Garden

[BornBad]

Who's up ? Got a little plot about 12ft by 30ft I been working.



Beans

Onions

Lettuce

'Maters

Zucchini

Cucumbers

Squash

Bell Peppers and

Cayenne peppers

[Outdoorsfool]

Dude ... I don't see anything in there that's gonna taste very good as brandy. What gives?

[BornBad]

My folks have blackberries and fruit trees

I aint got much space to work with

[Outdoorsfool]

I got NO space to work with. Will be moving this spring/summer, so I don't even have to think about putting a garden in this year. I tried letting my boy help my folks with their garden, but my mom took exception to his worm farming and digging up all her plants!! My folks got apple, pear and peach trees by the house and we've got a big 'ole cherry tree patch down by our new lake. BornBad - You got any pears? We always have an abundance of pears. If you don't have any, I'd be willing to drive you some pears down and trade for enough blackberries for a batch of brandy.

[BornBad]

Might take ya up on that. My Mom's got more blackberry bushes than she know what to do with. She gave me another 2 gallons last week of frozen blackberries she had stock piled from last year.

I took the last blackberry jar I had brewing, strained it and poured the brandy over another mess of blackberries: just to see if it strengthens the taste. Peach holds top of the list for me.

[Outdoorsfool]

My folks have 2 or 3 different kind of pears. Some put on early (mid to late summer) and are a smaller pear. The big ones generally ripen after the first frost....but they are BIG pears and are excellent when tree ripened. They usually have so many that we are looking to give them away. Let me know if you have any extra blackberries to trade!!
The blackberry brandy I made was the best I'd made, but a real close 2nd is peach. That stuff's just hard to beat!!

[BornBad]

Your making me think of a middle of a field and all alone pear tree that I knew of that died a few years back - had the best pears I have ever eaten. They were small and kinda ugly to look at, but man they was sweet. I never did find out what kinda pear tree it was. I passed by that tree a many times in my youth, while going hunting, to grab a snack.

[Outdoorsfool]

Those fruit trees in the middle of nowhere can be down right dangerous!! Way back in high school, a buddy took me to his grandpa's farm to go horseback riding. Supposedly he gave me the old nag. To this day, I swear he knew what was gonna happen. Anyway, we get the horses all saddled up, cowboy up and start out the gate towards a back pond. Next thing I know, this "nag" thinks she's in the freakin' Kentucky Derby and is in an all out run. I'm yankin' on the reins, but nothing. You could have smacked this horse with a 2x4 and not phased it. She continues a full run for 100-150 yards and comes screeching to a halt under an old apple tree in the corner of the field. She knew where the tree was and that the apples were ripe. But onces she got her belly full, she was an easy ride the rest of the day. But damn, that first 150 yards was the s!!!

[hobiecat]

I'd bet persimmons would make good brandy!

[Outdoorsfool]

Hobie - I thought about that, but I haven't been able to collect enough ripe persimmons the last couple of years. But it's on my list of things to try. A friend of mine was gonna try and make some persimmon wine.

[BornBad]

Persimmon brandy... Hmmmmmm, that does sound good.

[coyotewhacker]

As I type this, I'm looking back at 6 gallons of blackberry wine that is high octane AND super sweet. Before we moved to Missouri, I ran a small winery and learned a whole bunch of tricks. One of them is to make the fruit wine as usual, then when it gets really cold in the winter, put your 10 - 14% alcohol wine outside at night. Next morning, skim off the ice that formed. Next night, do the same thing, and keep doing it until it will no longer freeze. You now have some pretty potent "brandy". The same trick works in the warmer weather if you have a chest type deepfreeze. All you are doing is removing water from the fruit wine, leaving all the fruit flavor and alcohol. BTW, those ripe pears make a great fruit wine that can also be turned into pear brandy. The blackberry wine I have was fermented with farm grown berries, and I kept adding sugar as it fermented until the alcohol content killed the yeasts. Since I use a commercial dry wine yeast, the alcohol content is right around 21% from natural fermentation. Outdoors Fool, I think you live not too far from me. Next time you make a batch of wine, I would be glad to give you some of this yeast. I have enough to last several lifetimes. BB...same deal, but it will have to be next fall when it gets cool again. Yeasts do not do well in the mail when it's hot.

[BornBad]

Never tried my hand at wine making. But since I have been dabbling with home brew lately, I just may take ya up on that CW. Thanks.

[Tigerhaze]

I used to make some pretty good red wine from grape juice concentrate during my college days. I've alos helped homebrew beer. It's a lot simpler to make the wine come out well.

[coyotewhacker]

The best thing about homebrew beer is that it is usually drinkable in about two weeks. Most homemade wine takes several months to take the "edge" off...if you can find some good Scottish single row malt, grab it and make some of the best home brew ale you ever drank. Depending on how heavy you go with the malt, you can brew up to about 12% alcohol beer. With top quality malt and hops, it is so smooth that you don't taste the alcohol at all. You just sit there and drink a whole 24 oz bottle, then wonder why you can't manage to stand up......dang! this is making me thirsty for a homebrew...Springfield has a microbrewery. May have to stop in and get some supplies. Summer is not a good time to brew, but if you have a basement or a wellhouse, it normally is cool enough in that environment to make some decent brew.