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I can’t resist – “Seishu!– Watashi wa sore o mezashite ikimasu!” This will be fun! I’m one of those here who considered the idea of making sake intriguing and put it on my list for “someday”. Yeah, it seemed crazy, complicated, and definitely outside my comfort zone as a country wine maker...

It was long thought that there are more male psychopaths than female psychopaths and the accepted ratio was 6:1. New research puts the ratio at 1.2:1, almost equal. I'm not surprised. Oops, I better delete that.😂 https://neurosciencenews.com/female-psychopathy-psychology-25669/

Thru 2/17/24, code TEAMWINE at checkout, free shipping over 99.99.

Thought this might be interesting/helpful especially for new wine makers. I recently bottled my second raspberry wine and the differences are truly amazing. The most obvious difference is color. The bottle on the right is the very last bottle of my very first wine. (I don't think I'll ever...

I thought mead makers might want to be aware of this. https://childrenshealthdefense.org/defender/fake-adulterated-honey-united-states-cola/ https://www.insider.com/fake-honey-problems-how-it-works-2020-9

Thru 11/28/23, free shipping over $99.99, code TURKEY15. https://www.homebrewohio.com/

"Rosa Canina", the Dog Rose, so called because Hippocrates used the roots to heal the wound from a dog bite. Possibly one of the healthiest and most spiritual ingredients to use for wine. Spiritually it's associated with love, the Virgin Mary, and emotional healing; as a talisman offering...

My "Going for it" posts are generally "unusual" wines, sometimes VERY unusual. Initially I wasn't planning a post for this but @vinny convinced me that there's some unusual aspects that would make it interesting to share. We'll see...you judge. For starters, this is my vineyard - "River...

Gee, as a country wine maker I don't know what's going on with the forum - everyone seems to have a fixation with grapes lately.😂 Fine, I'll play along. I spent some time gathering wild grapes and was worried about finding enough for a gallon batch. Disappointing, not very much at ground...

Yes, goldenrod, the much maligned weed that often gets blamed for hayfever symptoms. It's innocent. In fact, an antidote can be made with goldenrod! And like many other plants in the yard it has a boatload of benefits - it's good for the bladder, urinary tract, and kidneys and is thought to be...

Finally! None of my oaks produced acorns last year and this year only my Northern Red Oak was productive. And it was one of the more difficult ingredients to harvest only because of the deer, rot, and worms. Fortunately the recipe only calls for a cup of chopped acorns because easily 75% of...

That darn curiosity thing. I've never made a 2nd wine AND I wondered if freezing would affect active yeast. I freeze bread dough so my initial thought was it shouldn't be a problem. I froze the pulp from a batch of wild blackberry/elderberry for 2 weeks. Thawed overnight and mixed everything...

Spotted this growing next to my pond. Small tree about 6 ft tall, trunk is about 2 inches in diameter, and the "fruit" is almost 1 inch in diameter. I've searched with no luck, internet and books. There are green and red ones so I think red means ripe. It's driving me crazy because it looks...

Such a delicious plant! Early in the season I nibbled on the wonderful leaves while in the garden. Incredible anise-licorice flavor. Mine is non-bulbing, coming back every year, bigger. My oldest at 4 years is hitting 8 ft. My intention early in the year was to use leaves and flowers but like...

I haven't done anything unusual for a while and it's certainly the right time of year for bramble tips. Had a couple surprises along the way as well. Wild blackberries are invasive on my property. Certainly can't get rid of them. Control them? Barely. Picking a gallon+ of tips didn't take...

I hate to write this but it has to be done - "Please don't eat the daisies. Drink them!" Sorry. Oxeye daisies are probably everywhere. Easy to harvest but just a little time consuming to gather enough. When I first tasted the greens of the oxeye daisy early in the year there was a very strong...

I use Japanese honeysuckle for wine though I've found 6 varieties on the property, vining and bush. I finally identified 4 more this week and 2 are poisonous. Be careful out there!!!!

Moving on to weed wines...and another shocker! Probably everyone has chickweed and I was surprised at the flavor. It tasted like the world's best lettuce. Didn't even bother making a test tea because it's just plain delicious and my mind was made up. There's a bunch of culinary recipes for it...

Well, I did it - bought the Apera PH60 meter. I thought some, especially new winemakers, might be interested in a comparison. I've been using kombucha pH paper for at least 10 years, originally for my kombucha. (Link for my paper below.) Sometimes the number with the paper is obvious, sometimes...

Never found time to make redbud jelly, darn it, but the wine turned into another shocker. The flowers were tart. Must be some kind of acid there. Some flavor, not much, so I went to Test #2 and made tea. What a transformation! Very slight floral aroma but the flavor shocked me - no doubt about...