This years fruits

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Arne

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Been spending a lot of time on the old prayer bones. Have picked almost enough strawberries for a 5 gal. batch. Still a few more to go.
My few elderberry bushes are all flowered out. Think there will be plenty for a batch of wine if I decide to make it. Many folks rave about how good it is, but to me there is an off taste in it. Think it might be the tannins. All the really dark wines seem to have that same taste. I have some chokecherry aging right now, think I will try and at least knock that taste down some. If that works, the elders will get picked for sure.
Our little pie cherry tree is loaded. The cherries are just starting to get a bit of color and the robins are already at it. Going to have to move the net from the strawberry patch to the cherry tree. Long as we don't get a hail storm should be good pickin.
The little currant bushes are loaded this year also. Last time they were that way I started picking them but the chiggers were so bad I finally just let the birds have them. They are a lot of work picking, takes a lot of time, but they make a great wine.
Looks like the crab apple tree will have plenty on it this year also. We had lots of timely rains so everything is producing. Keep the storms away and there will be a basement full of carboys at the Johnson house this fall. Good luck to all of you with your winemaking. Arne.
 
I'm excited about our berries too. I won't get enough haskaps or jostaberries for a batch, but the blackberries and elderberries are loaded. I'm going to mix them all up for an "Estate Quadberry" this year.
 
Yes, Looks like a pretty good year. Picked 15 lbs of blueberries off of 2 bushes the other day. Only 9 of my 31 bushes are old enough to produce but soon, soon, another 2-3 years and I'll be sitting on a stool picking berries every day. Just ran the brush hog around the black raspberry vines in our woods so I can start picking those. Blackberries shouldn't be too far behind those. Wife normally picks the wild berries but she is helping daughter and son-in-law move so I'm on my own for a couple more weeks. Gave up on our sweet cherries this year - let the birds take them - had rotator cuff surgery so the netting and picking would have been impossible. Did get the netting over the blueberry patches though. Funny thing is the birds are screaming at me while I pick the blueberries - guess they feel entitled to have them too - not going to happen. :h
 
Scooter, we have birds screaming at us picking our blackberries too. They are mockingbirds, the boldest birds I've ever seen. Hubby thinks its funny that the blue colored birds go for the blue colored berries, and red colored birds go for the red berries. Cardinals robins and a red headed wren sticks to our goumi and tart cherry trees, mockingbirds go for the black berries and wild black raspberries. At least the cardinals are polite, but those mockingbirds actually dive bomb us.

Pam in cinti
 
Scooter, we have birds screaming at us picking our blackberries too. They are mockingbirds, the boldest birds I've ever seen. Hubby thinks its funny that the blue colored birds go for the blue colored berries, and red colored birds go for the red berries. Cardinals robins and a red headed wren sticks to our goumi and tart cherry trees, mockingbirds go for the black berries and wild black raspberries. At least the cardinals are polite, but those mockingbirds actually dive bomb us.

Pam in cinti

Bring your tennis racquet and give them a suprise.:h Had to look up racquet in the dictionary, either racquet or racket. Computer says racquet is wrong, but Dictionary says either way. Small things amuse small minds I guess. Arne.
 
Funniest thing I ever saw happened maybe 10 yrs back when hubby and I were relaxing in the backyard maybe 40 ft from the blackberries. We were almost snoozing, including our cats, when a bluejay came down out of the sky and pecked one of our sleeping cats on top of the head quite hard. Cat woke up, shook himself off and tried to figure out what was happening. Bird kept divebombing him, so hubby (a student of wildlife shows) pumped up his breast, put his hands on his hips and started flapping his arms all the while cawing loudly and charging at the mean old bird. Bird soon gave up and flew away, but I have a memory I'll never forget of hubby coming to our rescue.

Pam in cinti
 
This is a good year for anything growing! My vines are 6 year old and I am getting a pile of grapes this year. My mulberry tree is loaded but I am not holding my breath on getting any, between the birds and coons there isn't enough for me!

Arne a few years back, I made a chokecherry, elderberry, cherry wine. Dear Lord was that ever good, it ended like an elderberry smoked cherry wine. I would love to duplicate it but I'm not thinking that wil happen!
 
Used to live in the Wash DC metro area. Remember a mockingbird making the news there because he/she was dive bombing people - left a few wounded along the sidewalk there - Apparently it was defending the nest.

They are certainly not timid birds.

And Yes I notice the same thing Cardinals are the primary bandits that take our sweet cherries and the little bluebirds are the ones I find trying to get past my netting around the blueberries.

