Some Sundays

There is a rumour that some people use Sunday as a rest day and even sleep in. We of course are a bit different (or just strange) and got up early for no good reason other than to get on with some chores. John was off to the monthly amateur bee club meeting this morning at 9.30 am but between us and before leaving the chooks were let out, gardens watered, a bit of cleaning up in the kitchen and some computer work was completed.

The milk collected two days ago finally got skimmed. Some of the cream (just a little bit) was kept for a future meal, 6 litres of milk was bottled for teas, coffees and 4 legged kids and the rest went into Provolone (including the rest of the cream). The success of the last one spurred some more experimentation (fully documented of course).

The calibration of the Hygrometers is working thanks to now using a plastic bag which doesn't have a hole to leak out the humidity. As it takes 12 to 24 hours each adjustment has to be retested over that period. Slow but successful. With one the digital Hygrometer there wasn't an obvious adjusting screw and the variation was just written on the case.

The Mandarin wine has still not commenced fermenting. Put the juice into smaller fermenters with almost no space between the liquid and airlock to prevent oxidisation. The only thing that comes to mind as the problem is maybe too much SO2 has been added or that there is not enough yeast nutrient. Will examine the options shortly.

The bee club meeting was packed. Lots of new comers in attendance. The planned commencement of the training course in September is booked out, The scheduled bee field day at Tocal in late September is organised and is regularly well attended. One of the members is planning for her PhD and is looking at bees to test for heavy metals in the environment.

After the club meeting and back home a little time was spent with our own bees installing the Small Hive Beetle trap. They are settling in and busy (the bees not the SHB). Later this week a full inspection will be conducted.

All that brought us to 2 pm. Just to show life is not all drudgery we adjourned to the Provencal Garden and conducted a taste comparison between our mock Roquefort and a shop bought Roquefort collected yesterday at Gloucester. This was aided by a shop bought beer. A German beer on sale at Aldi which is made to the German standard of using only Grain, water, hops and yeast. Also in attendance was a good book and a hat to shelter from the warm late Winter sun. At some point before commencing the afternoon chores a little nap was held with the sun warming the back.

It may seem pretty silly buying cheese and beer when there is a pantry full of the stuff but it's important to always be evaluating your own products against the industry standard so as not to narrow the palate. To that end we purchased about 8 cheese samples in Gloucester. Not that extravagant as they were only small slices. And to come completely clean we also purchased six different bottles of Pinot Noir to compare against our own which was made for the first time this year.

Testing The Egg Incubator, Mandarin Wine

Popped down to the workshop at 8 am to set up the 24 hour test on the incubator and ended up there for 6 hours. The problem was the temperature. The wireless temperature and humidity transmitter didn't have a min/max function which is essential for a full 24 hour test. The solution was simply to insert a probe from one of the many digital thermometers that are stored in the winery (La Cave).

The test rig

There result was a discrepancy between the two thermometers. There was also a big discrepancy between in humidity level in the transmitter and an old hygrometer sitting in the water tray. Attacking the temperature problem first 5 separate probes were inserted into different parts of the incubator. This resulted in 6 different temperatures, some differing by 2 degrees C.

After installing a second fan and moving both fans to different positions and testing the results a final configuration was established that kept the temperature variation to just below one degree. A insulated baffle between the heat source and the egg storage section prevented radiant heat distorting the readings and both fans were mounted in front of and just above the heat source pulling warm air and pumping it across the eggs.  Each test meant dismantling the setup, relocating the fans, reinstalling all the probes and recording temperature variances. What a pain!

There also needed to be confirmation that the temperature was in fact the temperature so the thermostat could be calibrated. With 12 thermometers inside the incubator and some with probes sitting side by side it was established that a bulb thermometer was broken, one transmitter was not transmitting and one digital thermometer was out by one degree. Finally the thermostat was calibrated.

The humidity issue was also resolved when by comparing the results of 3 transmitters and the hygrometer. One transmitter had both the temperature and humidity measurements that worked.

The whole setup was left running after all the min/max settings were reset.

And then some work got done i.e. putting out silage and hay for next doors cows. While I was fiddling with the incubator Jean got some real work done around the garden.

The Mandarin wine had a Brix reading of 17 which was borderline. Yesterday another small batch of Mandarins was juiced with a kitchen juicer and the batch frozen. This morning before embarking on the marathon temperature testing it was taken out of the freezer to defrost. When the defrosted juice reached 21 Brix it was added to the main batch raising the combined batches to 18.4 which is a potential alcohol a little above 10. Well above the minimum 9 recommended for stability. Some NWS Chardonnay yeast was added and an airlock fitted. Lets see what happens.

Mandarin Wine warming above the fireplace

Catching Up

A productive day catching up with the backlog of work. Another baby over the river  (15/25) and finished irrigating the freshly harrowed paddocks as well as the latest bit of fencing ready for the weaners to hit the thigh high Oats.

