Harvest Approaches

 Foch was at 17 Brix last week. I haven't checked this week, but it smells like it is getting close. 

This weekend's list, complete:

• Weed/Roundup the elderberries
• Dig up volunteer ornamental grasses
• Clean mud daubers off porch and garage
• Net the grapes
• Remove the grow tubes
• Weed the berm
• Weed the liriope
• Prune the lychees

We're targeting shorter, more frequent posts for my brother. So finally some nice pictures.

And from last week, Lake Michigan:

2020 June Week 3

I'd been losing all of my rainwater. It turns out I had a bad connection between the rain barrels. Of course now that it is fixed, we have no rain. 

We repotted some plants, including figs. Lisa is attempting to start a couple more from cuttings. In the past they have proven easy to root. 

We bought gooseberries at the Farmer's Market last weekend and they (over) ripened over the past week, so we made a gooseberry cobbler, supplemented with some jostaberries. I didn't get a pic coming out of the oven. 

Plumerias are happy

2020 June Week 2

We were out of town two weeks ago due to an unexpected trip to Texas. Back at home this past weekend where the primary occurrences were dreary home maintenance tasks. I planted 4 vines of what we hope is Frontenac Gris. The grafted Chardonel came up easily, thank goodness. I touched up paint on the back porch and the front door.

On Sunday we cleaned out the detached garage and sent a truckload of stuff to the dumpster. The pool is clean and enjoyable after a few hours of work.

Putting the LOG in Blog

Optimistically I'm committing to a new weekly post of the happenings around the house, wine cellar, kitchen, and greenhouse.

Spring is a good time to do this because there is plenty to do. We've cut down the Harry Lauder's Walking Stick and dug out the stump, replacing it with Dwarf Japanese White Pine 'Yatsubusa'.

The boxwoods are gone, replaced with oakleaf hydrangea 'Munchkin'.

We added to our Cercis collection with a nice one called 'Ace of Hearts'.

Grapes are growing fairly well. I lost a couple of the Vidal I installed last year, but I have two ready to be planted. If I'm lucky I can still get them planted in the next couple of weeks and fill in some holes. 

The greenhouse plastic came down yesterday, and the shade cloth is back up. Most of the plants are out, including the plumeria, jabos, mangoes, sago palms, and others. 

The poolhouse is ready for summer. I fixed a leak in the water softener, but the portable softener seems to be the way to go. The pool heater has the temp to 82 and with warm weather on the way I suspect we won't need it again until fall.

It's a good time to post some pictures of my favorite tree. This is a Kentucky Coffeetree which I planted as a seedling. I posted about this little guy four years ago, and it just continues to grow very slowly and bloom like crazy. If anyone out there knows how to determine if this is my retirement plan, please contact me. 

2020 Spray Schedule

May 2 - Mancozeb
May 12 - Mancozeb + Quintec (quinoxyfen)
May 23 -
May 30 - Abound (azoxystrobin)
June 5 - Mancozeb + Emerald (boscalid)
June 14 - Mancozeb + Quintec
June 24 - Abound (azoxystrobin)
July 1 - Mancozeb + Stature (Dimethomorph) + Sevin (zeta-cypermethrin)
July 8 - Mancozeb + Quintec + Sevin (zeta-cypermethrin)
July 16 - Captan + Emerald (boscalid) + Sevin (zeta-cypermethrin)
July 24 - Captan + Quintec + Sevin (zeta-cypermethrin)
August 2 - Prophyt + Emerald (boscalid) + Sevin (zeta-cypermethrin)

August 12 - Abound (azoxystrobin) + Sevin (zeta-cypermethrin)

2020 Wines - Chapter 2 - Passion Fruit

This is potentially a beautiful wine, one which did not deserve my shabby record-keeping. I was more focused on the jaboticaba wine I had going at the same time, and now I can't find any of my notes. I know that I didn't use any secondary fruit, adjusted the pH up a bit with calcium carbonate, and fermented cool and slow. It looks great - it always starts the color of store-bought orange juice, then lightens up. Thankfully it didn't lose the aroma of passion fruit through the fermentation.

2020 Wines - Chapter 1 - Jaboticaba

I've been saving this fruit for years, literally; freezing every fruit that comes from the two trees. That may explain the short-term outcome. But I'm committed. And I'm committed to a second batch as well, which hopefully will come along more quickly than the first. It went like this:

• Thaw, then crush 3.8kg of fruit. TA 0.83%, pH 3.20, SG 1.030.
• Added 2.2l water, assuming 50% of the fruit volume will contribute to the final volume to just over 1g (some for topping).
• 3ml 10% KMS.
• 465g sugar to ~1.075.
• 1t pectic 
• 0.2g Lallzyme EX
• 1g each Opti Red and Booster Rouge.

No tannin additions. After 24 hours, another 155g sugar to 1.090. The pH was 3.05 and TA 0.97%. RC 212 and step feeding.

I pulled the seeds and skins after 72 hours to eliminate potential for any bitterness. This pic shows where we were mid-fermentation.

The problem is that even with KMS at crush and even before going dry, the wine took this brick color just a couple of days later.

We have about 4 bottles worth. We'll finish this out, but the color instability is a little disappointing. It doesn't taste or smell oxidized. Maybe that's just the color the fruit wants to give. Time will tell, but now it is time to start collecting a new batch of fruit.