The Tiny House People (Documentary)

This is fascinating.

Ripe Elderberries

The elderberries are ripe for the picking.  As the berries grow darker and fatter, the clusters droop closer to the ground.


These dark purple, almost black, elderberries are really interesting.  Up until a couple of months ago, I didn't know much about them.  From what I've read, all parts of the plant are to a certain extent toxic, even the seeds.  As a result, eating too many of the berries raw can give you an upset stomach.  I don't think there is much risk of that for me because they taste awful raw as far as I'm concerned. 

Many people believe that elderberries hold certain health benefits.  One of our neighbors juices them and claims that they help to relieve constipation.  Another neighbor, who dries and then grinds them into a powder, believes that they work to boost one's immune system.  I'm more interested in them for a more traditional purpose - winemaking.  Apparently, people have been making elderberry wine for centuries.  I can see why as there is a wildness about them that becomes tamed during the winemaking process. 


The clusters are fairly easy to strip - almost like stripping currants.  I have two one gallon recipes - one calling for 3 lbs of ripe berries and another calling for 10 lbs.  I'm assuming the latter will result in a richer more full-bodied wine.  So far, we've picked around 5 lbs and when all is said and done, we'll have enough to make wine and a batch or two of jam.

Home Winemaking - Wild Black Raspberry Wine and White Currant Wine

I started my second and third batches of wine a couple of weeks ago.  This time around, it was a raspberry wine and a white currant wine.  I was really excited to use the wild black raspberries that I had picked and froze back in June. 


For my raspberry wine, I used the recipe found in Terry Garey's "The Joy of Home Winemaking," which calls from 3 - 4 lbs of raspberries for every gallon of wine.  In this case, I used 2 lbs of wild black raspberries and 2 lbs of our homegrown red raspberries (which are delicious by the way). 


I started another gallon batch of wine using 3 lbs of white currants that I had also picked and froze in June, again using a recipe found in Terry Garey's book.   This particular recipe for currant wine called for 3 lbs of sugar, which seemed a bit much.  After the must was assembled, I was a bit concerned that the finished wine might end up tasting overly sweet for my liking. (I usually like my wine very dry.)  You see, during the fermentation process, the wine yeast feeds on the sugar contained within your must (which in fruit winemaking consists mainly of crushed fruit, water and a sweeter like sugar or honey), creating alcohol and releasing carbon dioxide.  Once the alcohol level in your must reaches a certain level, say 14% for example, the yeast population begins to die off.  Hence, if the alcohol level of your must reaches this critical point before all of the sugar has been consumed, then you may ultimately end up with a sweet tasting wine.  I'm hoping this is not the case with this recipe.


The raspberry must was a brilliant blood red and very fragrant.  The white currant must, on the other hand, was far from interesting in sight or smell. 


The primary fermentation process lasted for about 12 days, after which the wine was siphoned into one gallon glass jugs to start the slower secondary fermentation stage, which usually lasts anywhere between 4 and 6 months.  As more sugar is consumed, more alcohol is released, and more yeasts die and sink to the bottom of the jug, the wine should slowly become clearer (hopefully).  During this stage, the wine is usually siphoned into new jugs several times, separating the liquid from the settled dead yeast particles, until you end up with a clear wine that is suitable for bottling.

As you can see from the picture above, by the end of the primary fermentation stage, the white currant wine took on a light yellow hue more reminiscent of white grape wine. 

On a side note - I forgot to post an updated picture of my Juneberry wine, which began its secondary fermentation stage a few weeks ago.  You can see how cloudy the wine is at this point, but already, it's beginning to clear.  It's hard to tell by the light but I would describe the color as being ruby red.

A Mid-July Harvest

I look forward to this time every year.  The first artichokes are in.  (Yes!  It's possible to grow artichokes in Vermont!)  They don't seem to mind the hotter than usual weather we've been experiencing so far this summer, though the plants are growing much lower to the ground than usual.   I know what I'll be eating for the rest of the week.

Also, my onions are looking fairly decent compared to years past.  I went back to starting them from seed and waited until the chance of any frost was over before setting them out.  This seemed to have helped.


Aside from the Sungold and Black cherries, I picked our first slicing tomato this past weekend - a Cherokee Purple I believe.  Usually the first tomatoes of the season aren't so great but this one was VERY good.  It still amazes me how different (and amazing) homegrown heirloom tomatoes are compared to anything you might find at the supermarket or even most farmers markets.

