Garden

Well, after much thought I have finally decided where I will put a lot of the potatoes. I rototilled a spot near the bird bath I put up. The space is roughly 7ft by 8ft on one side, and on the other side it gets wider to about 10ft. So the shape is a little odd, but thats no the point. I dumped one wheel barrow load of dirt (I'll to that later, where I got the dirt) and two wheel barrows of horse manure. I dug them in and than did a criss cross with 2x8s and 2x4s giving me something to walk on. I am doing it more of a deep bed or square foot gardening method. I am not doing rows. I checked on the potatoes in the winery and found that the white potatoes were doing good, but they had some mold on them and they were really damp in the bag. So I got them out of the bag and put them in a milk crate with the red potatoes. Both are just starting to grow eyes. I will do some 'earlies' eat them while they are still young. But hope to do some harvest ones, near the end of the summer for storing.

I am also hoping to do a lot of sweet potatoes, I have a deep bed I dug in the middle of the woods by our log cabin, and I am hoping it gets enough sun. I will probably try to plant sweet potatoes somewhere else too. I am picking up a few bales of straw soon, I want to try planting a few potatoes and sweet potatoes in them and see how they do.

I have just about everything (vegetable) that I am planting in the greenhouse or in the garden. I have a few things like pumpkins and squash, which some of it I want to plant later. Some of the squash I want to plant every month or three weeks. I am planning on growing pumpkins on the hill side where we chopped down trees to let in light. Just sorta let them go wild and hope the deer don't get them. :)

My dad helped me finish putting shingles on the back of the greenhouse, so that was nice. At some point I need to re organize me greenhouse. Take everything out for a day. Clean up everything. Put everything back in order. And before fall I would like to get about half or more of it tilled up so I can grow stuff all through the winter. I am thinking carrots, and lettuce and brassicas.

I am already planning my fall garden. Brassicas, peas, winter squash, lettuce (hoping on planting that every month or 3 weeks year round), some more root crops.


I have figured out what was going on with the bee hives. And it can be easily fixed, I was working on it when my dad wanted to put the shingles on, so it didn't get done today. I have to take off the sides and redo them, not to hard.


I put in a small 'root cellar' by the greenhouse. I dug down 3ft (hence the dirt for the potato plot), put a few rocks on the bottom and put a small metal trash can inside. In the winter I will put a bag of leaves on top to help keep it from freezing. It will keep some stuff at the garden, I can also use it to keep stuff cool, like if I make a lunch and bring it down to the garden or a drink.

I finished tilling the flower plot up by the house. Got the sunflower seeds from last year and found tons of mold all over them. I put 3-4 hundred at least in 3x3ft space in the middle of the plot, hoping I get a few. Last year I did the whole thing with sunflowers and the squirrels ate 1/8 of the seeds before sprouting, and than quite a few of the heads of the sunflowers. Next time we go to Lowes we will pick up a bag of wild flower seed mix and sprinkle that on, we've done that for the last 3-4 years.

I was looking into putting a root cellar in the corner of my winery, but have thought twice about it. The main thing being that that corner is the SW corner, which gets the most light, second it has two windows, which means I could cool it off quickly with out side air. But the main problem with them is that they don't have much insulation and it lets light in. So I am thinking the north west corner would be better. So, maybe this summer my dad and I can do that. He thinks we need to hook up a fridge to it and turn that on to keep it cool. I think if we get it just right it will work. Last year we had 20 bushels of apples and it took about 2 months to use all of them up. By the end they were going bad. But, they were in a room that was not very insulated, and I think that was the main problem. Second was that I didn't realize that to make cider I need to use the apples right when I get them instead of waiting a few weeks. So, this year I will be using them up sooner. So, I hope that I can convince him to try it without a fridge this time and see if we need it. I am looking at a space 5x7-8 ft. Don't need it real big.

Anyway, have a lot to do before tomorrow. So, I will be signing off. Every time I see rain in the forecast I rejoice! :)

~the Gardener

English Vintner

Growth

Well, well. Spring is here, no doubt about it. We had a pretty cold winter, colder than most, and more snow than in a long time. But our spring started right up and it is quite warm here.

Last night I finished nailing and glueing all my bee frames. The next thing to do is finish them by putting the wax foundation in them. As far as hives go, I need to rework them a little bit. That or just put together the hive pieces that my cousin and I cut at Thanksgiving. I contacted someone locally who sells bees, but couldn't get a hold. If I can't get them locally I will see about getting them shipped in.

The garden is growing well. I didn't loose as much lettuce as I thought I did. I put the tray behind the greenhouse out of direct sun. No deer have been in the garden since winter. I am hoping that enough green things are in the woods that they won't have to eat out of my garden. I got a book from the library telling how to deer proof your garden. Basically their is no set way to deer proof you garden for every one. But more on that later.

