August 27-Sept. 2, 2023

Weather | 8/27, 58°, 77° | 8/28, 59°, 80° | 8/29, 60°, 83° | 8/30, 57°, 79° | 8/31, 49°, 78° | 9/1, 49°, 80° | 9/2, 54°, 85° | 

• Sunday, 8/27: Processing Zucs & Corn
  
  • Mary processed and then froze 23 packages of sliced zucchinis. That means we're done with zucs and the zucchini plants now get removed.
    
  • Mary picked, processed, and froze 35 ears of sweet corn.
  • I used the Stihl trimmer and whacked grass and weeds grown into the electric fence surrounding the far garden. The growth was phenomenal. It took five tanks of gas to finish the job. The last weed fell at the northeast corner of the fence after sunset.
    
  • By evening, the spiced apple wine's fermentation slowed to a crawl and there's 3/4  of an inch of fines at bottom of the carboy. I'll need to rack this wine, again, tomorrow, to get the liquid off the fines.
    
  • Mary watched an eastern wood-peewee adult feed a fledgling while they both sat on a cow panel in south orchard. At first, Mary thought she was watching two adult birds, because they were the same size. But when the second bird opened what was obviously a gaping mouth belonging to a chick, Mary knew she was looking at a fledgling.
    
  • After whacking weeds in the far garden and upon plugging in the electric fencer, I found it wasn't energizing to its fullest. Since I found nothing after surveying both gardens, Mary and I both checked all wires. I found a slack support wire of a corner post touching several hot wires. I fixed the problem. Mary also found two wires crossed in two different places. Once remedied, the fencer gave out a full charge.
    
  • After dark, Mary took the blacklight flashlight and checked for worms on tomato plants. She found one big army worm. Surprisingly, there were no hornworms. We wonder if recent hot days killed off the hornworms.
    
  • We heard a screech owl while we were in the gardens after dark. We then heard a barred owl.
    
    
• Monday, 8/28: Tomatoes By the Buckets, Apple Wines
  
  • The twin fawns were in our east yard munching on tree branches around noon. One got close to apple trees, so I stepped out to scare it off. It only went a few feet, so I put on my rubber boots and walked to the apple trees in the east yard. They ran off, but I suspected they only went a few feet, so I continued to the far garden and walked north on the west side of that garden. Sure enough, as I got close to the north end of the garden, my two culprits ran to the McIntosh tree and beyond. We suspect these two young deer have spent the whole summer watching us walk through the yard and just aren't too concerned about us.
    
  • I found two Esopus apples under that tree, so I brought them inside. We ate them prior to our evening meal. They were green, but their seeds are brown, which indicates they're getting close to ripe. They were very good.
    
  • Mary picked nearly two buckets of tomatoes, a plastic grocery sack full of green beans, and a few tomatillos.
    
  • I started a batch of plain apple wine. I thawed five one-gallon bags of Empire applesauce in the sun on the porch. Together they weighed 27 pounds, 8.3 ounces. This went into two nylon mesh bags. Added to the brew bucket was 2 quarts and 2 cups of water, 1.5 pounds of sugar, 2 teaspoons of yeast nutrient, 0.4 grams of Kmeta, and a cup of strong tea. The specific gravity was 1.059 and the pH was 3.3...perfect! Now it sits in the pantry until tomorrow.
    
  • I racked the spiced apple wine, because all container bottoms were filled with fines. I added 0.6 grams of Kmeta, then moved it back into the 3-gallon carboy, the half-gallon jug, and half of a beer bottle. The specific gravity was 1.000, which gives it an 8.25 percent alcohol level at this point. We tasted it. The cloves shined through the flavor. It's one of the few absolutely green wines that didn't have a strong yeast taste. It's going to be a good wine. This went back into the pantry to age for a month.
  • The pantry is filling with wines in the making (see photo, below). I've got to keep kicking out the wines in order to eliminate frozen bags of fruit to give Mary freezer room for incoming garden veggies. I might run out of wine bottles for all the wines currently brewing and others on the agenda. Future wines include blackberry, jalapeño, pear, garlic, parsnip, and maybe autumn olive. I need someone to drink up existing wine so I have more wine bottles...Bill?
    
