Ciabatta, Watermelon, Rose, Perry, Garlic, Yogurt

Part of the preparation for lunch guests is some bread. In this case Ciabatta which requires starting a day earlier with the making of the Biga which is pretty much just a sourdough but using a little yeast. Tomorrow it will be used to produce those chewy free form loaves that go so well with baked Camembert and other dips.

Biga after 24 hours

Summer is finally at a close as we consume the last watermelon. Orange Glo a melon we tried for the first time appears to be late season ripening. If this is the case and not just good luck it will be perfect to carry us through until other fruits are ready. The fruit on offer at the moment is the last of the Dragon fruit and the first of the Cherry Guava. In less than a month the first of the Citrus i.e. Mandarin will be ready.

Orange Glow Watermelon

It is the time of month where some wine work needs to be completed i.e racking some of the reds that were pressed and demijohned a little over a month ago. This is the process to take them off the coarser sediment to prevent any unpleasant flavours in the wine. Today the Tempranillo was done. While in the Cave the Packam/Williams Perry was bottled. Only 15 litres or so producing about 40 half bottles. This Perry has a magnificent yellow/orange colour. Will look forward to sampling in a couple of weeks.

While bottling it was decided to also bottle the very small amount of Rose that we made. Only seven litres. The Merlot Rose was incredibly good. It had a balance of fruit and oak flavour and not that sickly sweet Rose that is prevalent in the shops. Just a refreshing luncheon wine. Will serve some to the guests on Sunday.


Merlot Rose

The Garlic planted last week has started to pop out of the ground. The bulk of the 450 cloves have now sprouted. A wonderful sight to the gardener.

Garlic

Unlike house work, food production is an ongoing task. Because of a slip up in planning on my part we had to go two nights without yogurt. But a batch is now made and a little draining tomorrow will provide us with a few weeks supply. There is a steady flow of production in the kitchen that doesn't always rate a mention in the blog. Cheeses, Butter, Yogurt, breads, scones and various other essentials are always in steady production in the background. All part of the process of a healthy lifestyle.

Yogurt made but not drained.

The last of the Summer Wine (Cider and Perry)

According to our Orchard map which contains the layout of the trees with their details including when to harvest, the Williams Pear was due in February. So much for relying on memory and thinking it was March. Consequently the fruit was well advanced and soft and much of it was rotten. This is a side effect of bagging fruit i.e. it is not possible to see the progress without removing a bag. But then the Packham which is due in March was in peak condition and the combined yield provided almost two 20 litre buckets. Some was put aside for eating and the rest went towards Perry.

While out in the Orchard with the barrow and buckets it seemed wise to check the Cider Apples and the two eating apples Rich Red and Cox's Orange Pippen. Neither of the two eating apples had much good fruit. Just a season that wasn't productive for these two. In other years the Rich Red offers up some delicious produce.

The Cider Apples are Sweet Alford, Stokes Red, Yarlington Mill, Kingston Black and Bulmers Norman. Non of these produced well this year, leaving us with just under two 9 litre buckets of mostly miserable small fruit. One or two pieces of fruit did come to full size and the Sweet Alford was magnificent. These are mostly due to ripen in April/May but all were ready now and wouldn't last on the tree much longer.

The Harvest

Some of the pears were extremely large

Rather than muck around with small quantities of Apples it was easier to chuck the whole lot into the Scratter and make a Perry/Cider blend.

The scratter in action

Our guide for Cider and Perry recommends a Potential Alcohol of no less than 9% for good keeping qualities. The sugar levels when measured after pressing came in at about Brix 15.5 which is just under 9%. Our climate just won't allow the fruit to ripen any more, mostly due to the wet conditions arriving at the final stage of ripening. To get the desired result a little sugar was added to the juice to lift the potential alcohol level.

The pH was not ideal at around 5 and a little Tartaric Acid solved that problem. And so the scratting went quickly and the pressing carried on all night with a yield of a little over 12 litres which is fine. The juice has had CL23 yeast added and when the fermentation really kicks in it will go into a chilling unit at 10 C. A long slow cool fermentation really brings out the fruit nose in the final product.

