Cider or Vinegar

My fifteen gallons of apple juice, from the mammoth juicing session, was split into two five gallon bins and the rest put in either Demi-johns as wine or bottled and frozen. The demi-johns are bubbling away as wine in the making. The juice that was bottled is in the freezer. The odd bottle that just went in the fridge for immediate consumption has started building up pressure. That's a clue it is starting ferment. I am getting through it. It taste sharp and fruity with a slight fizz.

The juice in the big bins is a tail of two pressings. Both bins had their lids put on and the air locks fitted at the same time. Both bins were put into the cool shed. Nothing seemed to be happening judging by the water level in the air locks. After a couple of weeks I snapped open the lids to see what was going on. One bin had a nice froth on the surface of the juice. Upon tasting it tasted like cider. The other bin had a gelatinous scum on the surface of the juice which I fished out. There was also an acidic aroma. Upon tasting there was a hint of acid. Is this going to be another vat of vinegar? After a little negotiation with H the bins were allowed indoors into the corner of the dining room. I left the bins for a week to warm up to room temperature. That corner of the room hovers around 64 degrees C. The cider bin picked up and start fizzing more vigorously. The vinegar bin just sulked. I thought I have nothing to lose, I mean who needs another five gallons of weak cider vinegar? I made up a whole sachet of general purpose yeast in warm water and got it started. Then I poured the activated yeast into the vinegar bin, refitted the lid and airlock and retired to a safe distance. It was a difficult two days to keep my nose out of the bin. I checked the airlock but no movement. On the evening of the third day after dosing the vinegar I had a test. The juice smalls fruity rather than acidic and you can see the gas bubbles fizzing to the surface. The juice tastes like cider but different to the other bin.

Following my highly scientific experiment I have come to the following conclusions:
a. The lids on the bins are not air tight.
b. The type of apples that are made into juice have different properties.
c. Relying on the apples to provide the right sort of yeast might not be a resilient plan.
d. The temperature of the shed is not right for cider making. It needs to be colder as in the fridge or hotter as in the dining room.

A Nice Cup of Tea

I found a new web site over the weekend. I have added a link to it in the column on the right of the screen. The site is called "A Nice Cup of Tea and a Sit Down". As I get older I find myself agreeing with the sentiment of such sites. My radio pre-sets are tuned Radio 2, 3 and 4 and sometimes I even tune to Smooth FM. That tells you something.

I think I will have to expand the scope of my blog to cover such things as Tea and cake.

No digging this weekend

Last weekend was a sort of weekend off. Our old friend Rolf, old in the sense of having known him a long time not old as in being the wrong end of too many summers, married Gill at Haigh Hall in Lancashire. We travelled up on the Saturday morning for the service in the afternoon. We set off extra early to make sure we arrived in time. It was a prudent measure. The A50 had problems and the M6 had two problems so it took over three hours for a journey which should have less than two. It was a moving ceremony not least because both families have had to deal with tragedy in their time together. Rolf and Gill were over flowing with love for each other. There was not a dry eye in the house as they said their own special vows to each other.

The day went very well. Hazel and I met friends from Hazel's time in banking. Rolf & Gill still work in banking in Manchester. We also met our long time best buddies Liz and Chris. Haigh Hall is high on the side of the valley over looking Wigan. It was a clear night which was great view over the Douglas valley to the fireworks from the Bonfire parties below. Altogether it was a smashing day & night. We were taken back to our hotel for a peaceful night. Breakfast was a buffet arrangement so Lucy and I were able to pig out on Pancakes, Maple syrup and lashings of Tea.

The drive home was uneventful but long. We chose to avoid the motorway as it was a very foggy morning. We drove though my old stomping grounds in Newton le Willows, Cadishead, Irlam, Salford and on into Manchester. The city looks very different to city I left eight years ago. The changes had begun back then. A legacy of the IRA bomb in the city in 1996.

After we got home and had a spot of lunch I popped over the lottie to drop the food scraps onto the worms. Whilst I was there I sawed a plank to size to create another lift on the front of the big compost bin. The bin has really heated up since last week when I dumped on the dried pressings from the Cider making. I am looking forward to the weekend for a bit of proper winter digging.

Sweet Potato

One of the lottie holders, Sandra, gave me two Sweet Potato slips that she had left over. I put them in 10 litre pots and set them on the shelf in the greenhouse and watered them occasionally. Whilst tidying out the greenhouse I harvested them. I was presented with a number of small tubers. Not enough for a dinner but it proved a point.

I am already working out how to get some big pots in the greenhouse along with everything else.

So much to do #2

I decided that the Tomatoes in the greenhouse were finished and needed harvesting and the greenhouse cleaned out. I thought there would be a few pounds of green Toms for chutney. The little basket I took for the Toms was over flowing after a few minutes. The beef tomatoes were planted late and did not have time to ripen fully. A dozen of them filled the basket. The Shirley's did well but suffered in the same way as the Beef Toms. Still there were twenty of them. Only the Gardeners Delight, cherry type Toms, ripened fully. But since they grow the bunches of twenty fruits long there are always a few that are green. I pulled up the vines and dropped in the council green bin. Their composting process should kill off ant blight spores. The contents of the grow bags went of the roof pf the shed. It is flat and is supposed to be a garden however it did not do very well this year. I am hoping the extra compost makes a difference to the soil structure for next year. I then braved the area under the staging where the spare and used pots and tray live. There are all manner of creepy crawlies that live under there as well. Having moved then shook out of the trays, being careful not to tread on the Toads, I managed to clear the greenhouse completely without any girly screams. A bucketful of Jeyes Fuild and boiling hot water sponged onto all the surfaces of the inside of the greenhouse and squeegeed off the glass made for a very sparkly greenhouse. Even a few days later it still had that special "L'eau de Jeyes" aroma. I sorted through the trays and discarded to worst of them. I even graded the plant pots so they all stacked nicely.

