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Post by Deleted on Sept 15, 2006 10:44:56 GMT
I must admit I'm feeling quite chuffed with myself - yesterday I made a gallon of apple wine from the windfalls we had in the garden, made four pots of chutney with some of the must (had raisins in it) and fed the compost bin and the brown wheelie bin with the rest of it. Nothing was wasted (though I suspect a few people will be when this wine's ready). And I have another fermenting bin bubbling away with another gallon of 'windfall' wine. It's hardly cost a thing and the chutney's delicious. It took less than an hour to make since the fruit was already pulpy. I'm going to make some more chutney with the other gallon.....Nigella Lawson eat your heart out....  |
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Post by Deleted on Sept 15, 2006 11:06:42 GMT
Sounds wonderful mrs beige - do you have an orchard?  |
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Post by Plocket on Sept 15, 2006 11:57:33 GMT
Instructions please on making apple wine!!! My parents have an orchard and need ideas for using up the windfalls!
Forgot to say: Well done - you deserve to feel proud of yourself.
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Post by Deleted on Sept 15, 2006 15:01:50 GMT
Thanks everyone! Just the one tree Rita, it's been dropping apples for ages now, a garden ornament and a few poor plants being among the direct hits!  But hey it's all good clean fun. Here's the recipe Plocket; 6lb apples 8 pints water 1lb raisins, washed and shopped 3lb sugar Quarter oz wine yeast 'Wash and chop the apples without removing the peel. Place them in a large saucepan with the water.Add the raisins, bring to the boil and simmer for 15 minutes. Pour onto the sugar in a fermentation bucket and stir until the sugar has dissolved. Start the yeast, then add it to the lukewarm must. Cover and leave for 3 days. Strain through a fine sieve into a demijohn and seal with an airlock. Leave to work itself out. Siphon into jars or bottles. This wine should be left for a few monthe to mature.' This recipe comes from the BBC book 'Fruity Passions'. The recipes are really good, one I've done several times is for nettle wine which is lovely. At the time we had a big garden with loads of nettles we couldn't get rid of so we ended up using them for wine and it comes out crystal clear and tastes great. I had to use three saucepans for the apple wine - when they say a large saucepan they're not kidding! |
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Post by 4pygmies on Sept 15, 2006 15:13:16 GMT
Mmm, lovely! For years I have made "things" out of all the fruit around and about; jam, jelly, piccalilli, chutney, pickled this and that and had fantasies about a pantry full of jars of stuff....no one really ate it though! But now I've discovered a whole new audience of hungry mouths - my daughters student friends. They eat anything! I gave them tomato, pepper and aubergine plants for those who stayed in their houses over summer. Everytime they visit they descend on the veggie garden like locusts. I have orders for apple and bramble jams, crab apple jellies and anything I fancy making, I suspect. And cakes! Homemade cakes (even mine...) are devoured in a jiffy. It's so nice to have appreciative recipients. AND it's great to find that all these kids really love old fashioned home grown food.
(OMG, I sound like my grandmother, don't I? What an old lady..)
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Post by Plocket on Sept 15, 2006 15:18:45 GMT
Fabby Mrs Beige - I'll let you know how and whether they get on!!! You are so cool 4P  |
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Post by MamIDdau on Sept 20, 2006 8:31:11 GMT
awwwwwww bless 4P!! I'm sure your grandmother was obviously a woman who knew was she was talking about then ;-)
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Post by 4pygmies on Sept 20, 2006 10:43:28 GMT
Today I have ACTUALLY turned into my nanna! I've been up the garden with a load of tyre trugs and I've collected apples, blackberries and crabapples. I'm making jams and jellies. I was planning an elderberry jelly session too but the bl***y birds have had them all (and I have about 10 elders in the garden!). I may try rosehip jelly instead. Isn't it odd how you become your mother and then your grandmother without realising? She was always baking and making and I've already made an apple rye cake, a banana cake (obviously didn't get them from the garden...) this week and tonight I'm planning apple muffins and fruit crumble (mainly apples!). If I get time and can get some sterlising stuff from the village I may have a go at Mrs B's apple wine too. Erm, gotta lotta apples to use!