I also picked the first hot peppers of summer.   Hungarian Wax is incredibly early and always a reliable producer.

And they make the best pickled hot peppers in my opinion. 

What's In Season - Turnips and Cukes

This is my first time growing your average turnip.  Up until now, I've only grown Japanese varieties,  which are smaller and milder.  I'm planning on roasting these for dinner sometime soon.


The cucumbers continue to come in strong despite the beetle issues we've been having.  Like every year, by mid-August all of my cucumber plants end up slowly succumbing to bacterial, which is spread by cucumber beetles.  I guess we'll just have to enjoy them while they last.  Fresh homegrown cucumbers in my opinion are infinitely tastier than the soft/bendy/tasteless (i.e. not fresh!) ones you find at the supermarket.


And what to do with all of those cucumbers?  You make refrigerator dill pickles of course.  I've had so many complements lately from friends who've tried my homemade pickles (which probably explains why they never seem to last longer than a week in the fridge).  Most of them have never made pickles before and didn't realize how easy it is.  Here's the recipe that I stick with (though I usually add an additional teaspoon of salt these days). 

Currant Madness

During the past couple of weeks, we've been picking currants planted throughout the development.   We have six bushes ourselves, which have yielded much more than I had expected. The red and white varieties seem to ripen all at once, which makes the picking process much easier.


The black ones on the other hand seen to ripen individually, so instead of plucking whole clusters, we picked these one by one.  I've never picked coffee before but I imagine it's a lot like this.  And unlike the white and red ones, which have a sweet/tart taste, the black one are much more interesting.  They are less juicy than the others and have a flavor that's musky and almost spicy. 


Just to give you a sense of scale, the Red Lake currants on the right are somewhat smaller than the unknown red variety on the left, but I think they have more flavor.


And while the black currants are more time consuming to pick, the red and white ones require more processing time.  But once you got into a groove, striping the berries seemed like therapeutic work. 


Just part of the harvest - we picked enough for several batches of wine, including one for each variety.  I think I'll also try making wine from a blend of the three.  And there will still be enough left over for jellies, syrups, cordials.

Picking Wild Black Raspberries

Towards the back of our development, the side facing Centennial Woods, I came across a patch of wild black raspberries the other day.  Admittedly, I had to do some googling before I figured out exactly what they were.  They're tiny compared to cultivated raspberries but have a wonderful flavor.  And unlike the raspberries you grow in your own garden, these were bit of a pain to pick.  This particular patch was growing on the side of a downward slope so I had be extra careful when picking.  Falling head first into a thick patch of thorny brambles would ruin anyone's day.


As you can see, the berries start out red, turn purple and then ripen black.


Luckily, I was able to find several patches that were not so treacherous, though I also made the mistake of not dressing in appropriate attire when I picked my first batch.  Like most wild edibles, these tend to grow amidst tall weeds and brush, which are a haven for plants and bugs that make you itch.  Luckily, it was just the bugs that first time and now I make sure to wear pants whenever I go searching for them. 


Juneberries a week ago, wild raspberries now and blackberries next month - who knew you could have this much free fruit living within city limits?  At this point, I've been able to pick almost two pounds of these berries.  (They are tiny and way next to nothing!)  Combined with some of our cultivated red raspberries, I now have enough to make a batch of (mostly) wild black raspberry wine. 

Eldeberries in Full Bloom

We have two enormous elderberry bushes next to our unit and they are in full bloom at the moment.  The tiny flowers smell amazing.


And they're very interesting up close.  I've never tasted an elderberry before.  I wonder if they would make for a good wine.

Home Winemaking - Juneberry (Saskatoon, Serviceberry) Wine

When Borders bookstore went out of business last year, I made several trips during the last few weeks of its life to raid the gardening and cooking sections. When all was said and done, I ended up with a large stack of books, and Terry Garey's "The Joy of Home Winemaking" was one of them.

I've been wanting to learn the craft of home winemaking for a while now. I think it all started when I watched the movie Anne of Green Gables on PBS (I think I was about 10 years old at the time) and was intrigued when a young Diana Barry, with a little help from Anne, got drunk off of Miss. Cuthbert's homemade red currant wine.  Fast forward twenty years later, I bought my first bottle of red currant wine from a local farm while we were living in Massachusetts, and well... let's just say I wasn't exactly smitten with the stuff.  The flavor of the wine was fine enough, but it was awfully sweet.  I began to think that most commercial fruit wines were produced this way and unfortunately for me, I prefer my wines on the drier end of the spectrum. 

