Inbetween the early morning watering and the last thing at night watering, we are still making wine. Last weeks fig is ready for pressing now, that's on tomorrow's job list, I'm also hoping to pick enough figs when I go for the morning dog walk to get another batch started using some of the current brew as a yeast starter.
The pear wine is still eating sugar - not sure that's the technical term for it, but we still need to add sugar every 4 days or so. The grapes still look good, this time last year we had much more intense heat and they had started to shrivel, but we've only had a few days of temperatures of more than 30 ...... so far.
On Sunday friends came and joined us for the day, lunch, drinks, lots of cooling off in the pool, afternoon strawberries -both freshly picked and vodka-y - and ice cream, plus I'd made strawberry vodka again. Not much, just 300mls, but this time we left it in the fridge to soak as that's the coolest and darkest place I know. A gorgeous colour and flavour, and the strawberries were vodka-y too. No photo because there's none left! Luckily they'd all walked up from Yátor, although they arrived very hot and out of breath, they soon cooled down in the pool and didn't have to worry about driving home later on after the slightly boozy afternoon.
A couple of years ago I came across a way to make lemonade using the whole lemon, skin and all, the recipe is on this blog if you go to the search box, we made it again recently but without the sugar as the gaseosa that we buy here has enough sweetness to make a long cool fizzy drink. Gaseosa is - according to the label - just carbonated water with citric acid and sweetener. But it's almost calorie free and is cheap too, usually 26 cents for a 1.5 litre bottle. So good for the waistline and the wallet! Also bought a kilo of limes and made a lime version. It isn't green like limes for some reason but has the taste of limes though which is what matters.
Tuesday, 16 July 2013
Wednesday, 10 July 2013
A pressing time.
After a week of fizzing, the pear wine got pressed this morning, and we now have almost 30 litres. It will be fizzing again pretty soon and we have sugar and water to add over the next week or so. Then as it settles and clears it can be siphoned into clean bottles.
The actual pressing doesn't take too long, it's the preparation and clearing up afterwards that is time consuming. Although the kitchen floor is tiled, and spillages don't really matter, sticky pear juice will only get trodden through the dining room or at worst, I'll slip on it. So first I put old towels down on the floor in the work area, make sure there is a bucket of hot soapy water and a mop handy, and a bowl of hot soapy water too, then first wash and rinse the wine press along with the bottles, funnel and assorted other stuff. Then all that has to be sterilised as well before the fermenting pears and their juice can be poured carefully into the press. At first the liquid comes out really fast, we put a large pan - washed and sterilised of course - underneath, 2 pans actually, 1 to catch the juice then the other slips into place while the first is being poured into a 5 litre bottle.
So after about 3 hours work we have the beginnings of this years wine selection. We also started some fig wine, we had nearly 6 kilos of figs, both black and white which we've mixed as there weren't enough of either to do separately. The figs have to be chopped up but I put them in the food processor as it is quicker. That should give us about 5 litres, sometimes we've just used the figs on their own and sometimes added sugar water as well but the price of sugar has gone from 47 cents 2 years ago, to nearly 1 euro now, not exactly free wine anymore but still cheaper than we can buy. Actually I'm not sure you can even buy fig wine, or pear wine, so price isn't really an issue. At least grapes don't need sugar adding so that really will be free wine when it comes.....fingers crossed!
The actual pressing doesn't take too long, it's the preparation and clearing up afterwards that is time consuming. Although the kitchen floor is tiled, and spillages don't really matter, sticky pear juice will only get trodden through the dining room or at worst, I'll slip on it. So first I put old towels down on the floor in the work area, make sure there is a bucket of hot soapy water and a mop handy, and a bowl of hot soapy water too, then first wash and rinse the wine press along with the bottles, funnel and assorted other stuff. Then all that has to be sterilised as well before the fermenting pears and their juice can be poured carefully into the press. At first the liquid comes out really fast, we put a large pan - washed and sterilised of course - underneath, 2 pans actually, 1 to catch the juice then the other slips into place while the first is being poured into a 5 litre bottle.
So after about 3 hours work we have the beginnings of this years wine selection. We also started some fig wine, we had nearly 6 kilos of figs, both black and white which we've mixed as there weren't enough of either to do separately. The figs have to be chopped up but I put them in the food processor as it is quicker. That should give us about 5 litres, sometimes we've just used the figs on their own and sometimes added sugar water as well but the price of sugar has gone from 47 cents 2 years ago, to nearly 1 euro now, not exactly free wine anymore but still cheaper than we can buy. Actually I'm not sure you can even buy fig wine, or pear wine, so price isn't really an issue. At least grapes don't need sugar adding so that really will be free wine when it comes.....fingers crossed!
Sunday, 7 July 2013
It's been a while....
A few days since I was on here so a catch-up tonight with things...
The wine is fizzing nicely and there's quite a yeasty smell in the kitchen in the morning when we first go down to make our breakfast coffee. Another few days and we will put it into the fruit press to squeeze out the juice and then continue the fermenting in plastic bottles adding sugar water gradually till it has finished.
The majority of our bottles - anything from 1.5 litres up to 25 litre ones - are stored in the corral. This is actually our neighbours storage area but we have use of a large corner for those things that we only need to use occasionally. We also have our grape crusher up there - it looks something like a wheelbarrow base but with holes, rubber paddles and a handle - as you put in the grapes and turn the handle so they get squashed and burst and go through the holes into a bucket underneath. The grapes continue to look good so fingers crossed and we'll get the crusher out and cleaned up for October.
There is an extra bit to the corral where Manolo used to park his car but over the last 8 years it has been neglected and the caña, wooden beams and plastic sheeted roof have mostly fallen in, the walls have cracks with daylight showing and there is a definite lean to them. This weekend John and Miguel have taken down that section of the roof and very early this morning John cut up all the old beams - mostly olive wood - and we brought them down to our wood store. A couple of hours dusty work today for at least 2 weeks fire wood.
