The ‘test batch’ of blackberry wine turned out surprisingly great, so over the summer of 2017 we picked enough blackberries for a 5 gallon batch. We saved some time and some skin damage by taking hand pruners and nipping off the loaded ends of the canes (to battle later). Many…
In November of 2017 we drove to Santa Barbara to celebrate at Ryan and Laurie’s wedding! It was a little early for citrus, but on the way back through California we pick up a flat of oranges. Rumor has it oranges can make a great wine! Toby willingly gave up…
I know a lot of you have been keeping up with the peapod wine on Instagram! Some of you have even been over for a taste, and it may have been a good or bad day for this VERY volatile wine. Read on for the tasting notes from carboy to…
We just got back from a November roadtrip to California. On a winding road in the center of the state I saw a hillside COVERED with ripe prickly pears. They seemed to be public domain, but the hillside was incredibly steep and there was no shoulder. We knocked on the…
Fresh from the bog! My parents live on the coast of Oregon, surrounded by berries of all kinds. One is the cranberry, which is farmed in floodable bogs near their house. It’s really cool to see how the berries are harvested, it’s a pretty efficient system,…
The first blueberry wine turned out great, and we need room in the freezer, so we’re doing a second batch of blueberry wine! I wish I had enough for a 5 gallon batch! Check out the first one here. Like the second child, there are nearly no photos of the…
In Canada, there is a winery that produces several varieties of fine tomato wine. It is said that tomato is one of the most difficult wines to place in taste tests. Since Omerto does not ship to Idaho, I guess I will have to make my own. Our zone 3…
One of my friends is getting married on the Salmon River in May, and I told her if she could pick enough blackberries I would make her blackberry champagne (which I have never done before). She missed the berry season, but a mutual friend gave me 6 quarts of steam…
There are elderberries all over our area, from big trees down on the river to bushier types in McCall. The berries are a proven antiviral, the rest of the plant is varying degrees of poisonous…sounds like a great wine! Elderberry wine is a fruit wine that can stand up to…
As you might have gathered by the peapod, the tomato, and the orange, I will make wine out of anything once. It’s all part of my crusade to make a crisp, tart, non-poisonous summer sipping wine in bulk for free. The fruit transforms so much from start to finish that…