Anyway, not too long ago, it dawned on me that all of our currant shrubs (courtesy of our landlord) might produce enough fruit this year to kick start this new endeavor of mine.  If the birds stay away, I think we'll have enough red, white and black currants to make several gallons of wine.  Like most hobbies (gardening being one of them), I'm expecting a steep learning curve in the beginning and lots of terrible wine along the way.  But I've always believed that it's partly the mistakes that make learning a new craft all the more interesting and exciting.


I was expecting that my first wine would be made from currants, but thanks to our kind neighbor who introduced me to them, it will be made from most of the juneberries I picked this past weekend.  It seems somehow more fitting that my first attempt at making wine would involve a wild edible fruit.  I'm sure this was how it was done centuries ago before the first European wine grapes were ever cultivated.  And it just so happens that I found a recipe (or should I say 'guide') for making juneberry wine online.  (Jack Keller maintains a rather impressive site containing tons of recipes and advice for winemaking novices.)


Last Saturday, we made a trip to the Vermont Homebrew Store to set some supplies (a convenient 5 minute drive from our place).  I spent about $75 but I'm sure you could get started on much less depending on what you already have lying around the house. (Jack Keller has a great list of basic supplies you would need in order to get started.) In fact, one of our neighbors kindly gave me a one gallon glass apple juice jug to use during the secondary fermentation stage of this project.  (I don't think I'll make any batches larger than a gallon until I get the hang of this as one gallon of awful wine down the drain is not as heartbreaking as say three or five.)  I've also sent word to a few of our friends to save their empty wine bottles.

I won't go into detail about what I've learned so far about the basics of home winemaking as I am in no position to be giving any sort advise on this subject at this point of the game, but I thought I'd at least describe what I did, along with my observations, here more for my own sake than anything else (in the event this wine actually turns out well).  In any case, I woke up early on Sunday to get things started.  I ended up using the ingredients listed in Jack Keller's third recipe but referred to some of the advice given in Terry Garey's book when putting it together.


I started out by mashing 3 lbs of juneberries in a large pot and brought it to a boil along with 6 cups of water and the juice of 2 lemons.  After it simmered for about 10 minutes, I poured it into a  nylon jelly bag that I'd placed inside my primary fermenter.  Then I brought another 8 cups of water to a boil, into which I dissolved 2 1/2 lbs of sugar, and poured this into my primary as well.  Into this mix I added 1 lb of minced raisins in a second jelly bag.  I then covered the bucket and allowed it to cool down for a couple of hours.  When the mixture (or 'must') was lukewarm, I stirred in 1 teaspoon of yeast nutrient and 1 crushed Campden tablet, which I'd dissolved in a small amount of the must first. (I did notice that the color of the must lightened a bit when I added the tablet, but it still retained much of its ruby red color.)  Then the top went back on but this time fitted with an airlock. 

At this point, there was a strong yet lovely scent of almonds or amaretto to the must, which I'm sure was imparted by the seeds.  The smell subsided after it sat for a while and I was afraid that the addition of the raisins would overpower the flavor of the juneberries.  I guess I'll find out eventually.


Twelve hours after I added the Campden tablet, I stirred in 1 teaspoon of pectic enzyme and recovered (late Sunday night). Twelve hours later, I sprinkled a packet of Champagne yeast over the surface of the must and recovered again.  Within a few hours, I could tell that fermentation was starting as the airlock started to release gas.

Marc has been given the task of giving the must a gentle stir once a day while I'm away.  After 5 days, the nylon bag containing the juneberries will be removed and the must will be allowed to ferment for another 5 days before the raisins are removed and the must is siphoned to the secondary fermentation vessel if all goes well.  I'll be sure to provide updates as we go along. 

(In case you're interested, here is a glossary of basic winemaking terms.)

Blackberry Flowers

We have some blackberry canes that flowers not too long ago.  Unlike the ones we had at our old house and the wild ones that grow along the woods surrounding our development, these canes produce some stunning pink flowers.  I can't wait to find out what this particular variety tastes like.