Archive for the ‘jellies’ Tag
Is it just me or has June zoomed by in a flash. I’ve always considered the Fourth of July as the summer’s half-way point but I can’t believe that half of the summer is already gone. That is supremely depressing. A few days ago I mentioned in a post that my better-half and I had visited the Brunswick, Maine Strawberry Festival. I sort of glossed over that visit for some reason but after rethinking things I decided to throw a few pictures your way. Check these out.
The town of Brunswick is rather quaint and the park located in the downtown area is just beautiful. The perfect place to take your kids on a sunny day, to quietly read a book or to walk your dog.
It’s called the Strawberry Festival but it’s much more than that as you can see. Farmers from all over the area come to town loaded with fresh vegetables of all types. It’s a giant farmers market and they offer some really delicious foods as well.
I’m a former cheese addict who has been forced over the years to reduce the amount of dairy I eat. It still won’t stop me from sampling a few tidbits of excellent goat cheese when I happen upon it.
Many of the farms also sell canned pickles, jams, and jellies. They are a bit pricy but you’ll never find any fresher or as flavorful in a supermarket.
I was more than a little surprised at all of the available vegetables this early in the summer. We look forward to visiting many more of these festivals in the coming months. There seems to be one scheduled every weekend somewhere in Maine until Labor Day.
A GREAT START TO OUR SUMMER
‘While we were working the cat was meditating.’
My last posting concerned our short but successful foray with strawberry picking. Even though we only managed to pick three quarts before the rains came, we still considered it a moderate success. It also succeeded in motivating my better-half into a jam making frenzy yesterday. It required another trip to the food store for additional strawberries, blue berries, and black berries with rhubarb harvested from our garden as well. As you can see in this photo the rhubarb plants are out of control and trying desperately to take over the garden.
She worked diligently for five hours and the results were impressive. She made one batch each of strawberry, strawberry rhubarb, and blueberry jam. She also completed two additional batches of tripleberry which has become a favorite of everyone (blackberry-blueberry-strawberry) who has tasted it.
Of course I did my best to taste them all as they were being made, bobbing and weaving to avoid those painful hand slaps. They were all over-the-top delicious and I can’t wait to add the strawberry/rhubarb jam to my breakfast menu.
While she was completing the jam I was in another area of the house preparing to bottle my first experimental batch of wine for 2015. My goal was to make a wine unique to Maine and one never made by anyone else. I thoroughly searched the net but could find no references to this type of mead. It was made from raw maple syrup and fresh honey.
The final product was a clear and sweet mead with a faint bouquet of maple. It was a good first effort and with some fine tuning of the recipe I may make it again soon. I bottled three and a half gallons into various size bottles and kept one for myself. I always volunteer to be first to sample anything containing alcohol before giving it to others.
After two glasses I felt that special glow I’m always looking for. Testing with my vinometer indicates an alcohol content between 7-8%, more than I anticipated. All in all a really successful experiment.
The batch was corked and capped and will go into storage for a few months and then be tasted again. Most wine improves with age and I look forward to an older version of this mead to enjoy through the winter months.
Today I get to play winemaker. I’ve been making homemade wines for more than twenty years and plan on making it for twenty more. My better-half became so interested that she began making her own batches about five years ago. She leans toward berry wines and her specialty has become Tripleberry Wine. It’s made from a mix of blueberries, strawberries, and blackberries. I have to admit it’s damn tasty and goes well with almost any dish.
For years I only made your basic wines. Some were made from fresh fruit while other were made from professionally produced concentrates. I’ve always tried to be creative with my winemaking and I’ve even made excellent wine from the fruit of the Mountain Ash tree. My all time favorite over the years has been dandelion wine made from blossoms collected from nearby fields. It’s a killer to make because you sit for hours removing only the yellow petals. The first time I attempted making it I found out much too late that rubber gloves should be worn. I had really disgusting yellow fingers and hands for weeks.
I enjoy experimenting a great deal and in recent years have made a number of cooking wines which turned out rather well. I first made onion and garlic wine which turned out to be an incredible marinade. Then I made twenty-five bottles of habanero wine to be used for marinades and cooking. I found as time went by it actually became hotter as it sat in the bottle. Some people actually like drinking it but that’s not for me. If your doing a stir-fry adding a cup of it will spark things up nicely. Again a safety tip, when making anything with habaneros wear a double layer of latex gloves.
Today is bottling day for a fifteen bottle batch of the better-half’s wine and a twenty-five bottle batch of my latest experiment, gin wine. I’m a big fan of gin but drinking the hard stuff is a little much sometimes. I decided to make a wine out of the same ingredients that actual gin brewers use. If recent taste tests are any indicator this batch isn’t all that good. It has an alcohol content of about ten percent and might just make a great tar remover for our cars. The smell of gin is there but that’s about it. It tastes like a cross between battery acid and Lysol. I’ll bottle up a few bottles for long term storage but the rest will unfortunately be discarded. The better-half’s Tripleberry tastes great and will be bottled and stored today.
Making wine is always risky and ever so often you’ll get a batch that is just God awful. I’m hoping this summer is hot and sunny making our blackberry crop fat and juicy. We have a few secret spots in certain areas of the county where we harvest blackberries by the bucket full. They make the best jams and wines and we’re looking forward to doing it again this summer.
I’ll be sure to have a glass or two today to toast the arrival of Spring and the demise of the gin wine.
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