On 7/14/2014 2:56 PM, Terry Coombs wrote:
Frank wrote:
On 7/13/2014 9:06 PM, Terry Coombs wrote:
Frank wrote:
On 7/12/2014 8:23 PM, Terry Coombs wrote:
Today we she made 9 1/2 pint jars of blackberry jam from
berries picked on our land , and canned 4 quarts of home grown
green beans . And for dinner we had spaghetti made in part
from our tomatoes last year . frozen and seasoned in part with
our cayenne peppers . In a little while , I'll top the day off
with some blackberry cobbler and ice cream .

Many years ago, I made 5 gallons of blackberry wine from
blackberries that a friend had picked at his farm. I split it with
him. I had quit making wine but 20 years later found a bottle lost in a
basement cabinet. Color was practically gone and was not intense in
the beginning as I diluted with sugar other than that from the pure
blackberries but wine was great, even after 20 years.

Oh , there WILL be wine ! Our plants are loaded , I've been picking
as they ripen . I expect a big surge next week , we should end up
with 2-3 gallons minimum frozen for later use . I gotta replace a
lot of my winemaking stuff , gave most all of it away 30 yrs ago
when we moved east from Utahahaha . I'm not sure we'll have room for
all the produce from the garden plus all the wild fruit the
muscadines are loaded too in the freezer . And I have no idea where
we'll store 'em if the potatoes bear like I suspect they will . I
might actually have this growin' thing working !

At the time, I had 2 peach trees and deluged with them made wine. I
quit when the trees died and the area got shaded in. I've still got my
equipment in an attic. The work in making blackberry wine is in the
picking.

Exactly , and I'm gonna be picking them either way . It's going to be a
couple more years , but when the orchard starts producing ... apples , pears
, peaches , and cherries all make dandy wine . Just got a number from my
friend and neighbor Randy for a wine/beer supply store they use . The only
thing that's going to be hard/expensive is the glassware - 5 gal carboys are
hard to find and often overpriced . I may need to make a run to a bigger
city Little Rock or Memphis for wine bottles etc .


I see the carboys are listing for about $30. Would take a visit to hot
attic in garage to see what I have but maybe 4-6. Still have 2 20 gal
primary plastic garbage type primaries and I keep them full of water in
case of power or well failure for flushing toilets. Have a bag of corks
and old corker and wonder if only corks available today are the
synthetic ones being used. We had a store here called Wine Hobby which
is since gone but great source of supplies like this as well as yeasts
and concentrates. I also made home brewed beer which was fantastic but
fattening so I quit making it. Today, I might consider saving
disposable 2 liter soda bottles and smaller water bottles for bottling
both beer and wine.

One of my kids bought me a beer kit for Christmas a couple of years that
made 2 gallons of so so beer and cost ~$50. Refill supplies were
expensive. Ridiculous. To me, a hobby should be fun and save you money.