Photo Post: Evenings at Home

Every evening when I get home, Eric and I open a beer and get the chicken scraps together and head down to give her a snack and check the lower lot berry brambles, catnip, mint, and wormwood. We'll take a minute to check the compost or clean out the coop if needed, and hang out until the mosquitoes are too much to bear.

Angel the Cashmere goat, who lives next door, begs for more honeysuckle.  She and her family merrily consume the tons of honeysuckle that I fling over their fence, which is handy.  That stuff is seriously invasive!

I was trying to get a picture of the tomato plant that Bawk is growing in her run, but she's a photo hog
(who also likes to peck cameras).

Catnip is in bloom.  I've been harvesting it like mad, and it grows to replace the cuttings within 24 hours, I swear it.  There was a little honey bee harvesting from the 'nip, and I went behind her to pick the stems that she'd already visited.

Rain on the tip of a blackberry.  Fairy wine in the making?

Recipe Box: Blackberry Mead - Part 2

The berries and sweet peas, image by Amber Shehan

It has been a week since my first post about my Blackberry Mead.  I'm pretty excited, and things are progressing nicely!

The bucket full of berries, spices, and honey water has been bubbling merrily for seven days.  I made sure that the bucket was picked up and swished around every now and again to keep it oxygenated, and to keep everything from settling.  Besides the swishing, the bucket got a good stir once a day.

It was a joy to stir while guests were over.  People who have never before brewed really observe the fermentation process with wonder in their eyes.  It serves to remind me that I am not only a wino with a DIY complex, but a high magician, a witch, an alchemist. Poof! Alcohol.

After seven days, the sweet, fizzy smell in that corner of the kitchen was delightful - not too yeasty or cloyingly sweet.  I declared the mash ready to strain and moved to the secondary fermenter.  I could have perhaps let the berries and must sit together longer, but I didn't want the bitter seeds and skins of the berries to penetrate too deeply into the flavors of the final product.

My housemate Sarah helped, and together we lined a strainer with a layer of cheesecloth or two to catch the smaller floaty bits.  The strainer was set into a large cook pot, and slowly and carefully, I poured the bucket out.  What a feast for the senses!  The color is magnificent, the smell - divine, and once we funneled the brew into the carboy and sampled what was left over, the taste?  Absolutely thrilling!

Isn't is gorgeous? I can't wait! (image by A.Shehan)

So, with the carboy capped off with a fermentation lock, it took only a couple of hours for the yeast to kick back into action.  The lock is bubbling about once every five full seconds.  I won't know when this mead will be ready...but I'll guess by the bubbling going more slowly, and look for other signs, like the opacity of the mead itself clearing as the yeast dies and settles to the bottom.

I will keep you all updated as the mead progresses.

Oh, and here's the dream list of brewing projects that I have not yet begun:

• Peach Mead (Melomel)
• Ginger Mead
• Apple Mead
• Spiced Apple Mead
• BEER! I want to brew Ninkasi's beer.

I would also like to direct you folks to the blog of a friend of mine, Michael Ruff of Dove and Raven Mead.  We made his first batch together a couple of months ago; he learned the basics of brewing, and he tried in vain to teach me hydrometer math.  He just started his first cherry melomel, and it sounds amazing! 

Recipe Box: Blackberry Mead - Part 1

I can tell that it is truly summertime.  Over the last week or two, my housemates and I have gathered close to two pounds of blackberries from the brambles on our lower lot.  With chevre on toast, and by the handful, we've managed to consume about one pound of those, and we froze the rest for later use. We plan on using those to make a syrup, or maybe add to it and make a small batch of jam.

But I had other plans for berries...plans that involve more fruit than our yard can currently provide. 

So, I woke up early yesterday morning and went to work with my husband. While he mowed beautiful lines into the sweet-smelling, dew-covered grass, I went around the perimeter of the land and gathered the wild blackberries that pepper these hillsides.

After an hour and a half of work, I had earned arm-scratches, purple fingers, and a hell of an appetite to go along with the two pounds of fat, ripe blackberries that I had gathered!

Image by Amber Shehan

We brought them home, rinsed the berries, and then I began the process of making a one gallon batch of blackberry mead!  This is also known as a melomel, a mead made with fruit.

Blackberry Mead (1 Gallon)

2-3 lbs of wildflower honey
2-3 lbs of fresh picked wild blackberries
1 allspice
1 clove
1 bit of dried orange peel
lemon juice

I used a large stockpot and heated just under 1 gallon of water to boil.  I threw in the allspice berry, clove, and orange peel while it got going.