The one job I have to do in the greenhouse is two arrange a second stage and a shelf for the spring time assault of seed trays.

So much to do #1

So much to do and only a week in which to do it. Steve and I wound up the wick on the Apple collecting. We had a couple sessions of collecting Apples from a tame orchard and peoples gardens [with their permission] and other assorted hedgerows. We ended up with a little over a thousand pounds of Apples and a fifty pounds of Pears. Steve picked up the apple mincer and press on Friday ready for Saturday. At the appointed time Steve arrived with the mincer, the press and his stash of Apples. After some head scratching we worked out how the ratchet system worked. We put the Pears through first. They were so soft they hardly needed pressing. We pressed eleven litres from the pulp. We then set about halving apples to go in the mincer. If the apples are too large the mincer can not get a grip on them. Only a thousand pounds to go then!

H kept us supplied with tea and in between looking after us and running L around, helped with the chopping. At one o'clock we stopped for lunch. H rustled up soup from the best of the last Tomatoes from the greenhouse. Back to the toil. We got a system going that meant we could chop and mince the Apples whilst the press..erm, pressed. We stopped again at six for dinner. H had made a casserole from the Pork we had got a few weeks ago and, not surprisingly, Apples. There were Apple puffs to follow. Spot a theme? Nearly there. Only two hundred pounds to go. Another three press fulls and the jobs was done, apart from cleaning up. An hour later we were looking at our handy work: All the hire kit was wash and scrubbed as was the work area. Thirty gallons of Apples juice. A little over two gallons of Pear juice, one hundred of the best of the Russet Apples reserved for eating, a dozen Bramleys reserved for cooking and all the cake from the press bagged ready for the allotment. Cake is the pulp after it has been pressed dry. Steve swears by it for soil conditioning. I have put some in my compost bins to give them a kick start.

We are to have another go at Cider. It was not that special last year but we think we know where we went wrong. I am going to freeze some juice to keep it as juice. It ferments whether you want it to or not. And I will do a couple of demi-johns of Apple wine. I have fifteen gallons to play with. So thanks to Gloria, Richard, and those nameless people who discarded Apples along the Tow path and in the hedgerows and finally Steve for providing the impetus.

Busy doing Something

It has been a busy weekend. Most of Saturday was taken up with an Autumn Spring clean of the shed. I took everything out of the shed and painted the inside walls white. It has made a huge difference. It feels bright, clean and somehow it feels larger. The shed was swept and hoovered. The fridge that lives in the shed was taken out and cleaned inside and out ready for the next task, another ham. Whilst looking for something in the garage I found a set of assorted brackets on a card. Two of them were just the job to hang the brolly for the table high up on the wall. The worktops got a good scrubbing. Then it just a matter of getting everything back inside. I had a sort over the contents of the shed a decided that somethings could go down the allotment and other thing were only good for the bin.

On Sunday following a leisurely breakfast I set about fixing the eight new brackets that are to carry the two new shelves. That required the shed to be partially emptied. At least the paint was dry. Once they were fixed I cut the shelves from a piece of chipboard I have been saving in the shed. Now I have shelf space for thirty bottles of wine. It sound like a lot but I have seven demi-johns a brewing. Each demi-john yields five standard wine bottles. A quick count on the fingers shows I still need more space. I could always drink some of the existing bottles of wine just to make space. Whilst I had the circular saw and drills out, I cut up and fixed the last big piece of the plywood I had been saving to make closures to finish off the door entrance to the shed. I just need a 12 inched deep piece of wood to finish the threshold step.


After a nice lunch made by H and went to the lottie it fit the hinges I had bought. The hinges were to go on the big compo bin and the wormery. After some effing and jeffing, trapped fingers, dropped lids, dropped screws and assorted scratches and scrapes both set of hinges were fitted. Bloodied but victorious I went home.

It is Monday. I have the week off. H & L are off to Derby to find a dress for Rolfs's wedding. I slipped off to the lottie again. I found a couple of battens that will come in handy as props to keep the newly hinged lids open. I cut a angle on one end and a notch on the other. Now end each end fit neatly onto it's seat and does not slip. The lids are heavy. The last thing I need is a whack on the back of the bonce from a falling lid!

I had a chat with Roundup. "Roundup" is a nick name for David G, one of the allotmenteers. I have plenty of time today so I can listen to his tale of woe. Today I have the whole day stretching out in front of me. When Dave left and had the place to myself. I put on my Ipod, mellow play list, and set to on the ex-pea bed. There is something very satisfying about taking an weedy, untidy patch and turning it into a level, fluffy weed free seed bed. After emptying the wheelbarrow a couple of times and having a few brews I got to the end of the bed. I had collected a five 6x1 tanalised boards from Coalville on Saturday morning, one of these was to form the end of the bed or the edge of the new path, depending on your point of view. By the time the bed was finished it was 4.30pm. The weather has definitely turned colder but the Sun still managed an appearance although lacking the warming power of the summer. It was still warm enough for me to raise a sweat whilst working. The frosts of the last week had killed off the meager squashes. I got on butternut squash but it is too immature to eat. I also got two winter squashes. They look the part although they are only the size of a football.

The next job to tackle is either the other boards to create the other side of the new paths or weeding the ex-pumpkin patch. Upon reflection I think the pumpkin patch needs dealing with first.

Other things that have occurred. The Pea Pod Burgundy has stopped bubbling. Time for the first racking. Just as well I have space in the shed. My seed order from Kings had arrived. I am going try to plan my sowing for 2008.