Bob Ross is like Crack

Twitch is streaming all 400 hours of Bob Ross and The Joy of Painting. This is addictive stuff.  I am finding it hard to turn off.

Five Thirty Eight did a statistical analysis of his work and 91% of his paintings contained at least one tree.  Bob Ross is pretty good at painting trees.   This evening I watched him paint an "old tired tree," and it was asymmetric and lonely and beautiful.

I have a tree like this in my yard.  It is Diospyros virginiana, American Persimmon. It is solitary, large, crooked, and old. And it is a little tired. But it faithfully produces persimmons every year.  I have gathered hundreds of pounds of these persimmons. I have progeny growing nearby, in and around the pawpaws. Most of the persimmons I have gathered have gone toward futile attempts at persimmon wine.

Today, Lisa and I made persimmon cookies. The effort was much more successful than persimmon wine. Baking soda does strange and cool things to persimmon pulp.

We found a recipe with dates, which strikingly resemble chocolate chips.  These are terrific cookies, and there are enough persimmons left on the tree to get another batch or two.

We found some fresh salmon in town and had a nice supper of salmon with a roasted red pepper sauce, spinach salad, and cookies.

I'm feeling as relaxed as Bob Ross.

Passionfruit >> Persimmon

Yesterday we dumped out more wine than we made.  Eight gallons of persimmon wine required attention.  The first 3 gallon batch was over treated with vanilla.  The five gallon batch had "the funk" and showed no sign of improvement at 8 months.  I've got one more idea to try on persimmons and if that doesn't work, our persimmons will be reserved for cookies and bread and deer chow from now on.

Lemongrass Ginger wine

The lemongrass ginger wine is in the secondary and looking good.  The strawberry guava is chugging along as well.  I expect another 2-3 days before we can move it to the secondary.

Passion Fruit must

We started a batch of passion fruit wine today.  This batch used 2# 13oz of pulp, basically our entire 2014 harvest.  I reserved a bit for use in the secondary, and we're trying QA 23.  It is supposed to get really cold today and this week, so we may have to bring the primary upstairs to keep it moving along.  here is the planned recipe:

2# 13oz passion fruit pulp, frozen

1 can Welch's white grape concentrate

1# 8oz sugar

Kmeta or 1 campden

7 pints water

1t pectic

2g Bentonite

1g Booster Blanc

Lalvin QA 23

GoFerm 1tsp

Fermaid K 1/4 tsp, divided.

Thaw just enough to remove about 4oz pulp and reserve for use in the secondary. While fruit is thawing, add Kmeta. Allow to thaw overnight. The next morning, add sugar, concentrate to primary. Bag the pulp, reserving any juice, and add bagged fruit and juice to primary. Heat 7 pints water, and add to primary, mixing thoroughly to dissolve the sugar. When cool, add 1tsp pectic enzyme and 1g Booster Blanc. Wait 12 hours, adjust pH (this required 2.25tsp of calcium carbonate to move the pH from 2.75 too 3.25), then add starter of QA 23. Add bentonite after 2 days and add Fermaid K at end of lag phase and at 1.050-1.060 range. 

Rack to secondary when SG under 1.010. Rack again when fermentation complete. After second racking, add the reserved 4oz passion fruit pulp and leave for about a month. Rack off the extra pulp. Cold stabilize, then after 6 months clarify, stabilize, backsweeten, bottle.

For dinner, Salsa Soup which comes from our good friend Constance:

2# hamburger

2 pkg taco seasoning

2 pkg ranch dressing mix

16oz can each of kidney beans, pinto beans, black beans, diced tomatoes

1 can Rotel

2 cans shoe peg corn

2 cups water

Brown the hamburger, drain.  Then toss everything in the crock pot and simmer for 6 hours.