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As promised, we harvested the grapes this weekend. This spring, you may have noticed worse than usual allergies. That’s because ALL the plants were having sex. So much pollen in the air!
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This has meant we had an amazing amount of cherries, plums, and grapes.
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Generally speaking, apples are only every other year. So one year we’ll have an amazing harvest, the next year we won’t have any fruit. Last year was our big year, so we weren’t expecting any apples this year. We have a few, though, but we won’t harvest them for another couple of weeks.
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We grow several different types of grapes. Neither of us are sure exactly what the various varieties are. Possibly the green ones are Riesling. Beyond that, not a clue. Basically, sweet purple ones that have a very soft skin and seeds, and red grapes that a a bit thicker skinned but also with a seed.
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Possibly next year we’re going to take out the pear trees, which have pretty much stopped producing fruit, and put in some seedless grapes for making jelly and eating.
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We have about half a gallon of the Riesling, a full gallon of the red grapes, and five gallons of the purple.
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After harvesting, we had to strip the grapes from the vines, then put them through a press.
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You can kind of see the spout on the bottom on the right side, where the juice comes out.
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After pressing the grapes, we cover them we water in order to extract the rest of the juice. And yes, there are chemicals involved so that we don’t start developing some sort of bacteria in the water. (You can either use chemicals or blanch the fruit. Given the amount of fruit we’re processing, we chose chemicals.)
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Eventually, we’ll strain out the fruit and use the juice to either make wine or shrub.
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ION, yes, I’m still grilling. A lot. One of my new favorites is making Canadian bacon. The process starts with a pork loin that you wet cure for a week or so (depends on the thickness of the cut of meat). In our area, pork loin is pretty cheap, buy one get one free sort of deal.
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I’ve been curing with maple syrup, salt, and spices like cardamon, cinnamon, nutmeg, and black pepper. OMG it’s so good.
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One of the purchases that I made earlier this year is a meat slicer. Every time I use it, I’m grateful that I have it. It makes perfect slices for the Canadian bacon, the brisket, the regular bacon that I do, the top/bottom round (roast beef), etc. We’ve also used it on homemade bread and a large block of cheese that we bought.
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So here’s the most recent batch of Canadian bacon, with the slicer thrown in for good measure.
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And that’s it for me for this week!
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A brand new cozy mystery. With magic. And MEAT.
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🥩 Love cozy mysteries with strong, bantering, female leads
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🥩 Think quirky characters and delicious BBQ are the perfect backdrop for murder
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Then this is the next book for your TBR pile!
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Daring starship captain? Check.
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Best friend/deadly assassin? Check.
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Aliens? Still searching...
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Rosey builds personalized racing starships for a living. She doesn't care about finding live aliens.
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However, she will go and check out this supposed alien wreck for her best friend, Jamaal.
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What she discovers may change the galaxy.
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Alien Wreck—the start of a new, fast-paced science fiction series by master storyteller Leah R Cutter—leads the reader on a daring galactic treasure hunt, with everyone racing to find the missing pieces of the alien puzzle.
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Be sure to read the rest of this finished series!
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Abandoned behind enemy lines. On a captured, enemy vessel.
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Ensign Ulysses Fortier must figure out how to fix the damaged freighter he has taken command of, even though his people are severely outnumbered by the existing crew.
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And there is the cargo. Or rather, the alien slaves being transported.
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Uly has his work set out for him, forging three different crews into a single entity.
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When the pirates capture them, his challenges only escalate.
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But nothing will stop Uly from rising.
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Book One of the Corsac Fox, an exciting new military space opera series.
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