My strawberries are doing well, growing strong. I have broccoli that is 8 inches tall, and two heads of lettuce that are ready to eat anytime. Pollen is everywhere, everytime I drive I have to turn on the windshield washers and wash the windshield. My grape vines are doing splendid, I put the muscadine pot right on the arbor so this year I will let it climb up it, and probably this fall plant it. The niagara grape vine is doing well. I just planted an apple tree from seed and I will be growing it espalier, so that should be a lot of fun.

I recently ordered gooseberries, currants, raspberries, asparagus and rhubarb. Because back in the early 1900's currant and gooseberries carried a disease that killed white pines all were banned from the US. In the 60's most states let up the ban, but some still have it. The weird thing is that most places will ship currants to NC but not the place I am ordering. So, I am shipping it to my cousins in GA and on April 23 my grandparents are coming up and they will bring that. My cousin is also sending more blueberry cuttings, a different kind for a pollinator.

A friend at church who makes wine and has a small garden and grows just about one of everything decided to grow hops this year. (I convinced him). So, this Friday, tomorrow he is picking up two hops for me also, we will pay eachother at church. Still not sure where I want to plant them yet, they grow 20-25ft per season!!! But die back to the root every winter. Next year I might get a couple more.

When I move and eventually have my own house (I'm thinking somewhere in NC/SC) I can come back to my old house and take cuttings from all the fruit and grapes and stuff that I am growing now. I am planning to order grapes soon, a few wine grapes and some table grapes. I am thinking of stopping by a local nursery and seeing the selection on fruit, might buy an apple tree. But what I would like is to go to an apple orchard and take a few cuttings, I wonder if they would mind. Just a few prunnings.

The garden up by the house is doing well. In fact the beans up here are doing better. The beans down by the other garden seem to be some what withered or something is eating them. The ones up here are growing 1/2" a day! Lettuce is doing well up here. Though I seem to have a mole in one of my gardens up here. I put a bottle in the ground, that is suppose to make vibrations they don't like, we will see. Zinnias are coming up. Down by the garden parsnips, carrots, onions, shallots, beets, coming up. Zucchini are doing the best of the vining crops. Tomatoes are rather slow. Watermelons, cantaloupe, and such are only 2 leaves right now.

I am planning on putting in beans after some of the peas are done, and than doing more peas. I am planning a huge fall garden. Hoping to do lettuce year round from now if I can. Planning quite a few brassicas through the winter, and in the greenhouse I am doing carrots, and probably rutabagas, and such through the winter. Maybe some radishes.

I need to buy more peat moss from Lowes. Along with some chicken wire.

Sometimes I wonder what good it is doing school. I have an Uncle who is a medical doctor, he said he took trig and all in collage, and now, he has math ability of about 8-9th grade. You forget so much of what you learn. Sometimes I wonder how I am doing at math, will I do well on SAT test? But than I think, its all in His hands. I know so much more about plants, winemaking, beekeeping than I would say the average adult. So, I will just leave it in His hands and trust his will in my life.

I have a lot to do today, so I will end now. Good bye.


English Vintner

Change

Well, I am cosolidating all of my blogs onto this one. The other blogs I have were/are coffee roasting, gardening, life, and soda making.

I will still keep the other blogs around just to have incase someone wants some information about something I wrote on them.

Spring is here and I am ready for it! What am I planting? Well, here is a list:
Roots
parsnips
carrots (3 different kinds)
white beets
onions
shallots
celery (yes, in the root family)

Brassicas
Cabbage (2 kinds)
Broccoli (2 kinds)
Cauliflower (2 kinds)
Rutabaga (yup, in the brassica family)
Chinese Cabbage

Legumes
Peas (3 different kinds)
Beans (4-5 different kinds)
Fava Beans

Misc.
Watermelons
Muskmelons
Cantaloupe
Zucchini
Squash (3-4 different kinds)
Tomatoes (2-3 different kinds)
Lettuce (3 different kinds, head and leaf lettuce)
Spinach
Cucumbers

Herbs/Flowers
Bee Balm
Zinnias
Thyme
Basil (4-5 different kinds!)
Oregano
Lemon Balm
Garlic
Horehound
and more

I am doing deep beds. I hope to post more on deep beds. I will also post a few essays that I have done for fun on gardening and such.

Well, I have a long day ahead of me. Lots to plant, water, weed in the garden! I roasted coffee this morning. Sticky Buns will be made tonight in preparation for tomorrow breakfast. I have not made soda in a long time. But I have sassafras roots and birch twigs that make an excellent extract for it that I will make soon!

God bless,
English Vintner

Cranberry Wine

I said I was going to show you the fig label. Well I forgo to and now I can't. Its on another computer that has adobe photoshop which I used to make it on.

However I do have my cranberry label on here. I just bottled it, very good tasting.




