I had picked some ruhbarb in the spring and put it in the freezer. I got it out on Friday and started some wine. This morning I had to hand crush the fruit and add the yeast.
I then washed and sterilised some wine bottles
I had a bit of help with the bottleling - it is always a two man job!
This is the sweet raisen dessert wine. I started it back in February and nurtured it for weeks adding sugar syrup and checking the sg reading every week. It tastes like sherry, I think it is ready to drink now, but will save some for Christmas.
We also bottled the Apple and Elderflower wine that was started in June, this seems to have been done quickly and is almost ready to drink.
I also racked some orange and apple wine that I started last October, it should have been ready in a few weeks. I don't know what went wrong, but will keep it a bit longer to see if it will improve with age!
Later we set off for a walk with scissors and carrier bags to some Elder bushes. This is where I picked the elderflowers in June and we went to see if the berries were ready. They were ripening and some were ready, we picked what we could. We also found some blackberries. We stopped off for coffee at our friends house on the way home.
Back home I stripped the elderberries off the stalks with a fork, it was quite a long and boring job. The whole carrier bag that we had collected only yeilded 2 and half pounds of berries. I froze 2 pounds ready to make some wine and used the rest to make some "Elderberry Rob" this is supposed to help with coughs, colds and flu. Thought that I had better be prepared for the swine flu!. The elderberries were simmered with sugar, ginger, cloves and cinnamon. This can be diluted in hot water to help relieve a cold.
I made a blackberry and apple crumble with the berries that we had picked and apples from the garden.
I also made some flapjacks for this weeks lunch boxes.
1 comment:
Lovely flapjacks!
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