  • Our hens and rooster are molting, so Mary keeps picking up good feathers for my future fly tying hobby. You can spend a fortune on fly tying feathers, but I don't have to spend a dime with our own flock of chickens spewing feathers all over the ground.

  

  Wines in pantry: (l to r) spiced apple, cherry, and apple.

• Tuesday, 8/29: Wine Bottle Considerations
  
  • Two tablespoons of pectic enzyme went into the apple wine brew bucket today. This helps break down the fruit and release liquid. I also squeezed the mesh bags.
    
  • I pulled all empty wine bottles out of the west room closet to determine if I have enough. There are 157 empty bottles. Then, I added up estimated bottle needs for current and future wines for 2023. I need 185 bottles for the three wines in production (spiced apple, cherry, and apple) and seven future wines (jalapeño, apple cider, garlic, blackberry, Kieffer pear, Bartlett pear, and parsnip). The last wine scheduled for this year, garlic, won't be ready to bottle until February 2024, so I'm pretty sure we can make up the difference by drinking enough bottles of wine in the next six months. Oh, woe are we!
    
  • Mary started watering the gardens while I put away bottles. When I was done, I helped her with watering. She showed off the pumpkins. Two are large and one of them is just starting to turn orange. There are a ton of hot peppers. Several jalapeño peppers are red. These will require immediate picking prior to hot temperatures predicted to start this weekend, or we'll lose them. It means jalapeño wine is next on my winemaking agenda.
    
  • Mary picked the last of the corn and froze 13 ears. That makes 48 ears of corn for this year. We have 90 ears from past years, so we're good on corn. That's one less row of garden plants to water.
    
  • I hunted squirrels from the east end of the machine shed. No squirrels were to be found.
  • For the Orsens (Mary's relatives) in Beaufort, SC, please stay safe. We keep watching hurricane reports.
    
    
• Wednesday, 8/30: Alison is Gone
  
  • I worked up a starter batch of Red Star Cote des Blancs yeast for the apple wine and pitched it into the brew bucket before bedtime. The specific gravity went down to 1.050, so I added a pound of sugar, bringing it up to 1.067. So, a total of 2.5 pounds of sugar went into this batch. The pH was still 3.3, so no acid adjustment is necessary. Immediately after pitching the yeast, a fruity yeast smell filled the pantry.
    
  • Mary cut up and froze four gallons of tomatoes.
  • I was shocked when Karen informed me about Alison Rabich Boyce. She attended Homer High School and UAF with Karen and me. Her husband, Dennis, who I remember from UAF, said she entered the hospital in Fairbanks on Thursday, 8/24, with pancreatitis. They moved her to ICU on Friday, 8/25, with multiple organ failure. She died. Alison was a very honest soul. She will be missed.
    
  • Mary made a shopping list.
  • For several minutes, we viewed the super moon and Saturn, which was near the moon. We even saw a lightning bug. It's the latest we've ever seen one of those. While moon gazing, we heard a whip-poor-will. Again, it's late in the year to hear one of those birds.
    
    
• Thursday, 8/31: Shopping Trip
  
  • Mary and I drove to Quincy on a shopping trip.
  • We spent time moseying through the new Target store. Mary picked up a hardcover journal and I bought headphones, to replace the old ones that put black foam bits on my ears. Mary noticed that the colors of all interior decorating items were boring...black, white, charcoal, and taupe.
  • We couldn't find a sponge mop at Home Depot, or raisins at Sam's Club. More and more, you need to go online to find what you want. Quincy stores continue to stop stocking things.
    
