The forecast tonight? -4C!?! The ‘big white combine‘, as farmer-friend Andreas puts it, cometh. It was go-time in our yard today. We started with harvesting the tomatoes [nearly all green], then the fall squashes, any remaining summer squashes, the cucumbers, celery, celeriac, the significant beet crop, onions, shallots, pole beans, bush beans of many types – and a couple hundred … Read More
Making Apple Wine
I’d promised a video peek at how I’ve been making lovely apple wine from urban yard waste. Fortunately, Kristeva and Jessica volunteered to give me a hand, and they quickly jumped in and took over, allowing me to shoot a good portion of the process. If you have any questions about the details, ask in the comments. [And pardon the … Read More
Apple Wine 2010 – Round One
So what could one possibly do with 300-400lbs of apples from your yard – or perhaps your neighbor’s yard?! How much apple sauce or apple pie does one need? I propose the following solution: wine. My current estimate is that it takes about an hour to convert 100 lbs of apples into a carboy of juice – or about 2 … Read More
Apple Harvest 2010: Round One
Good things come to those who ask. This spring, I was picking up some kijiji-found-cinder-blocks, and the folks who had the blocks happened to have inherited a city lot with an INSANE amount of fruit trees on it. So I asked. And today I received. A few hundred pounds of apples, which dented about 3/4 of one of their trees … Read More
U Pick Strawberries – South Windermere Gardens
I’m pretty convinced strawberries should not travel. The ones we get from afar out of season can taste vaguely of strawberry – although they look the part, and the ones that you can grow here can look pretty funny, but can be heady, floral, and seductive like a beautiful wine. And last I checked, I dig heady, floral, and seductive, … Read More
Saskatoons
This is one underrated fruit. It has pretty blooms in the spring, vibrant red foliage in the fall, produces fruit that in my opinion is tastier than blueberries, requires no special attention, and is super hardy to our climate. Let’s face it, it grows wild here. It requires no green thumb. If you like blue fruits in general, it makes … Read More
Lawn Converted Into Food
Over the past few years I’ve watched a few hundred episodes of Gary Vaynerchuk’s Wine Library TV, and am a regular commenter there. Recently, I’ve been enamored with Daniel Klein’s ‘Perennial Plate‘ project about eating locally in Minnesota. So recently I had a bit of a ‘duh…’ moment, realizing that I had the gear to do some video blogging myself, … Read More
Apple Wine Vinegar Do-Over
Okay, I got impatient with cider vinegar attempt #1, and am moving on to attempt #2. Attempt 1 ended in a white sludgy deposit a the bottom, with no trace of anything positively vinegar related. This time, I’ve got some help. Bragg sells organic cider vinegar containing mother [says so right on the bottle]. Others have had good success with … Read More
A Quickie Garden Tour
Valerie reminded me today that I need to post more about gardening. I’ve also been meaning to post some photos for my gardening buddy who recently moved away [who’s on dial-up, and will hate me for this post, then love me]. I have a decidedly unconventional garden with streaks of conventionality running about. I just got in from taking a … Read More
My First Haskap
Until a couple years ago, I’d never heard of these things. Haskap, or Blue Honeysuckle, became available through seed catalogs in the last couple years, and I figured I’d give them a go. I believe I have a Polar Jewel, and one other kind. They apparently are super-hardy, even the blossoms hardy well into freezing temperatures, and they clearly produce … Read More