Udolphian Mysteries, and Chokecherry Progress, and Halfway There

So, I'm about 5 hours into listening to The Mysteries of Udolpho, and so far there's no mystery (well, maybe just a hint of one that could possibly turn into something sorta mysterious sometime), and there's no Udolpho. It's taken a good long time for sweet Emily to SPOILER SPOILER SPOILER become an orphan, and I imagine the real story starts from that point. It is good to know, however, that idiots with guns in the 1500's were every bit as stupid as idiots with guns can be now (more SPOILER SPOILER SPOILER: Emily's father rashly fires his gun through a closed carriage door in order to save them from robbers, only to discover that he has shot the future hero of the story- I asusme- instead). However, it's an interesting book, and I'll continue on. Lots of pretty scenery, fer shure, if no plot development.

The Chokecherry wine is progressing. The original mixture (the must) in the primary fermenter (the loosely lidded bucket in the corner of our kitchen) reached the proper Specific Gravity fairly quickly.

In order to transfer the wine to the closed glass carboy for secondary fermentation, we had to remove the fruit pulp. We very quickly remembered why it is that winemaking instructions say to put the fermenting fruit in a bag. We had to scoop the floating pulp out by hand. By the way, that pulp was fermenting furiously- we could have added it to more water and sugar, and made another batch of wine (which would have had a weaker fruit flavor, but would have been just as powerful) (we didn't).

Those bubbles aren't foam, they're from the yeast, which is voraciously eating the sugar and pooping alcohol (and releasing CO2- yeah, they're farting).

Our high-tech straining mechanism to get the rest of the pulp from the must (sanitized panty hose). Next time, we'll find the bag.

Racking the must into the carboy for secondary fermentation.

The first couple of days in the carboy- look at all the sediment. Turns out that pantyhose aren't very efficient strainers.

This morning, racked again, and already beginning to clear. It's still fermenting merrily away. Now, we'll put it in a dark, cool place, and let the yeast eat to it's microscopic heart's content. We'll check the specific gravity  every few days, and in a couple of weeks, rack it again. After that, it's a matter waiting for it to finish fermenting, before continuing to the next step.

And speaking of continuing to the next step- this  morning I send the remainder of the first half of my new book's projects to my editor. Wahoo!

Sweet Cherry Wine, Sock of the Day

Okay, not so sweet, I'm just in a Tommy James and the Shondells mood.

We're starting a 5 gallon batch of chokecherry wine with the 18 lbs of chokecherries that we picked last summer and froze.

They have to thaw and come up to room temp, and we have to pick out bits of leaves that we missed last summer, but come tomorrow night, we should be able to add the yeast, and in 2 days, it should be bubbling away.

We have all of the ingredients, and will add a quart of concentrated Riesling juice (all of our fruit wines have a grape base). And since it's that time of year, we will probably also start a 3 gallon batch of Chablis. Expect many pictures (though not a lot of tasting, since the chokecherry wine won't be good until it ages a few years).

I can't remember what number this Sock of the Day is, so I'm going to stop numbering them. I do know that they were knit from Opal yarn, and I believe the colorway was called Bumblebee, which is now discontinued, and evidently hard to find (so hard to find that I couldn't locate a confirmation of the colorway name. I'm relying on my often faulty memory).

I made them with my usual generic sock pattern (2.75 needles, 60 sts, 15 rnds K2 P2 ribbing, 6" cuff, short row heel, 6" foot, Star Toe), and they've held up pretty well (a minor repair in one heel). Opal yarn machine washes and dries like a dream.

Chokin' and Crabbin'

It was much cooler and less humid yesterday, so we picked 18lbs of chokecherries, and shook 85lbs of crabapples off the tree (the poor thing looked like it was going to crack from the weight). I spent 4 hours cooking the chokecherries down to 13 cups of juice for future jelly, which I froze. The pulp was added to berries that my husband picked while I was at the summit, for future wine. And the blue hands will come in handy when I dye yarn for my SAFF workshop samples later today.

I'll chop and juice some of the crab apples today as well(boy, do I wish I had a fruit press), and save a bunch for wine. But we're going to eat some of them- they're surprisingly tasty for crab apples, not dry and quite sweet, and large for crabs. And the rest, we'll give away. There's no way I can use 85lbs of apples (which doesn't take into consideration the hundreds of pounds still on the tree).

I think I'm going to experiment with hot pepper jellies. The fruit/pepper jellies I bought in Oregon on the family vacation were wonderful. But mostly, I just hope that the jellies actually jell. I'm going to double up on the pectin, just to make sure, since last year's crabapple jelly is still as liquid as when it went into the jar. It's going down the drain very soon...