Restful Weekends

The harvest is over. I have fruit in the freezer for a few more wines - passion fruit, acerola, pawpaw, jaboticaba - but these will be small, mostly one gallon batches. We're going to let it cool off a bit more before kicking those wines off.

The Foch and Frontenac are holding their color so far and tasting very good if not almost a little bit too fruit forward. I was concerned about the acid, but the malolactic finished in record time and the pH readings look decent at 3.57-3.60. They've received their KMS doses with 100% adjustments. I have two 5-gallon barrels on the way for aging this wine. Hopefully this will concentrate them and add some complexity.

There is significant amount of crown gall in the vineyard, affecting mainly the Chambourcin and particularly the Norton. I'm seriously considering removing all but 1/2 row of Norton and replanting Arandell and Petite Pearl. The Missouri State Grape has proven very disappointing.

We didn't aggressively pursue the pawpaws this year, instead leaving some for the critters. But Garry texted me looking for some ingredients for specials, and we sent him some pawpaws, lemongrass, and guava. We could not resist going to Bek's to see what Danny did with them, and we were not disappointed.

Pork chop and apple fritter with pawpaw rum sauce

Wahoo with lemongrass and guava gastrique

And we'll leave you with this guy, who's been hanging around the yard for a few weeks. I wonder if he isn't responsible for some of the grape losses, he looks pretty fat and happy.

Harvest Time

When you walk into our kitchen the air is rich with pawpaw. The harvest seems to have started early; small fruit on the margins are dropping and you can see evidence of deer. Now working on improvements in processing the pulp.

A very windy day brought down a few of the pears and we'll try to ripen these up in the fridge.

Looking forward to a grape harvest possibly Saturday. The white, mostly Chardonel, is at 22.2 Brix, pH 2.78. The red, mostly Frontenac, is 25 Brix, TA 13.2, and pH 3.05. Some are starting to raisin on the top where exposed to sun all day. The forecast is for rain and clouds for the next several days so hopefully we won't lose too many more during the work week. Jake comes home for the weekend, so it will be a family affair.

Beginning of Summer

This weekend we made the big move. We pulled out all of the greenhouse plants and pool deck furniture, signaling the official beginning of summer.

We're trying something a little different this year. In the spirit of thigmomorphogenesis, we are putting some new plants out by the pool. Some of our tropical fruit trees are well-rooted enough, we think, to hold up to the strong winds we occasionally get.

Fig (Ficus mysterious), jaboticaba (Plinia cauliflora), camu camu (Myrciaria dubia), citrus (Labelus missingii)

Star apple (Chrysophyllum cainito), acerola (Malpighia emarginata), Washington Navel orange 

Calamondin

Ficus mysterious

Jaboticaba (Plinia cauliflora)

It's a great time of year for flowers and foliage.

Lilac

Fothergilla gardenii

Cercis 'Appalachian Red' with owner shadows

Cercis 'Forest Pansy'

Korean Spice Viburnum (Viburnum carlesii)

Asimina triloba, Paw Paw

There is bud break on the grapes and the first spray of the year is in the books. We had the driest September-January period in Missouri in 40 years, in addition to zone-testing -9F temps in January. At least one of my varieties did not like it at all. Winter survival numbers:

• Frontenac 9/9 
• Foch 9/9
• Traminette 8/9
• Chardonel 9/9 
• Chambourcin 9/9
• Norton 42/44
• Vidal 5/36

Basal shoot on Vidal, one of five

There is no time this year to replant. Best advice I've gotten so far is just cut them back and see if they return from the base. These vines grew very well last year and in fact my plan was to devigor them a little bit by letting them fruit. Scratch that plan. 

Paybacks and Payoffs

I have not yet decided whether to make pawpaw wine. I'm freezing the pulp as they ripen, and I've got over 4# now which should be enough for a 1 gallon trial. It would be easier if I knew whether it would be any good. Online reviews are scarce and indeterminate. One person paraphrased Jack Keller, calling it "life-changing," but given what Keller wrote I think that is a bit of a stretch. For now I'm content with smoothies.

In the greenhouse I made a discovery that will be meaningful to very few of my friends. We have fruit set on garcinia intermedia. This is most commonly known as Lemon Drop Mangosteen. This garcinia is a seedling from my first PR trip in 2010. It is not the first it has flowered but it is the first time to set fruit. It is hard to contain my excitement.

As a thank-you for the grapes and support, I took the Books some wine. I sent two bottles of their 2016 Chambourcin and one each of the 2016 Blackberry and my 2016 Motley Red blend. Early reviews, based on the text messages, were favorable.

Estate Pawpaws

It is difficult to get to them in time, the deer eat them right off of the tree. They will ripen just a little bit after picking.

Inventory

No 2017 winemaking just yet, but we are getting close. Blueberries are in, and between what we have picked at Danamay Farms and a little left over from last year, we've got over 40#. That should be enough to press for a rosé and still get a 3 gallon batch of traditional blueberry.

Blackberries are also coming in, both behind the chicken coop here at home and at Danamay Farms. We are behind on blackberry picking, we have maybe only 25#. I'm aiming for 40# or so for a straight juice blackberry. Hopefully it will come out like the 2016, not the flawed vintage of 2015. We cracked open a 2016 Blackberry for dinner glazed peach and honey chicken this past week and it was delicious.

The grapes are coming along. I understood Norton was a vigorous grower, but so far it is lagging behind the other grapes for me. Traminette is my best grower, followed closely by just about every other variety I planted, save Chambourcin and Norton.

Traminette foreground, Chardonel in the back

Vidal Blanc

In other fruit news, the pawpaws are coming right along. I found this oddball in the mix, a conjoined pawpaw.

Today we'll finish up mowing and bottle some 2016 wine. The rest of the blackberry needs to be bottled, along with the Pinot Grigio, elderberry rosé, and blueberry. My nose tells me we knocked it out of the park with our passion fruit wine, and it needs to be racked, along a few others. But there are empty carboys calling.

Spring Collection of Pictures

I have been collecting a few pics of some interesting garden, greenhouse, and kitchen things, and so while I have nothing particularly interesting to write about, a post is in order.

Earlier this month we spread 45 cubic yards of mulch. Tom lent a skid loader which made all the difference.

My dear, with my dear dog

Around the yard, we have fruit...

Paw Paws (Asimina triloba)

Seviceberries (Amelanchier 'Regent' and others)

Elderberries (Sambucus canadensis)

...and flowers...

Japanese Snowbell tree (Styrax japonicus)

Shining Bluestar and Threadleaf Bluestar (Amsonia illustris and A. hubrectii)

Fringetree (Chionanthus virginicus)

Viburnum sargentii ‘Onondaga’

Carolina Allspice (Calycanthus floridus)

Cercis canadensis 'Appalachian Red'

...and in the greenhouse, fruit as well.

Jaboticaba

Grumichama (Eugenia brasiliensis)

In the vineyard, some vines are showing a lot of growth...

...and, one day, this happened.

We have had a lot of rain.

Anas platyrhynchos

In the kitchen, a few interesting things.

Shawn is fond of carrot fries

Green papaya

Green papaya slaw, much better than expected actually

Blueberry lemon cake 

Kingston is slowly getting trained...

Keeley is not, but she's loyal.