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Post by Deleted on Sept 20, 2006 11:37:39 GMT
It all sounds lovely 4P. [quote author=4pygmies board=orchirds thread=1158317096 post=1158749008] Isn't it odd how you become your mother and then your grandmother without realising?[/quote] That is so true! I think there's a gradual build up to it over the years and then all of a sudden we realize it's actually happened....  I've just done my third demijohn of windfall wine, and am just about to do another lot of chutney from the second lot of wine. I had to put the must for that one in the freezer as I had no jars to put the chutney in, this chutney urge came on so quickly I didn't have time to prepare for it.  |
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Post by Deleted on Sept 20, 2006 11:41:28 GMT
When will the wine be ready for tasting MrsB? |
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Post by Deleted on Sept 20, 2006 12:56:40 GMT
It's meant to be kept for several months Rita. Maybe this time we'll manage to do that........we drank it far too early last time. It's all a matter of patience and hiding it from man@C&A....... ;D
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Post by 4pygmies on Sept 20, 2006 13:12:46 GMT
Do you think this "chutney urge" is a recognised medical condition? Is it associated with the dreaded menopause? Do men get it too? P'raps it's a seasonal thing like SAD (but more useful). Where's DrBill? I hope it doesn't last too long, I'm knackered all this picking, washing, chopping, stirring...........
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Post by Deleted on Sept 20, 2006 13:45:51 GMT
We could coin the phrase....." Didn't do much yesterday, had a bad dose of Chutney Urge".
Bet it's the reason behind many a hot flush!
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Post by Deleted on Sept 20, 2006 20:34:47 GMT
And of course, there'll always be Chutney Rage........
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Post by 4pygmies on Sept 21, 2006 5:38:51 GMT
I've had that! It starts off with a simmer, progresses to a rolling boil and then, after hours of waiting, you reach a setting point and you're in the middle of a hot flush! After that, heaven preserve everyone else!
Still, brings a nice glow to my cockles to see a row of jars in the pantry....
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Post by Deleted on Sept 21, 2006 8:22:27 GMT
;D ;D
Great innit?
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Post by oldmoleskins on Sept 21, 2006 20:04:11 GMT
'tyre trugs' 4P? sounds a bit Bob Flowerdew, please tell me it's not..trugs made from tyres...
Had vision of Blond-Wistful-You-In-Norfolk-Meadow-Orchard-Heaven mode with a real wicker/withy one. Suddenly gone all KallKwik..no that's a printers, what do I mean...KwikFit!!
Pass me the Windfall Wine, someone...
OM
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Post by Deleted on Oct 4, 2006 7:06:07 GMT
Have just finished the seventh gallon(making not drinking!).
I hope it's drinkable!
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Post by Deleted on Oct 4, 2006 8:18:20 GMT
All from one tree - that's amazing  |
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Post by Deleted on Oct 4, 2006 8:21:58 GMT
And that's just the windfalls, Rita. The really big ones are still holding fast up there. It's a bit like a meteor shower in our garden at the moment, with the big apples coming down on the left and the conkers from next door's horse chestnut raining down on the right.
No injuries as yet!
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Post by 4pygmies on Oct 4, 2006 9:12:01 GMT
Isn't it annoying that all the huge apples are right at the top? My trees are still pretty loaded too but the fruit is far too big to use one of those handy thingies on a pole. I risked life and limb yesterday to get a bag of big ones for a friend only to find about a third of them had been nibbled on the side I couldn't see. Grr.
I have so many laying on the ground now. Most are going rotten so I'm leaving them hoping to attract the fieldfares - we had quite a few last year which was a pleasure.
My daughters school has several massive chestnuts. They get the kids to fill up dustbins with the conkers, let them take as many home as they want and then have a big conker competition with the last ones. It's so nice to see the kids doing something really traditional and innocent. This is Norfolk though but I do hope it still happens at other schools - none of that silly PC stuff here!
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Post by Deleted on Oct 4, 2006 10:02:04 GMT
That's lovely, 4P, hope they'll do the same here, I'm sure out of all the conkers my daughter's collected she's got a winner!
And all my huge apples are all right at the top too, laughing at me......
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But hey it's all good clean fun.