Later in the year Miguel plans on a big tidy up and sort out of everything thing that's left - I know John doesn't like to throw things out "just in case" but having looked at all the bags and boxes in the corral that were Manolo's there is a lot of stuff to be sorted. I hope it gets thrown out - but not our way!
The wine is fizzing nicely and there's quite a yeasty smell in the kitchen in the morning when we first go down to make our breakfast coffee. Another few days and we will put it into the fruit press to squeeze out the juice and then continue the fermenting in plastic bottles adding sugar water gradually till it has finished.
The majority of our bottles - anything from 1.5 litres up to 25 litre ones - are stored in the corral. This is actually our neighbours storage area but we have use of a large corner for those things that we only need to use occasionally. We also have our grape crusher up there - it looks something like a wheelbarrow base but with holes, rubber paddles and a handle - as you put in the grapes and turn the handle so they get squashed and burst and go through the holes into a bucket underneath. The grapes continue to look good so fingers crossed and we'll get the crusher out and cleaned up for October.
There is an extra bit to the corral where Manolo used to park his car but over the last 8 years it has been neglected and the caña, wooden beams and plastic sheeted roof have mostly fallen in, the walls have cracks with daylight showing and there is a definite lean to them. This weekend John and Miguel have taken down that section of the roof and very early this morning John cut up all the old beams - mostly olive wood - and we brought them down to our wood store. A couple of hours dusty work today for at least 2 weeks fire wood.
Later in the year Miguel plans on a big tidy up and sort out of everything thing that's left - I know John doesn't like to throw things out "just in case" but having looked at all the bags and boxes in the corral that were Manolo's there is a lot of stuff to be sorted. I hope it gets thrown out - but not our way!
Wednesday, 3 July 2013
A bumper crop.
We have a small pear tree in our front garden, not so big that we need steps or ladders to pick the fruit, but for it's small size it produces a lot of fruit. Normally that is. Last year there was only enough to eat and the occasional windfall for Pip and Monty. The year before last it seemed to be quite laden and as we're not sure that too many windfalls are good for dogs we picked all the fruit and made wine. That year we got 18lb of fruit.
These pears are only small, only a bit bigger than bite-sized, and are available in the local shops so next time I see them, I'll try and find out which variety they are.
This year is another year that it's produced lots, and again the windfalls are dropping. Last week we put an olive net under the tree starting from the fence and clipped it onto the lower branches. Every morning there has been a dozen or so pears in the net but they are not keeping well so today I decided to pick them all off and make the first of this years wine.
38 pounds of pears. And such a small tree.
I spent a couple of hours chopping the fruit up, into sterilized buckets, added water and sterilizing tablets, this afternoon we've added sugar water and yeast, and covered with shower caps.
Those long term readers of my ramblings may well remember the shower caps...for the newbies we use them to cover buckets of brewing fruit and also bowls of bread dough while it's rising. In the days before el crisis these shower caps were freely available at hotels, nowadays I'm not so sure, but we still have a stock of them. They aren't designed for long term use but will wash and dry - with care - and usually it's the elastic that goes long before the actual plastic tears. But a very good way of protecting your brew or dough and see-through too so you know what's going on in the bucket or bowl.
This year is another year that it's produced lots, and again the windfalls are dropping. Last week we put an olive net under the tree starting from the fence and clipped it onto the lower branches. Every morning there has been a dozen or so pears in the net but they are not keeping well so today I decided to pick them all off and make the first of this years wine.
38 pounds of pears. And such a small tree.
I spent a couple of hours chopping the fruit up, into sterilized buckets, added water and sterilizing tablets, this afternoon we've added sugar water and yeast, and covered with shower caps.
Those long term readers of my ramblings may well remember the shower caps...for the newbies we use them to cover buckets of brewing fruit and also bowls of bread dough while it's rising. In the days before el crisis these shower caps were freely available at hotels, nowadays I'm not so sure, but we still have a stock of them. They aren't designed for long term use but will wash and dry - with care - and usually it's the elastic that goes long before the actual plastic tears. But a very good way of protecting your brew or dough and see-through too so you know what's going on in the bucket or bowl.
Tuesday, 2 July 2013
Dampening the dust
Lovely sunny warm starts to the days at the moment, but yesterday huge shiny white clouds built up to the north of us during the afternoon and thunder rumbled around but it didn't amount to anything.
Same start to today but late this afternoon thunder rumbled back and forth for ages, then came the lightning, and huge splodges of rain plus hot gusty wind......we were out covering seed trays, putting down parasols, taking in chair cushions, suddenly remembered the new table out by the pool....would it be alright or turn upside down and get scratched.....decided to leave it and keep fingered crossed.
A couple of hours later and it's all calm again. We ate dinner indoors, Pip crawled out from her hidyhole under the bed, and we've been for a short walk. Not too far as its all overgrown and I get wet legs from the damp long grass.
And it's still 25 degrees which is what we woke up to - shame about the bad bit in the middle!
Same start to today but late this afternoon thunder rumbled back and forth for ages, then came the lightning, and huge splodges of rain plus hot gusty wind......we were out covering seed trays, putting down parasols, taking in chair cushions, suddenly remembered the new table out by the pool....would it be alright or turn upside down and get scratched.....decided to leave it and keep fingered crossed.
A couple of hours later and it's all calm again. We ate dinner indoors, Pip crawled out from her hidyhole under the bed, and we've been for a short walk. Not too far as its all overgrown and I get wet legs from the damp long grass.
And it's still 25 degrees which is what we woke up to - shame about the bad bit in the middle!
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