the perfect time to pick if you want some fresh leafy greens from the yard (no spray, please).

A few weeks later, the tops of the Dandelion turn bitter with the return of the "sap" and they begin to send up a plethora of flowering shoots.  At this point, you can either a) dig up the plant b) get mad and spray your yard so the "weeds" don't spread c) give up your grass for lost and let the flowers go to seed and spread everywhere (the neighbors LOVE this) or, my favorite d)  Pick the flowers, and make WINE!


My husband and I started brewing our own beer and making our own wine and hard cider back in our 20s for two key reasons 1) it's fun and we love creating our own adult beverages and 2) I became sensitive to corn and here in the U.S. corn sugar is used in EVERYTHING... even beer and wine.  I like my drinks to make me feel happy and relaxed, NOT sick!

Last Spring was actually the first time I tried making Dandelion Wine, and it was SO worth it when we finally opened up a bottle at the beginning of this month!
You need a few supplies, a lot of blossoms, and the ability to wait about a year if you want to make wine.

Traditionally, Dandelion Wine was made first thing in the season (umm, probably somewhere other than Upstate New York) so the blossoms were gathered in Early March.  The wine was ready to drink around the Winter Solstice to remind us of Spring sunshine during the darkest time of the year.

This year, I was glad to drink my sunny wine during our March blizzard(s), eventhough we are now experiencing quite a few more daylight hours than we were just a couple months ago.


1) Prepare dandelion petals (remove them from the stem and the bitter green base).  Place petals, sugar, raisins, and acid blend into a food grade plastic bucket.  Bring 1 gallon (3.8L) of water to a boil and pour it into the mixture.  Add Campden tablet, if desired, and let mixture sit for 24 hours.  If you ARE NOT using a Campden tablet, cool the mixture to lukewarm. 

2) in a jar, make a yeast starter culture by combining the wine yeast, yeast nutrient, and orange juice.  Cover, shake vigorously, and let stand 1-3 hours, until bubbly.  Then add to the must (must= the mixture in your bucket)

3) Add the pectic enzyme, loosely cover with plastic wrap or foil, and ferment for three days in the bucket.  Then rack the liquid into a 2-gallon (7.6 L)  airlocked fermentation vessel and allow it to ferment to completion.  About 3 months!

Transfer the wine into bottles, cork them, and put them in a cool, dry, place... out of the sun.

4) Wait at least another 6 months before sampling.




Just in time for the Big Snowstorm!