English Vintner

p.s. Unfortunatly the label is in a pdf format and has to be jpeg so until I can get some help on that I cannot show this either, what pity.

Fall Fermentation

Well, its been a couple weeks. I'm planning a Reformation Feast this year, so that is coming up early. Need to do a little more planning on that on. Yesterday we made 30 cups of apple butter, froze all of it. We might be making more, but hopefully that will last us throughout the year. For the rest of the apples I hope to make into cider or apples sauce. And maybe some cut up frozen for baking.

It will be sad when all the apples are gone. Its been raining a lot here lately. I did some work on the greenhouse yesterday. Planning for my spring garden is fun, you would not believe all the vegatables we are growing.


But on to winemaking now. I bottled one bottle of my fig port because I thought I was going to send it along with some food to friends in Atlanta who got hit with the flooding. But after tasting it at bottling I thought, why send them a bottle of wine that needs a year of aging? Yes, thats about how it taste, like it needs a year of aging. I picked the figs last year, about this time, and froze them. And it wasn't until December or January that I made it into wine. But I've racked it a few times and added lots of sugar water to it. But every time I added sugar it seemed to ferment it. So this port is between 18-20%. I will post the label on here.

My friend who owns the grape press will be on vacation next week. So I am hoping Sunday that I can get the press, and then later that week make apple cider. He said to make cider with it just take an apple/potato peeler, slice the apples with the skin on, then dice them up a few times and that does a good enough job. So I am hoping the rest of the cider will be done that way.

I am also hoping to pick skuppernong grapes soon. I tried last year to make wine from the grapes but with no way to crush or press them conveinently I didn't do a good job. I ended up adding the one gallon to my dessert blend wine. But I would like to make at least 3 gallons this year.

I should be bottling more wine soon. Especially the cranberry wine I just made, I need to have it ready by Thanksgiving, I will bottle it sweet. I am trying to empty my carboys to make room for cider. I need to bottle my beer also, that needs to be ready for Thanksgiving also.

For next year I would like to have my whizbang cider crusher and press. I looked up how to make a cider crusher and came upon this guys website who invented this way to do it. He uses a disposal to crush the apples, and a jack to pressure to press them. Quite cool.

Well, I'd better be signing off, much stuff to do ahead of me.


English Vintner

Pictures

English Vintner

The picture below is a grape crusher that I am working on. This is a hopper, much like an apple crusher used for making apple cider in a cider press.

I will be building a shaft that this will go in. And put a dowel through it to turn it. Add the grapes through the shaft and I can crush grapes! I have friends, whom I will be getting skuppernong grapes from, who have a press. So I will use this crusher and their press to get grape juice!!!!

I hope to make some jam, juice, and wine!!!

Thanks for listening, and feel free to comment!!!!!

English Vintner

English Vintner

Ah, a little tired. Got up at 4am and went to work, worked like mad till 11am. So, a little worn out.

The garden seems to be going well, cantaloupe producing flowers, cucumbers, pumpkins, carrots, cabbage. Those are doing the best, then I have quite a lot of other stuff that is going slow.

I am getting a few strawberries each day or so. I think I should be getting quite alot next year though. Speaking of next year, I am planning on doing bees next year. Probably 1 hive to start. It will help polinate the raspberries, strawberries, blueberries, grapes, and if I have a garden their. So yeah, it sounds like fun!



On to winemaking. I bought one gallon of blueberry kiwi juice, it has some corn syrup, but I don't really care. So, I should be starting that soon. I think I have gotten back into the mood for doing wine. So I am hoping tonight to bottle some wine. Empty out some carboys and get ready to fill them back up.

So many things to do this summer, I have to make a batch of Merlot this summer, I promised a bottle to a friend, thing is, I don't want to use a kit. And my lhbs doesn't sell just the grape concentrate for it, so now I have to pay $10 shipping!! Makes me mad.

At then before the end of summer I have to buy a glass demijohn, 15 gallons. I will do a batch of cranberry and strawberry, each batch will be 75 bottles. : ) Haha!

I think I will be bottling the concord cran next, and maybe some grape, pineapple, pineneedle. And then transfer my dandelion, it started off on its own whlie I was at a conference for a week. So, I let it go, I need to check the s.g. and add sugar to bump up the alcohol. It was only as sweet as the white grape juice that was the main thing in it.

Well, I feel quite tired. So I shall sign off.

English Vintner

DEER!!!

Well, here I am and deer is in the title, any idea why? CAUSE THE BLASTED DEER ATE THE TOPS OF 2/3S OF MY STRAWBERRY PLANTS!!!!!!!

Ahh....got that out. Guess its better to get it out here then on the deer? : ) Oh well.


On to wine. I have my cran concord batch in primary bucket ready to bottle. Just need a little time to wash bottles and bottle.

I am taking some soda to a party this afternoon, we shall see how it is.

English Vintner