  • The worst corn in several counties belongs to our neighbor bordering east of us. It's shriveled, gray, with tiny ears. Corn on the Missouri side of the Mississippi river bottom looks wonderful...better soil and better farmers.
  • I counted six dogs in the yard in front of the house southeast of our property. David Marquette, who lives south of there, says they have eight dogs...it's just too many.
  • The apple wine's specific gravity was 1.044, taken 24 hours after pitching the yeast. It means the yeast is moving fast and I'll need to rack it soon.
  • We heard coyotes howling southwest of us while walking the puppies tonight. They were close.
    
    
• Friday, 9/1: Apple & Jalapeño Wines
  
  • The specific gravity of the apple wine was 1.020, so I racked it into a 3-gallon carboy, a half-gallon jug, a 750-ml wine bottle, and half of a beer bottle. The pH was still 3.3. Unlike the spiced apple wine, this regular apple wine foamed into the airlock. It might be that the oil from cinnamon in the spiced version held back the foam. I installed a blow-off airlock and it bubbled the rest of the day into a Mason jar half filled with water.
  • With 22 red jalapeño peppers Mary picked from the garden, I figured out how many more peppers I needed to make a 3-gallon batch of jalapeño wine, based on last year's recipe. I guessed 35, but after weighing them, I only added 29 green jalapeño peppers, for a total of 51 peppers. It amounted to 2.5 pounds of peppers that I cut up, then chopped up in the food processor. I chopped up a pound, 12 ounces of black raisins. These two ingredients went into a nylon mesh bag. Added to the brew bucket was 2.5 gallons, 23 ounces of water, 3 teaspoons yeast nutrient, 4.5 teaspoons of acid blend to yield a 3.5 pH, 0.5 grams of Kmeta, and 4 pounds of sugar to produce a specific gravity of 1.066. I put a towel over the brew bucket and left it sit in the pantry overnight. I finished winemaking activities at 9:15 p.m.
    
  • Mary picked the last of the green beans, some hot peppers, tomatoes, jalapeños for me, and the last of the tomatillos. She also froze the tomatillos.
    
  • Mary watered all of the gardens and did most of the evening chores while I worked on wines.
    
    
• Saturday, 9/2: Yeast Starter for Jalapeño Wine
  • I worked up a starter batch of Red Star Premier Blanc yeast. By evening, when I pitched it into the jalapeño wine's brew bucket, it looked like a butterscotch milkshake with foam on top (see photo, below). The specific gravity of the must when I poured in the yeast (see photo, below) was 1.079. The pH was 3.7, which is too basic, so I added a 1/2 teaspoon of acid blend to correct the pH to 3.4. I tasted the must. It's spicy hot, but yummy. After pitching the yeast, the pantry smelled like pizza.
  • I worked up a four-month timeline involving the 10 wine varieties I'm making this fall. In September and October, I need three 3-gallon carboys. I own two. In December, I need four 5-gallon carboys. I own five, so I'm good on that account.
  • I looked online and found a three-gallon carboy for sale for $20 in Brashear, MO, 38 miles west of us. I left a text message.
  • Mary and I watered gardens. It's easier with fewer rows of plants to water. In the near garden, all that's left are three small apple rootstock trees and parsnips.
  • Mary encountered a juvenile western fox snake, that was a foot long, at the gate to the far garden. It curled itself up into a tight S-shape and kept leaping at her, a phenomenon that's not normal for most snakes we encounter. It's actions helped identify it. They aren't poisonous, but they're aggressive. They are endangered in Missouri.
  • There was a doe and a fawn on the lane at Bluegill Pond when I got the mail. Prior to walking onto the gravel road at the end of our lane, I heard a vehicle coming, so I stopped. It was a neighbor in the house that's southeast of us on a golf cart. Of course, it has no lights, and it was starting to get dark. He was driving along, looking down at his cell phone, instead of paying attention to where he was driving...not very safe!!!

Jalapeño wine yeast starter prior to pitching it.

Pitching the yeast into the brew bucket.