Picked between 18-20 cups of blueberries in the last 4 days. Things will slow down now as the most mature bushes (Except for one) are not producing as much this year as in years past. But now I need to suit up in long sleeves pants etc and wade into the Raspberry patch. Of course this week the temps have climbed into the upper 80's and 90s.
 
as you know I don't know much about making wine, but drinking it is a totally different story, elderberry is ok, BUT if you make some place a few bottles back an ear mark not to be opened for ten years , then you will have truly tasted a proper elderberry wine, I grew up drinking 10 year old elderberry wine from a elderly man that made only elderberry an muscadine wines the old ways, all his wines were bottled in 1 gallon jugs, he sold younger wines to help out beer, cig's, foods an so on an so fourth, I went to the line in them days I drank a half gallon of either whiskey or vodka daily , not to mention tons of smoking erb daily, only in my last few years (10) have I came back down to earth , but I always fetched his beer for him an never charged him, so he started giving me a gallon or 2 a week of the ten year old stuff, I am not lying it tastes like the nectar of the gods, even though I believe in only one, I kick my butt all the time for not learning more from that old man, since I only started fermenting a couple years ago, and I was given a year an one half to live, unless the lord calls me, I plan in 8 more years tasting my first proper elderberry in close to 30 years,,, or you can set 10 bottles back each year drink a bottle you'll not believe the difference each year,, to be honest it's hard to tell much difference between 8,, 9,, an 10 year old stuff but you can tell slightly, I miss both that old man and his wines an stories, them were truly the better times,,,,
Dawg::
Richard




Been spending a lot of time on the old prayer bones. Have picked almost enough strawberries for a 5 gal. batch. Still a few more to go.
My few elderberry bushes are all flowered out. Think there will be plenty for a batch of wine if I decide to make it. Many folks rave about how good it is, but to me there is an off taste in it. Think it might be the tannins. All the really dark wines seem to have that same taste. I have some chokecherry aging right now, think I will try and at least knock that taste down some. If that works, the elders will get picked for sure.
Our little pie cherry tree is loaded. The cherries are just starting to get a bit of color and the robins are already at it. Going to have to move the net from the strawberry patch to the cherry tree. Long as we don't get a hail storm should be good pickin.
The little currant bushes are loaded this year also. Last time they were that way I started picking them but the chiggers were so bad I finally just let the birds have them. They are a lot of work picking, takes a lot of time, but they make a great wine.
Looks like the crab apple tree will have plenty on it this year also. We had lots of timely rains so everything is producing. Keep the storms away and there will be a basement full of carboys at the Johnson house this fall. Good luck to all of you with your winemaking. Arne.
 
Arne a few years back, I made a chokecherry, elderberry, cherry wine. Dear Lord was that ever good, it ended like an elderberry smoked cherry wine. I would love to duplicate it but I'm not thinking that wil happen!

Did you keep good notes so you can replicate it? More like probably not, just cleaning the freezer and threw everything in. Probably the way I would of done it. In fact I have had a couple of really good clean the freezer wines and the notes are pretty much nonexistant. Arne.
 
Funniest thing I ever saw happened maybe 10 yrs back when hubby and I were relaxing in the backyard maybe 40 ft from the blackberries. We were almost snoozing, including our cats, when a bluejay came down out of the sky and pecked one of our sleeping cats on top of the head quite hard. Cat woke up, shook himself off and tried to figure out what was happening. Bird kept divebombing him, so hubby (a student of wildlife shows) pumped up his breast, put his hands on his hips and started flapping his arms all the while cawing loudly and charging at the mean old bird. Bird soon gave up and flew away, but I have a memory I'll never forget of hubby coming to our rescue.

Pam in cinti
Puhleeze don't say that he calmly strutted over and pecked the top of your head!!!! :)
 
Strawberrys are done for the year. Going to have enough for a batch, but havn't weighed them yet so don't know how abig a batch I can make. The cherries are turning ripe, have tried picking a couple of times but they are not quite ready yet. Couple more days and If I can beat the robins off the tree should get enough for 5 and maybe 10 gal. Arne.
 
Did you keep good notes so you can replicate it? More like probably not, just cleaning the freezer and threw everything in. Probably the way I would of done it. In fact I have had a couple of really good clean the freezer wines and the notes are pretty much nonexistant. Arne.