The asparagus bed received its final weeding and an application of fresh compost watered in with Seasol.

A perfectly clean Asparagus bed

Started melting the frozen Mandarin juice working on the theory that the sugars will melt first providing an opportunity to set the Brix level at the ideal number. We shall see.

One of the blocks of Mandarin ice melting

Picked up a recipe to make a mock Tabasco sauce. Seems very simple. Puree red hot chilli's, add a teaspoon of salt per cup of puree (30:1). Leave for one month to ferment. Drain liquid from pulp or leave some or all the pulp depending on your preference. Add vinegar to taste and allow a little time for the vinegar to integrate and you are done. The food processor had trouble pureeing the chilli's so half a dozen tablespoons of yoghurt whey was added (not in the recipe). Will see how this progresses.

Hot Chilli puree on its way to hot sauce

The Tomato seedlings are progressing well and are well on their way to planting out in the first week of September. 

Do we have enough Tomato Seedlings?

Last job of the day was a small chocolate bar using Coconut Oil, Dextrose. organic Cocoa Powder, lightly roasted peanuts and shredded coconut.

A perfect addition to the evenings Dandelion coffee

A recent change to evening meal format has been having a small plate of vegetables as an entrée. Last night it was Brussels Sprouts, Snow peas and Roasted Sweet Potato with Rosemary all topped with a sauce. The sauce (courtesy of Yottam Ottolenghi's Plenty)  is Dijon Mustard, Olive Oil, Chopped Capers and Garlic. Just a way to get a  good mix of vegetables into the system.

Oh and almost forgot. Ate one of the recently made mock Roquefort minis. Tasted terrific even if it does need another week or two to finish ripening. Goes well with sparkling Chardonnay.

Mandarin Wine, The Project

All quiet on the calving scene but not so quiet on the irrigation scene. The boss rang yesterday to say he had left the irrigator running and it would shut down in two hours and the smaller non-irrigation pump was set to "Auto" and would cut in to maintain supply to the troughs. 19 hours later the following was discovered. The irrigator had not reached the end of its run because one of the propulsion jets was blocked slowing its progress. Because it had not reached the end of the run the automatic water cut off switch had not been triggered before the main pumps timer finished and the small trough pump engaged. The small trough pump is not capable of driving the irrigator but is capable of pumping a large amount of water out of every orifice of the irrigator. One large section of that paddock has now been flood irrigated.

The only reason there has been no attempt to make Mandarin wine is that very few Mandarins are required by any of the recipes found. So a pointless exercise if the objective is to use up a mountain of surplus fruit. On its own the fruit had a Brix of 13.4 which is just under half of the sugar level needed to make a good wine. Hence why all the recipes included all sorts of additives to lift the sugar levels. Until today. While listening to a wine making podcast the solution was delivered. A guy in the USA was explain how he made 3 gallons of Chilli wine by freezing the juice to extract the water and concentrate the sugars.

The downside of Mandarin wine is peeling all the fruit. Fortunately this variety (Imperial) has a loose skin which comes off easily. To make a trial 2 litre batch the target was 4 litres of juice - doable. And so now the freezer is performing the first stage of what will be a trial batch of 100% Mandarin juice wine. 50 ppm of Potassium Metabisulphite was added after pressing to slow oxidation and spoilage. The pH came in at 4.2 which is not acid enough as it will be treated like a white wine. Calculated and added some Tartaric Acid to drop the pH to 3.5. Also kept some juice unadulterated in case a later dilution is required.

Lots of leftovers



Pressing Mandarin with the small screw press

The Project has now reached the point where it can be named even though far from finished. A home made egg incubator. Unless the electrics could be made to work it wouldn't have seen the light of day. The recycled computer fan works perfectly using a charger from a long defunct power tool. Both thermostats retrieved from dumped hot water systems failed to make the grade. One didn't have an adjustable mechanism and the other which did couldn't work below 50 degrees C. Salvation came from the old washing machine which died some years ago. It was dismantled and recycled except some components were kept - in case. One such component was the thermostat and it works perfectly.

The current status is the basic shell is finished and all the electrics have been sourced and tested. Next stage is finishing  the lining and installing the electrics. After that its just the internal mountings which include an access draw to top up the humidifier and a manual egg rolling mechanism accessible from the exterior. If the labour content is calculated at $1 per hour it probably would have been cheaper to buy an incubator off the Web but not as much fun.

Basic Carcase

Lid with Observation Window

The frame is timber from a pallet. The cladding is from recycled Masonite. The insulation is recycled foam and roofing film. As mentioned all the electrics are all recycled. The only purchased items will be the dual low watt light globes for heating and the screws for assembly.