As usual a big clean up afterwards. That is the last use of the Basket press for the year. After it dries out it will get a light sanding and a coat of non toxic paint before being put to bed. It has worked hard this harvest with over 400 KG of grapes and close to 100 KG of Apples and Pears.

The cake after pressing. Something for the chickens to enjoy

We have been keeping back more fruit for eating fresh and enjoying the quality of the home grown product. Next year the objective is to keep more product on the tree after the main harvest to see if we can improve the length of time it can keep. This is hard in our temperate climate. If we were further south I'm sure it would keep for a few more months especially something like the Beurre Bosc.

Rain

The forecast was for 5-10 mm but for the 24 hours to 9am Friday morning we had 30mm and then by 9 am Saturday morning another 32 mm and it drizzled all day. As usual we missed the opportunity to trim edges and mow lawns earlier in the week and now the grass has run away and the ground too soggy to navigate. By the time it is dry enough in a couple of days it should be a nice height. Just when we were getting used to it being excessively dry and getting out of the habit of maintaining the lawn. What little hand mowing we did perform went into making compost. No drama, this growth will produce some excellent mulch for the gardens and around the fruit trees. Always a bright side.

The milk collection was left until this morning. Jean said I should find two smiling dairy farmers. I had to remind them but they dutifully stood side by side and put on broad grins.

We ventured into Raymond Terrace to pick up a garden fork. We have one really good one made from high tensile steel which never bends and it is getting a bit tatty. The prongs have worn down and are needle sharp. There is a second one we recycled from my mother's estate but it is mild steel and any excessive force bends the prongs. The Aldi version said high tensile and a little testing in the shop looked promising and so at $9 it found a home.

Rather than go to the pool so late in the day we dusted off a book on Core Strength Training and followed the instructions. Five minutes of aerobic activity on the exercise bike. Stretches for about 20 minutes and then performed all the Core Strength exercises once just to get the hang of it. It didn't feel like we were doing much but by the end of an hour of grunting, groaning and laughing we were pretty sweaty. An hour later we were feeling a bit sore as well. Just as well we didn't perform the 6-8 repetitions. At least we made a start.

Why do this? Jean ran the tape measure over us this morning and we hopped onto scales. She has a beautiful BMI of 23 which is easy when you are 6'1". I on the other hand bowl up with a BMI of 29 - not good. Shorter and obviously fatter around the middle. One way to address this is work on the middle bit i.e. Core strength. Just clip a few inches off and the BMI starts to look a bit more respectable. Since she raised the issue we will now both suffer while I address my inadequacy.

Well the wine making moves along. The press needed dismantling and cleaning and the Beurre Bosc Perry had slowed to a trickling bubble and was ready for racking. No 15 litre demijohns remaining and so dipped into the stock of 5's filling three plus a 750 ml.

A wet day is a good day to address the cleaning of the Cave. And so it started with knee pads, a scrubbing brush and a bucket of ammonia water. Hands and knees just like in Upstairs Downstairs only I just did a small section. The plan is to do a little each day. It does look a lot better.

Vegetable Garden Activity, Composting and Perry

Our work in the garden continues. Seeds for Kohl Rabi, Wong Bok and Bok Choi went into punnets last week and germinated within days. Jean pricked them out of their trays and planted out today. A good early start. With the exception of Brussels Sprouts and Cauliflower all the Brassica are in the ground. We had real success last year with Brussels Sprouts from seedlings purchased at Aldi. Because of their quality we are hanging in waiting for them to come in to the shop.

Kohl Rabi

Now that we have commenced planting out seedlings it always seems that we don't have enough in the way of garden beds but I'm sure that is an illusion.

We also put down a punnet of Onion seeds last week which has been kept in the kitchen. Normally Onion seeds are a real issue with us with only one or two plants popping up - eventually. But not this time. It looks as if all the seeds germinated. Part of the solution is getting fresh seed. After an intense study on the subject of Onions we realised that the seed has a very short shelf life. Now add into that mix the fact that there are early, mid and late varieties and some are suited to cold climates only, you get the impression that this is a complex subject.

In the past years our failure to germinate Onion seeds meant we were reliant on bought seedlings. Well last week we checked in all the stores and couldn't find any. We did find Leeks and took those as we always do well with them. Yesterday Jean was looking through our Garden Diary and saw that we had purchased and planted Onions a week ago last year. So what is happening? Has the weather affected the grower/suppliers?