15# of Elderberry 3rd's, added two gallon of hot water over top of the elderberries (had them in a bag
2 gallon of Welch's Cherry juice
7.9# of Choke cherries
peptic enzyme
yeast nutrient
Lavlin 1122 yeast
TA. .60%
SG 1.070
Backsweeten to 1.010
 
15# of Elderberry 3rd's, added two gallon of hot water over top of the elderberries (had them in a bag
2 gallon of Welch's Cherry juice
7.9# of Choke cherries
peptic enzyme
yeast nutrient
Lavlin 1122 yeast
TA. .60%
SG 1.070
Backsweeten to 1.010

Ha, ha, ha, great job. Much better than I would of done. Well maybe, sometimes I keep pretty good records, sometimes I have been sampling too much. Freezer cleanouts are great. Arne.
 
You all have me fired up to do something. My wife (Borderline Freezer Hoarder) takes my blueberries and here wild Blackberries and wild Black Raspberries and stashes them in our big upright freezer. The other day while she was out of town I found a package of blueberries from 2012 - Sounds like a raiding party is in order to take out the old berries and make them into something consumable. I've already picked about 2 gallons (32 cups) of blueberries this year although about 8 cups never made it into storage bags. (Quality control has a cost - burp)
Sooo thanks for the ideas guys.
 
Pitted about 2 gal. of cherries last night. Going back out and pick again here in a few minutes. Have to get out the scale and see what they weigh. Wonderful out this morning. Nice and cool. Should get a bunch picked. Arne.
 
My strawberries didn't do well this year not from any fault of their own (bunnies)
Constructing a fence now. Elderberries are doing great! Grapes are doing good. Pears are wonderful as always! And blackberries galore! My asparagus did really good this year can't wait till next year they will be fully established I only wish the harvesting period lasted longer! Peach tree is sad! I might get a couple peaches - blight my vege garden is doing pretty good. Here's a quick pic of my upside down blackberries lol

image.jpg
 
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Update to earlier post - Found a total of almost 8 pounds of frozen blueberries dating back to 2008 (The old ones still tasted good when thawed out) I added in a bag of last years blueberries to bring the total to 8 pounds. (That fills my little fermentation bag and should give me about 1.5 to 1.75 gallons of must to start with. Figure with that many berries I should be sure to have at least 1.5 to 1.75 gallons due to expected lees at the end of primary.

BUT I don't think I'll need to add any water except what it takes to dissolve enough sugar - going to aim for about 14-15 ABV (Starting SG at 1.100 approx hopefully ending at .995) so a dry wine. Flavor should be good if the berries are good just can't get more berries into a single gallon batch without some advance prep and I'm not going to spend my time doing that.

Any ideas on this. Still waiting for all the berries to thaw out in the fridge before I launch this batch. Basement temp is right at 72 so fermentation should run smartly once started. Only concern about fermentation is overflow with that much must in that 2 gallon fermenter.
 
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Update to earlier post - Found a total of almost 8 pounds of frozen blueberries dating back to 2008 (The old ones still tasted good when thawed out) I added in a bag of last years blueberries to bring the total to 8 pounds. (That fills my little fermentation bag and should give me about 1.5 to 1.75 gallons of must to start with. Figure with that many berries I should be sure to have at least 1.5 to 1.75 gallons due to expected lees at the end of primary.

BUT I don't think I'll need to add any water except what it takes to dissolve enough sugar - going to aim for about 14-15 ABV (Starting SG at 1.100 approx hopefully ending at .995) so a dry wine. Flavor should be good if the berries are good just can't get more berries into a single gallon batch without some advance prep and I'm not going to spend my time doing that.

Any ideas on this. Still waiting for all the berries to thaw out in the fridge before I launch this batch. Basement temp is right at 72 so fermentation should run smartly once started. Only concern about fermentation is overflow with that much must in that 2 gallon fermenter.


You havn't started the ferment yet. Get a bigger primary fermenter. Now is the time to go larger, not when it gets going and goes over the top and you are sitting there saying "I wish I woulda." Good luck with it, Arne.
 
"You havn't started the ferment yet. Get a bigger primary fermenter. Now is the time to go larger, not when it gets going and goes over the top and you are sitting there saying "I wish I woulda." Good luck with it, Arne."

Yeah I have a couple of 5 gallon food grade buckets I've used for 3 gallon batches, Sorta hate to have all that head space but... it's only for the primary time and I could just go ahead and fit the lid during primary with a airlock. Should have plenty of oxygen to get started that way even with a lid on. Yesterday evening a lot of the berrys were still frozen so I've got time to mull it over. Thinking about a bigger bag too, Had two smaller ones but one has started to rip and this one is really overly full so if I go to 5 gallon bucket a larger bag will work just fine.
 
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