Heron is quite a nice plum, much tastier now it's stopped raining, 20 kg today. Shiro is up next. A yellow Japanese plum, v juicy but v bland. 1st decent crop of them too
Pilsbury
Joined: 13 Dec 2004 Posts: 5645 Location: East london/Essex
Heron is quite a nice plum, much tastier now it's stopped raining, 20 kg today. Shiro is up next. A yellow Japanese plum, v juicy but v bland. 1st decent crop of them too
might be worth sticking some through your dehydrator, thst will concentrate the flavour in them.
i read part of the above as "heron is quite nice" and was a bit surprised as i would have expected it to be so fishy that "there is not enough mustard in the world"etc
any way i picked the first kilo of blackberries today
I have started to pick a few blackberries in the garden, and there were a few ripe in the woods when I last went raspberry picking. Need to take some containers to pick some, but no more room in the freezer at the moment. Need to make some bramble wine, but no time, plum wine from last year needs bottling to clear the demi johns for this years offering. Help!!!!!
I have started to pick a few blackberries in the garden, and there were a few ripe in the woods when I last went raspberry picking. Need to take some containers to pick some, but no more room in the freezer at the moment. Need to make some bramble wine, but no time, plum wine from last year needs bottling to clear the demi johns for this years offering. Help!!!!!
How do you manage to make good wine? Mine is always so disgusting I've given up trying and recently gave nearly all of my demijohns to the charity shop!!!!
I am always very careful about cleanliness of bottles, demijohns and tubs and always sterilise them then rinse them with clean water before use. Tubing always gets rinsed through directly after and before use. Otherwise I just follow the recipes but don't add lots of chemicals. Sorry to hear you gave up. Home made wines don't necessarily taste like shop bought wines, but if they work they can be very nice. Not all of mine work perfectly, but most are quite drinkable.
The missus harvested some greengages yesterday, no idea which variety though
yummersetter
Joined: 26 Jan 2008 Posts: 3241 Location: Somerset
Posted: Fri Aug 01, 14 10:15 am Post subject:
I'm picking greengages too . . my favourite fruit, delicious last night with mango sorbet.
They're a true grow-your-own fruit, as the skins easily go brown if touched when ripe, so they're unlikely to become a supermarket item.
Nick
Joined: 02 Nov 2004 Posts: 34535 Location: Hereford
Posted: Fri Aug 01, 14 10:36 am Post subject:
As temporary keeper of a garden, I can report that the limes are about ready and work well in gin, the lemons not so much, the clementines are still green, but the nectarines are ripe. Carob is dripping with beans (?) and the figs and olives are coming on nicely.
In more local news, my olives look like they may produce. Any idea how I process them?
I have started to pick a few blackberries in the garden, and there were a few ripe in the woods when I last went raspberry picking. Need to take some containers to pick some, but no more room in the freezer at the moment. Need to make some bramble wine, but no time, plum wine from last year needs bottling to clear the demi johns for this years offering. Help!!!!!
How do you manage to make good wine? Mine is always so disgusting I've given up trying and recently gave nearly all of my demijohns to the charity shop!!!!
a couple of things i have found with fruit wines that seem to matter most are
prep the yeast in a bit of water with a spoon of sugar for 12hrs to give a very active starter
try to keep the fruit under the liquid during the on the pulp phase
ps i dont bother much about sterilisation just basic washing of kit and often do pulp in a kitcken bowl covered with cling film,use ordinary sieves ,spoons etc and only use cleaner and steriliser for very grubby demijohns.
if it is a mixed fruit from "gone over"fruit such as greengrocer leftovers a knife to remove mouldy bits and 24 hrs with a camden tab before the ferment is a good idea but with fresh fruits i dont even wash em but just sqaush em a bit and add the starter.
i suspect that a slow start ruins more wines than anything else by allowing moulds etc to get a head start
Thanks Mistress Rose and dpack. I've always been quite good about the sterilisation side of things so I'm thinking maybe "prepping" the yeast might be worth a try. I've saved a couple of my d-j' s so maybe next time I've got a glut I'll have one last try to produce something drinkable!
I don't prep the yeast, but generally I get quite a fast start to the fermentation. I also cook fruit I am worried about as I had one batch of quince wine that went to vinegar. Lovely wine vinegar though.
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