Leeks in Troughs

At the end of last week the final massive vegetable garden weeding exercise was completed and with the last bed, the weeds were just dumped in a pile. Today was the day to assemble another NZ Compost. Layer by layer it was compiled. The hard stick like items went through the chipper side of the mulcher while the long strands of grass and other weeds which were still quite green and soft went through the mulcher opening. The secret here is to not have the exit plate in place otherwise the green material chokes the mulcher. By the leaving the plate off the weeds get a good thrashing on their way, through making them easier for bugs to digest, and shoot out the bottom without clogging.

Another secret is to make sure the bottom plate and its fixing bar are put in a safe place. Last week I managed to accidently put the fixing bar into the earlier assembled compost. Rather than disassemble the compost to find the bar a replacement was manufactured in the workshop. I'm sure the other bar will turn up later.

Bottom plate and new locking rod

 

After a solid afternoon's work the compost bin is over half full and all the material at hand is used. Looks like some hand mowing tomorrow to source the remaining green matter to mix with mulch hay.

In the Cave the Beurre Bosc finished pressing last night and we ended up with about 20 litres of juice. The pH was a bit high at 5.03 and Tartaric Acid was added. Also some Potassium Metabisulphite. The pH meter was playing up even though quite some time was spent calibrating with special solutions. At one point in desperation I resorted to the old pH papers. They are useful but getting a precise reading is impossible with the papers I have. Even with finer graduation papers it is difficult with red wine. In this case they at least confirmed that the reading was up in the high 4 to low 5's.

pH papers

In the end it dawned on me that maybe the battery was weak. A replacement battery soon solved the problem. This has happened to me before with other instruments. The battery still works but random results begin occurring. From now on I'll start each season with a freshly charged battery.

pH Meter

Buffer Solution for Calibration

This morning some fresh wine yeast was added to the demijohn and by this evening the airlock was bubbling comfortably. The demijohn is now in a refrigeration unit with the controller set for 12-15 C. This low temperature for a week or so should allow the yeast to bring out the wonderful Pear scents.

The goodly pile of compressed pulp went into the chicken run and delighted the girls.

Harvesting Beurre Bosc Pears, Gardens Prepped for Autumn, Dragon Fruit

Two weeks ago after looking up the Vintage Book to see when we have  harvested the Beurre Bosc in previous years I tested a pear for sugar. It came in at 15 Brix. The records showed that we normally harvest about the 19th February and that the sugar levels were 15 Brix. With the fruit hanging well we agreed to leave it on the tree a little longer. Another sample today showed 21 Brix. Probably an abnormally high reading pear but high enough to assume that it won't go much further.

The fruit harvested was in excellent shape varying in size from small tom exceedingly large. This dry weather Summer has really produced some incredible fruit in the Orchard. The haul came in at just over 36 kilograms. In previous years the harvest has been so small we never even bothered to weigh the result.

Tomorrow after the morning Bee club meet the bulk of the fruit will be processed through the scratter and fermented into Perry. We are currently working our way through two Blue cheeses, a Stilton and a Roquefort. Slices of pear go nicely.

The garden continued to receive attention with the final vegetable bed being cleared of Summer weeds. A little compost spread over it and a coating of Lucerne mulch with a good wetting. It feels great to have prepared all the beds ahead of Autumn making it so easier to slowly plant out new seeds and seedlings. As soon as the temperature is right we'll sow some green manure crops on some sections. In todays bed as an experiment we tried to avoid disturbing the soil. No forking over or removing roots just surface weeding.

Some of the weeds including massive Parsley plants gone to seed

We at Dragon Fruit after dinner.

It looks like a bowl of Ice Cream

Perry

Harvested the Beurre Bosc pears on March 7th, a reasonable crop given the heavy rain. Sugar was a bit down but chaptalized to bring it back to a potential alcohol of 10.0%. Adjusted pH from 4.19 to 3.25 with the addition of Tartaric. There were a few apples ripe on other trees and they went into the mix. Sweet Alford, Stokes Red, Kingston Black and Rich Red as well as a few Williams and Packham pears the cows had knocked down.

