Wine Time - Our First Vintage

Last autumn we took the leap. We hitched up the trailer and headed east to take delivery of 525 pounds of Cabernet Franc grapes. Sourced from Dineen Vineyards in Prosser, Washington we were confident they were of top quality.

A year later. The reward of hard work and patience.

It took a full day to drive the four hour round trip, have the grapes crushed for us and unload the bounty at home. We had fantasized about crushing our own by hand but thankfully reality won out.

Harvested that morning from the scenic Dineen Vineyard and waiting for us when we arrived.

Scott Greer at Sheridan was kind enough to work us into the crush that morning.

We then proceeded to measure the brix and the Ph.

Brix is a measure of the sugar level of the grape. This is how vineyard managers determine when to harvest. Measuring the Ph gives you an idea of the acid content of the juice.

Fermentation took place in the garage with some added heat to keep the yeast happily eating the sugars converting them into alcohol.

Punching down the cap had to be done twice a day for 10 days.

Once the yeast is done converting all the sugar and the acid is balanced out it's time to separate the skins from the juice. We decided to do a 'free run' and then press.

Free run juice going into the carboys to let the solids sink to the bottom. We then moved juice from one carboy to a clean one, removed the sediments and did the same for the remaining ones until the wine was clear and ready for bottling.

Our bottles were recycled so we needed to wash and sanitize them. This took a full day of family labor. Once sanitized in the kitchen they were filled and corked in the garage. Each carboy was taste tested before bottling and labeled as A, B or C grade according to us then laid down in the cellar.

We paid labor in wine and still had plenty to spare!

A year later, we have re-graded. The 'A' became 'B' and vice versa. 'C'  has remained the same.

2nd Quarter Report

Here we are already in October and overdue for my quarterly report. A little foreshadowing to the story of the past few months. We have been busy; with chickens, keeping the garden healthy, watered and growing, mending fences, adding gutters to the coop, laying more flagstone, canning, pickling, and stuffing sausage. Throw in a few vacations, some cycling and soccer and before you know it months have slipped by.

Our vegetable garden was pretty much a bust. Cucumbers and potatoes were our best crops. The summer and patty pan squash would have been better put to use as a source of blossoms to be stuffed. The brussel sprouts are far behind but if our weather stays mild we may get a bumper crop. The blueberries suffered most and I'm wondering if this has anything to do with the dwindling bee population as we only got four berries! If so, that will be remedied this coming spring when I install two top bar bee hives. I will be planting a cover crop of crimson clover in both raised beds that should bloom in April giving the bees a good source of nectar and pollen early in the season. Other sources nearby are winter blooming heather, native flowering currant, sweet box, big leaf maple and salal. In the backyard I am also planting a hillside of lavender for summer nectar among all the other blooming plants at that time of year. I'll fully chronicle the event for you.

I grew potatoes in containers instead of the raised beds to conserve space. All you need is some sort of container, even a garbage can with holes punched in the bottom for drainage will do. I've even seen heavy duty plastic garbage bags used. Put a little soil in the bottom of the container with the seed potatoes. Then as the green tops grow add more soil to cover the stems continuing this practice all the way up to the top of the container. Potatoes will form from roots sent out all the way up the stem of the plant. In the fall when the leaves and stems begin to yellow tip over the container and harvest the potatoes.

With the added nutrients of chicken manure our grape grew with vigor. In its second year, we can now tie and train it to a pre-installed support. Next spring we will lay down some black rock as a mulch to conduct heat and create a micro climate. I'm looking forward to the year we will actually harvest our first bunch.

The hens continued to lay five eggs a day during the summer and once in a while there would be six. Now in October we are getting four a day and sometimes only three. One of our gals is waiting until 3 o'clock in the afternoon to perform her duty. We have decide not to provide artificial light this first winter to give the girls a rest. We won't have any eggs to give away but I'm sure we'll get enough to keep us happy.

An herbs and eggs parting gift for dinner guests. I had to use store bought chives as mine were not yet ready to harvest.


This autumn we are planning a wood-fired oven and cold-smoke house installation. We made some of our own fresh sausage to perfect the stuffing process in order to be prepared once the smoking process comes into the picture. The fresh sausage has to be eaten or frozen and the mix needs to have additives if it is to be smoked. I will be chronicling this as well.

Fresh Italian pork sausage.

Even with shorter days, heavy rain, and cooler temperatures there is still plenty to keep us busy. Ordering bee packages and hives, overseeing the installation of the bread oven and cold-smoke house, sowing cover crops and ordering seeds for next spring. The consummate optimist, I still hold out hope for evenings in front of the fire with a good book and maybe a short vacation to warmer climates.

Harvesting Madrone Bark for Culinary Uses

So why would I display a picture of rose hip marmalade on a post about Madrone bark harvesting? Below you'll find my secret ingredient made from the bark of the Madrone (Arbutus mensiesii). All too common in the Pacific Northwest, I need not introduce it to those who live here but how many of us knew that the tree has culinary uses? Many Native Peoples used it to make tea and dried the berries to use in cakes during the long winter months. As of late the bark has shown up on the Herbfarm menu for their Spring Foragers dinner of where I had the pleasure of celebrating my birthday.

The Pacific Madrone can be found from British Columbia to Baja California. A broadleaf evergreen that sheds it's bark in late Summer and produces berries from Spring blooms in the Autumn, can be used in culinary dishes that require tannin to balance high acids. A tea can be made and used to infuse a depth into foods that can benefit from another layer of flavor such as stews and soups. 

I have two small Madrone in my backyard of which I am harvesting the bark to store for use throughout the year. I used the bark to make a tea. It has a lovely mellow earthy flavor and beautiful reddish brown hue. Making the tea is easy and like any other tea you can steep it as long as you like for a stronger, more concentrated taste.

For 4 cups of tea boil 2 cups of bark "scrolls" until desired tea strength is reached. Pour through a sieve to clarify.

I used this to add liquid, balance the acid, add tannin and flavor depth to my Rose Hip Marmalade.

Rose hips are mostly seeds. It will take you about 45 minutes to 1 hour to clean the hips for the recipe below.

7 cups of cleaned rose hips chopped (mine were from Rugosa roses). They should look like this if you use a food processor to chop the cleaned hips.

2 cups washed and de-stemed hips run through a Kitchen Aid (or similar) food mill. This will cut down on cleaning time too! This will create a mash. 

I processed some of the hips to create a mash to suspend the chopped pieces.

5 cups of sugar

4 cups Madrone Bark Tea

2 medium lemons juiced and zest the rind into small strips

Mix together chopped and milled rose hips and lemon rind strips

Follow the Ball Complete Book for Home Preserving recipe for Marmalade using the Madrone bark tea as a substitute for liquid.

The result is a bright citrusy mouthful calmed by tannic earthy notes. Madrone bark has other uses too only limited by your imagination. I've seen it used in ice cream, sauces, to make Chinese tea eggs, and is a suitable wood for smoking meats. If you've experimented with Madrone bark or Madrone wood let me know what you've made and how you made it.