2018 Wines - Chapter 1 - Elderflower

I thought making some elderflower wine would put a dent in the final berry total, but not so much. I'm keeping expectations very low for this wine to improve the odds of a pleasant surprise.

• 3 pints elderflowers, cleaned with the Luc Volder method 
• 4 quarts sorbate free white grape juice
• 3 lemons, juice and zest
• 2360g sugar
• 1/2t tannin
• 2g water

Starting pH 3.06, SG 1.087. Used K1-V1116, step fed Fermaid K, and held it at 66F to about 1.046 when I bumped it to 70F to help it finish. At 1.030 it went to carboy to finish up. It was a slower ferment, going from 1.087 to 1.030 in 10 days, then several more days to finish up.

Today I racked and dosed with KMS. I didn't measure the SG but by taste it is dry. Honestly, as with my first batch of elderflower, I don't get that much elderflower aroma. 

Vidal Revival

Survival of the Vidal Blanc vines was poor compared to all other varieties, but they are making a bit of a comeback. We were down to just 4 of 36 vines, and yesterday I spotted growth on eleven. We got 1/2" of rain yesterday and I'm hopeful that we'll see more shoots emerge. A couple of the vines are approaching the top wire already. If a few more return I may replant the Vidal after all.

The rainfall yesterday morning was badly needed in the greenhouse. I just installed the summer rain barrels and water was running low. Unfortunately, one valve was shut off and one gutter was clogged, so almost all of the rainwater missed the barrels.

We have this swimming pool however, and it was covered. So I attached the long hose reel to the cover pump and pumped all of the water on the pool cover back into the barrels. They are now completely full and should last until the next bit of rain.

Trying an elderflower wine, but not particularly optimistic. Full post to follow.

Memorial Day 2018 - Bachelor Weekend

Lisa went to Santa Barbara to visit Allison so I'm home alone for the weekend. After two days the chore lists has a satisfying look to them.

Not much mulching left to go.

For lunch last week and this weekend we made a very nice zucchini lasagna. Only problem was there was a lot of moisture in the zucchini, but still made for several tasty meals.

For Mother's Day the kids bought Lisa a sous vide cooker. We tried it out on ribs and it was also a success. Finished in the oven with a little BBQ sauce.

The elderflowers are coming on strong. After making some 6 gallons of elderberry wine last year, I'm considering some elderflower wine this year instead. To help with the decision, I popped open some elderflower wine from 2014, the only batch I've ever tried before. Not much elderflower...not any, really, but not bad wine. Elderflower wine is back in the rotation.

One of this weekend's chores was building a new set of sawhorses. I hope they last as long as the last set and that this is the second to last set of sawhorses I ever build.

Lisa and Allison seem to be having a good time in California.

My two favorite women

2018 Grape Update and Photo Album

The grapes, with one exception, are coming along. Frontenac and Foch have started to bloom. Traminette and Chardonel are loaded. I'm removing all of the blooms from Chambourcin and Norton. The Norton doesn't show the vigor of the others but they were a little slow last year as well, so we'll just be patient and see how they progress.

The Vidal Blanc shows no further signs of recovery. We've started to look at replacements, and considering La Crescent, Brianna, Itasca, and Frontenac Blanc. Unlikely to get them replanted this year so we have time to look around.

There is a subreddit powerwashingporn which would be a good place to post pics from last weekend.

This weekend is rainy and cloudy so we got some wine work done. 2017 elderberry came out of the barrel and went back into the carboy. I barrel aged 1/2 of it, and it seemed to improve the wine, will consider doing the other half depending on what we have lined up for the barrel later. One half of the 2017 old vine Zinfandel went in next. I will likely give both halves 3 months each in the barrel before bottling.

Most country wine experiments end poorly but 2017 pawpaw wine might just be an exception. Aroma is very light but there is definitely banana and other tropical fruit there just at the beginning. I added a bit of glycerin to smooth it out and went ahead and bottled. We'll chill this and give it a try this week. Judging from the looks of the trees so far, I will have more pawpaws than I can use this summer.

We bottled the 2017 Sauvignon Blanc last weekend. I probably won't even bother with caps and labels, this wine is good enough that it won't last long. The surprise of the weekend however was the 2017 Vignoles. Early on this wine had a very nice passion fruit tropical aroma and somehow I've not managed to screw it up. Bottled just a portion to be sure we have the residual sugar right, and if so we'll bottle the balance in the next couple of weeks.

Pictures taken before the rain came...

Haskaps

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. 

End of Winter

The winter of 2017-2018 felt as if it would never end. Plants are 2-3 weeks behind this year, and we finally just got some warm temps last week. Naturally the one year spring is late, the pool opening is early.

Never has the pool been this clean yet this cold.

We have struggled for months with water loss from the pool. After filling it up last week, we came back yesterday to find it several inches down again. I suspected this to be the cause of a persistent wet spot behind the poolhouse. The cattle have absolutely wrecked this ground on the other side of the fence, eventually requiring some fencing reinforcement. Yesterday I found the cause. The fitting on the filter was cracked and dripping water down the side of the filter and right into the drain. It went unnoticed because there really wasn't much of a wet spot on the floor until now. I used a clamp and piece of old hose as a temporary fix, and now a day later, the poolhouse is dry again.

Tom lent us a skid loader and we spread two truckloads of mulch a couple of weeks ago. The late spring allowed us to get much of the mulch down before the perennials came up.

Lisa got the deck cleaned up. My Big Green Egg operation has been pushed to the end of the deck to help keep smoke out of the kitchen.

Big day today - we'll bring some greenhouse plants out. I'm battling some serious issues with thrips, courtesy of a well-intentioned friend who will go unnamed. These plants badly need to get outside and get cleaned up.

Spring Fishing

Not every post can be about central Missouri gardening and grapes. Our winter just broke last week and so everything here in Fulton is 2-3 weeks behind. Gardening posts are on the way, but in the meantime, there is fishing.

Jake, Adam, David and I scheduled a trip to Florida to do some bass fishing. The idea was Jake's; he wanted to celebrate completion of his Step 1 exam, and what started as a camping trip morphed into fishing in Florida. I did a farm pond shake-down the weekend before.

I circled the 2 acre pond 8 or 10 times in under 3 hours. Cloudy water and sky prompted me to go with dark spinnerbaits and shallow crankbaits. The fish were shallow, possibly still spawning, and the bite was very good.

I ended with about 25 fish, and as a result ironed out some of my baitcasting reel issues.

On Wednesday we flew into Orlando. Miraculously, all of the flights were on time, and Adam picked us up.

We fished the Harris chain of lakes with guides Mark and Gary from Lakeside Bait and Tackle.

We think Adam got the big fish but we're certain that each of us lost a bigger one. Great weather, great time! Thanks guys!