Because of fruit fly and birds we bag the fruit in cotton bags just after flowering. This seems to work well although there is a little lost fruit if the bags get wet as it weighs heavily on the branch. Some of the apples mentioned above are true cider apples but we have never had enough of all varieties to make a traditional cider blend but we have managed a few varietal ciders occasionally.
The Beurre Bosc , Williams and Packham pears all do well here as does the Tropical apple and they make acceptable cider and Perry.

The homemade Scratter works well and we had enough fruit to use the big basket press. When time permits I might try to make some finer adjustments to the Scratter to get an even finer pulp but as it is measurements have shown it results in 50-60% juice yield. It looks like we have about 10-12 litres fermenting away in a 25 litre demijohn using NWS Chardonnay yeast.

Spent some time adding extra rows of screws to the Scratter drum. A quick test showed an enormous improvement in performance. The fruit chips are much smaller and resulted in better yields of juice.



Beurre Bosc Pears



Scratter Drum

Home Made Scratter

Pressing Pears in the baby press

Freshly modified Scratter Drum with additional rows of screws

Cider and Perry, Last Fruits of Summer, Mushrooms

Apples, Pears, Cider and Perry

December/January is the time that the Tropical Apple is ready for harvest. The fruit was left as long as possible to maximise sugar content and we harvested making cider. As usual timing was poor. We hadn’t tasted last year’s cider before we bagged up this year’s crop to protect it from parrots and fruit fly. The previous year’s cider was great. Now we wished we had gone to the trouble to bag more fruit to make a greater quantity. The cider was not sweet but it was sparkling and very refreshing at the end of a hot day.

Well we still had the pear trees and the Cider Apple trees to harvest later so maybe we would still get a reasonable quantity.

On the Orchard map the harvest months are noted. Well it turns out they are wrong. The dates are for trees in Tasmania not NSW north coast. Our fruit ripens 4-6 weeks earlier. Well luckily we were checking the fruit and discovered it was ready. For some reason some of the apple trees failed to mature any fruit in the bags while others were fine. Still there is enough to make a little more cider. The best tree this year was Stokes Red.

The Buerre Bosc produced a goodly amount of fruit as it always does and we were able to make Perry for the first time. Next year a big effort will go into bagging as much as we can. There are still two more pear trees to harvest a Williams and a Packham. We may not have sufficient cider and Perry to bath in but there will be enough to taste test some more experiments.

The process is fairly simple using our Champion Juicer. The fruit is cut into pieces and juiced. The sugar level is tested. All the batches we did came in at around 15 Brix which is fine. The juice is warm and the yeast starts quickly. We used Chardonnay yeast as an experiment. As opposed to beer yeast which we tried last year.

Fermentation is done in demijohns with an airlock. Once the bubbling stops it is racked into 375 ml bottles and half a teaspoon of sugar added to create the fizz. Then leave it. It will be fizzy in two weeks but a little bottle age is better.

This year there will be four distinct (trial) batches. The trials are on pH, yeast type and sulphur addition (or not). This should give us a good feel on how to proceed next year. Very exciting.

Last fruits of the Tomato Bed

The relocating garden in the paddock that we call the Tomato bed is still producing food. The tomatoes have gone although there make be a second flush in another month. The rockmelons are still going albeit slowly. The bitter melon is coating as is the okra and capsicum. The pumpkins and squash are coming on and some were ready. The Hungarian wax capsicum is still flowering and forming fruit as is the zucchini. The big surprise is a cucumber plant  has germinated and we may get another crop before the cold sets in.

Mushrooms

Sometimes we wish we lived in France so that all the mushrooms could be taken to the local chemist and identified before we poison ourselves. Trying to identify edible ones from a book is damned hard trying to use photographs. Every time some gorgeous looking mushroom forms we find two possible candidates in the book. One is edible and the other is poisonous and we can’t tell the difference.

A recent email to a friend at the nearby university asking if there were any experts about proved fruitful. The friend as it turns out studied mushroom as part of his science course many years ago. All we need is a sample.

Of course by this stage these massive white oyster shaped clusters weighing kilograms had finished their life cycle and nothing remained but a brownish black smudge.

OK we’ll be ready next time.