What R you doing today?

[Hokapsig]

The pizza and wine night got scrapped for a pizza and steak night. My wife has to have her Fredonia on friday nights or she's crabby on Saturday morning....

 

[Boatboy24]

Blueberries are chilling out before the big crush! About 2.5 tons locally picked.

Well, I've just been "one-upped". So much for my 24 pints..

 

[Pumpkinman]

Pjd, I currently run my own business, every once in awhile I have a "me" day. ...lol, and to be honest, unless I am swamped, Sunday is a no work day.

 

[Sammyk]

We are on the down side of our (seasonal) Internet business so I can spend more time here. We hope to retire in about 15 more months...

But you folks have got to stop posting about so many wonderful wines or we will be wine broke!

 

[Pumpkinman]

Sammy, same here, our season will be coming to an end in 2 months, may I ask what kind of business? I totally understand if you want to keep it private.

Since it is raining, I'm going to take advantage of not being able to go "play" in the garden, or do yard work..lol..and brew another batch of beer (stock has gotten real low, I can tell when it is low, my buddies are less frequent in coming over...lol).
I'm deciding between:
Honey Brown Ale
American Golden Ale of some sorts
Harpoon IPA clone

 

[Sammyk]

We have a commercial greenhouse and grow aquatic plants and are koi breeders on 2.5 acres. We ship all over the USA. I have kept our true identity secret except for a few folks here. Because our business is totally on line I do not want my customers to know I make wine. Too many nosy people out there looking for mud to sling. Customers searching for us, well, this forum is on the search engines. Too much of our businesslife is already on line and I don't want customers knowing our hobby. So mostly our hidden identity is for personal reasons.

I am sure other wine makers who are also a business feel the same way. More so, if it is an online business.

We will be closing down our business to retire, in a year or so and then I will reveal our true identities.

I do wonder how many of our customers may be members here too! If there are, they will know who we are.

 

[Pumpkinman]

Sammy same here, I run an online garden suppy that caters to farms, nurseries, golf courses, university ag depts. And the competitive growing community. We ship world wide.

 

[Boatboy24]

Got the blueberries into the freezer this morning, then picked half a bushel of red haven peaches. Hope to bottle my wheat beer this afternoon. I'm going to give it a kiss of raspberry extract.

 

[Sammyk]

I figured it was Ag related. We are the only folks who work our behinds off in the spring months, often 18 hour days/7 days a week. While we do ship all year around, spring is absolutely crazy. In fact that is why I got into wine. I was bored in the slow months and I like to keep my mind and hands busy. Plus in 2011 we had so many muscadines we could not possibly eat them all. Then I had many bags of blueberries we grew in the freezer. Normally I would use them for pies in the winter. They became one of our now favorite wines.

It just spiraled from there and I became addicted to making wine. Way too addicted to the point we now have over 600 bottles in the wine cellar.

 

[Runningwolf]

Sammy I have seen your site before and you have awesome products. 15 years or longer ago, when I was really into water gardening I wish there were more places around like you. I either drove up to Trickers in Cleveland or bought from Lilly Ponds. It certainly is a fun hobby I had at my old house before I was married. Now I don't want anything to do with it because I know I'd go over board and my wife would kill for a pond with a running stream.

 

[Sammyk]

Thank you Dan it is a true labor of love but we are too old now to work like we do. Even when it is not peak shipping time there is way too much to do in the greenhouse for the two of us. It is a 24 hour/7 day a week/365 job with no days off. We are both exhausted and now we cannot wait for spring to end.
I am too much of perfectionist to hire help. I want things done my way, the right way the first time. And it is hard to find those who will work in a 125 degree greenhouse in the summer.
So I am bossy and I suppose some of my threads may come through as bossy but then I am a take charge person, been that way my whole life. Old habits die hard.

 

[Rampage4all]

Sammyk what strain of Koi do you raise? I'm not to far from reviving and old koi pond behind my house.

 

[Stressbaby]

We made this for dinner tonight. This is very easy and insanely good.

Bacon - Apple butter pizza.

Cook a pound of bacon and chop it up.
Slice a large onion, saute in butter or bacon grease; add a bit of balsamic vinegar near the end.
Cover 2 precooked pizza crusts with thin layer of oil, then a layer of apple butter as you would pizza sauce.
Mozzarella, onion, bacon, pecans, then 7-8 min in oven at 425F.
Once out, top with some chopped greens (my source called for arugula, that would have been better).

Even my picky 18 year old daughter loved it.

 

[dessertmaker]

Got 2 batches of skeeter pee and 2 batches of spiced cider going yesterday. I grabbed one of the batches of pee today to stir it and triggered a skeeter volcano. It was so violent that when it hit my blow off tubes it sprayed kmeta solution out of the bottle the tube discharges in and over my head!

 

[Boatboy24]

We made this for dinner tonight. This is very easy and insanely good.

Bacon - Apple butter pizza.

Cook a pound of bacon and chop it up.
Slice a large onion, saute in butter or bacon grease; add a bit of balsamic vinegar near the end.
Cover 2 precooked pizza crusts with thin layer of oil, then a layer of apple butter as you would pizza sauce.
Mozzarella, onion, bacon, pecans, then 7-8 min in oven at 425F.
Once out, top with some chopped greens (my source called for arugula, that would have been better).

Even my picky 18 year old daughter loved it.

You had me at bacon...

 

[spaniel]

Started a tradition last year that before school starts each of my kids (when they are at least 3) gets a day with Daddy, just the two of us, to do whatever they want. Today I took my 4-yr-old daughter to the children's museum and then McDonalds with the indoor playground. Tomorrow is her 6-yr-old sister's turn.

Afterwards, they helped me net 3 rows of red grapes -- 2 rows of Foch, one of Oberlin Noir -- to keep the birds out. Then helped me pick peaches, some of which are destined for wine.

I started the day finding out I got a bronze in my first wine competition...not a bad way to start the day.

 

[pjd]

Last Saturday I bought one half peck of green beans at our local farmers market and decided to pickle them using natural fermentation. I cleaned the beans, added one large full bulb of garlic, peeled and crushed, 2 tablespoons of black peppercorns, 2 oz dill seed and 5 or 6 dried chili peppers. I added all to a bucket then added a salt brine, 1 cup coarse kosher salt to one gallon water. I put a plate in the bucket and a 1 gallon glass jug filled with water as a weight to keep everything submerged then waited one week. Wow, they are good! I may never buy another pickle again! I packed them all into a one gallon jar and filled the jar with the brine and placed it in the refrigerator. I don't know if they will last the week! I am going to hit the farmers market again soon!

 

[Boatboy24]

Didn't get to bottling the wheat beer yesterday, but just finished that. Off to church, then farmers market. I'll be throwing some baby backs on the smoker this afternoon.

 

[s0615353]

Just bottled thirteen bottles of my Peach Niagara still wine. Why thirteen you ask...because the rest of the three gallons is in a pitcher that is going poolside LIFE IS GOOD!!!

 

[cedarswamp]

Just racked 6 gallons of Cabernet Sauvignon, 6 gallons of Pinot noir, 6 gallons of Blueberry, 5 gallons of Blueberry-Pomegranate, and bottled 6 gallons of Skeeter Pee.

All In One is awesome!