Apple Wine Vinegar Wrap Up

KevinFrom the Cellar, Wine Vinegar13 Comments

I threw this out today. And not because if failed. A rare success story of home provisioning of food where the product just simply doesn’t bring enough to the table for me to bother. It looks gross, yes. Vinegar mothers tend to be proficient at that. Don’t believe me? Turns out the months it takes to make this – I … Read More

Rack-Fest

KevinApple Wine, From the Cellar, Wine, Wine Making13 Comments

Okay. So I underestimated the work involved in making this volume of wine. Yesterday things needed racking, and wow did it add up to a lot of work – I started around 1, took a break to feed the family and bathe the kids, then back to racking, finishing at about 8pm. I learned, through the tedium of this task, … Read More

2010 Apple Wine Vintage Shows its Face

KevinApple Wine, Apples, From the Cellar, From the Garden, Fruit from the Yard, Wine, Wine Making8 Comments

Oh, happiness. I’ve been keeping a loose eye on the bubbling of my apple wine carboys [a not-so-modest 9 carboys, or ~20 cases. I’m sharing with folks, honest], but hadn’t noticed them dropping clear until today. What does that mean? The yeast is done doing its thing – and no longer is creating turbulence in the solution. What does that … Read More

Cellar Dream-Come-True

KevinApple Wine, Charcuterie, Cheese, Dairy, Dry Cured Meats, From Local Farms, From the Cellar, Nature's Green Acres, Pork, Saucisson Sec, Smoky Valley Goat Cheese, Wine10 Comments

I knew when I built my wine and root cellars, that they would bring me joy – but I had no idea it would happen so thoroughly, so quickly. Today I made a batch of very, very large saucisson sec. It was time to try again after my last slightly hurtful failure, and the humidity in my cellar has been … Read More

FROM LOCAL FARMS – En Santé Organic Winery & Meadery

KevinApple Wine, From Local Farms, From Local Farms - The Series, From the Cellar, Highbush Cranberry Wine, Kevin TV, Saskatoon Wine, Wine4 Comments

A simple hard truth about living in Alberta: vinifera grapes don’t grow here. [yet]. As a self-professed wine snob, that hurts the feelings a little. For a time I felt pretty good considering the Okanagan valley ‘local enough’ to get my wines, but a recent drive reminded me that 14+ hours isn’t really all that local anymore. Not even all … Read More

Highbush Cranberry Wine – 2010

KevinForaging, From the Cellar, From The Wild, Highbush Cranberry Wine, Wild Fruits, Wine11 Comments

Last Wednesday evening, upon light prompting [read: suggestion] from friend Valerie, I headed back into the bush to pick another round of the abundant crop of highbush cranberries. I’d picked 20 lbs already. I really didn’t need more. But only a few days prior, I’d been out to En Sante Organic Winery and Meadery [who are going to be undergoing … Read More

Highbush Cranberry-fest

KevinForaging, From The Wild, Wild Fruits, Wine6 Comments

I’d had enough of reading about Karlynn‘s foraging successes, especially having spent far too much time harvesting far too few berries of the low-bush variety. Rather than a sheet pan one layer deep of low-bush, roughly the same amount of time spent picking highbush yielded 21 lbs of fruit. As you can see in the photo, highbush cranberry grows rather … Read More