While the water was heating, I sanitized a bucket with a bleach and water mix, and rinsed well.  I then added the berries to the bucket along with a splash of lemon juice.

Once the water is kicking at a steady boil, turn off the stove and remove the stockpot from heat.  Add the honey, stirring to blend.  If it is unfiltered honey, you may get a foam on the surface, which can be removed if you wish.

I poured the hot honey water (also called the must) over the berries and gave a good couple of stirs.  Lacking a lid to fit this bucket, I put a towel over it and tied it down to allow the must to cool and to keep flies and ants out.

I allowed the must to cool overnight, and this morning added a sweet mead yeast to the room temperature bucket.  It was beautiful, gave a little bit of a bubble, and then settled down as I stirred everything together.   I re-covered the bucket and tied it down again, and will let this mixture do it's thing for a couple of days.

Check in again soon, and I'll let you know how it turns out, and hopefully will remember to take some pictures as I rack it over into a carboy to finish fermentation!

Learning about Native Appalachian Plants and Herbs

Amber by Modern Scribe Photography

Howdy, everyone...I hope Spring's been keeping you as joyfully busy as it's been keeping me! Between building the chicken coop, filling honey orders, and jumping on the trampoline, I've been keeping the growing things tended.

Oh, yes...I've been exploring and cultivating my yard like a thing possessed... since I last checked in:

~We've succeeded in moving decorative boxwoods from the only flat, sunny, well-draining spot in the front yard up to the top of a ridge to help combat the erosion there. Sarah and I got all scratched up and dirty and sweaty and happy while accomplishing that task.

~We broke up the soil in the newly cleared spot (about 4x5) and added some composted cow manure and sand, and worked it into the clay. While pulling out weeds and roots and rock, we saw more worms than I could count! They are certainly welcome guests. May they continue to grow and prosper here!

~We transplanted our tomato starts into that new place - a Cherokee Purple, a Jeune Flame, and two Oregon Spring tomato plants. We made cages for the bushy plants and stakes for the climbers. They all seem to be doing well, but the Oregon Spring tomatoes are a little slower than the Cherokee Purple and the Jeune Flame, who are flowering to beat the band.

In the House of Herbs Greenhouse by Modern Scribe Photo.

~We got a Crookneck Squash, an Old Timey Kentucky Pumpkin, and a Pickling Cucumber vine from House of Herbs here in Candler, North Carolina. They are thriving and we already have a squash starting to swell! I did the happy dance when I saw it, and ran inside to tell the whole household. They know I'm a dork and love me anyways!

~The other side of our front porch also has good drainage, and gets mostly dappled sunlight and shade due to the ornamental cherry trees that shield that side of the house.  This is where I've decided to relocate our pallet-bed...the spot where I put it initially was too sunny and wind-blown. One quadrant of the bed has some struggling spinach coming up, and one little lettuce sprout. I think they've been too warm and dry, but they may do better in their new home.

~In the second quadrant of the pallet-bed, we have some freshly transplanted Basil seedlings, and a healthy and happy Oregano plant. I've also planted a Comfrey plant that I got from House of Herbs.

~Also on the herbal front, there are some happily growing peppermint plants and soapwort plants in pots on the porch, as they are both rather invasive. I've planted a native Elderberry bush and it is thriving on the hill under the Oak tree's dappled shade, and we have a German Chamomile and White Lavender plants in full sun alongside the Chrysanthemum that I thought had died last fall, but is now starting to make quite a show.

Pisgah Waterfall by Modern Scribe Photography

~Wildcrafting: So far this spring, I've learned quite a bit about native plants of the Appalachians. I've correctly identified Trillium, Mayapple, Wild Ginger, and Umbrella tree while slipping and sliding and busting my butt climbing around the wild slopes and waterfalls of the Pisgah National Forest. I think that I also saw Solomon's Seal and Bloodroot, but I'm not 100% and will bring a book next time!

Bee, Closeup - by Modern Scribe Photography

~Even just while wandering our yard, I've identified:
Cinquefoil (Rough-fruited or Sulfur Cinquefoil, another "noxious weed" with medicinal uses. Stay Tuned for more.)
Red Clover (stay tuned for more)
Ox-eye Daisy
Dock, both Curly Leafed and otherwise
Wild Yarrow (Milfoil)
Bittersweet Nightshade
Plantain (stay tuned for more)
Japanese Honeysuckle (Invasive! I've trimmed it back quite a bit, and plan to use the flowers to flavor a wine) 
Dandelion (which is now a mead brewing)
Wild Blackberries (smells so sweet!)

So if I'm too muddy, tired, and sunbaked to blog about it as often as I did before, bear with me...I'll keep you posted as often I can!