Dandelion Wine

Last spring while I was reading one of my magazines I came across a recipe for Dandelion Wine. It became to late for me too make any last year so I vowed to make some this year.

So that is exactly what I did, you don’t realize how long it takes to pick enough flowers to make this wine. Try like two and half hours, you only use the petals no green parts.

After picking the flowers for like ever, you also need to get some lemons and oranges. Besides sugar, yeast and water you are set to go.

With this recipe you use the rinds of the lemon and orange plus the orange its self. First you boil the flowers, water, and rinds for twenty minutes. Strain that out and add your sugar, then let it set until it has cooled. then you add your yeast and orange slices. Now you let it set for, four days this is the first setting.

On the fourth day you strain out the mixture and let it set for two weeks. This is the second setting which is pictured above. Then there is a third setting for another two weeks before the final transfer to the bottle and setting in a cool place to age.

The recipe says that the wine will be ready for Christmas so I won’t be talking about this anymore until then. All good things take time, it’s the same with good wine as well.

Cheese Update

Back in January Ed and I started to make hard cheese, Gouda, Monterey Jack, Farm House Cheddar, Traditional Cheddar. If I remember correctly I said none of them would be ready until Easter. Easter was here and gone and we tasted the first of the four cheeses.

The first cheese we made was the Gouda, we had it with some wine from a friend gave us and bread that I purchased from a bakery. Boy was it good, the first pieces were reminiscent of Parmesan, with a slit sharpness that mellowed out. It was a good pairing with the wine and bread.

After we sampled the first pieces we did share, everyone that got a sample liked it very much to the point I got and order for a wheel. 

The rest of the wheel I kept in the refrigerator to have later in the week. As the week went on the flavor of the cheese mellowed out not being as sharp when it was first cut. This Gouda is also a good grating cheese. I made some pasta with olive oil and herbs. Just before I served it I topped it with some grated Gouda and it was good.

The next wheel we are going to try is the Monterey Jack, once we do I will let you know how that came out.

Palms

Last year I was asked to weave palms for Palm Sunday, our church was having a talent day where members brought thinks they made to the church too be on display for Palm Sunday service. Since I did such a great job last year I was asked to weave the palms again this year. It’s also a special day since it is the start of the churches tenth anniversary.

So this year I did them a little different then I normally would, with a few extra pieces. That will adorn the church.

These are single flowers for a side table. I made a dozen total that can go in one vase or be split between two.

This is a cross with flowers woven to look like they are growing up the cross. There are also some woven pieces interlaced through out the piece.

 

Theses two are alter pieces that will be placed on the alter and a side cabinet.

This piece is for the cemetery, I make up some every year to remember loved ones.

 

Those are this years pieces. After I was working on them I came up with some possible new effects for next year. So we will see if they work out.

Gardening

I was able to get to the garden today and take some soil samples. I still had to shovel about a foot of snow out of my way first, but when I got too the soil it was soft, wet but soft.

I learned today that some amending needs to be done. I already new this so it was more a confirmation then not. All the levels need to bee increased a bit. Except for the pH levels their were all in range.

I did take five samples from different parts of the garden. It's kind of cool to be able to get a different result twenty feet away from the same plot of soil. It shows that you need to keep good records and be aware of what your plants need.

So all I have to do know is wait till the snow melts and amend the soil so I can start planting. I suspect that will be in early April.

Seed List

I guess i was slepping last night when I posted about the seeds, so below is a list of whats new this year.

• Mary Washington Asparagus
• Green Globe Artichoke
• Yellow and Green Bush Bean
• Tall Telephone Pea
• Glaskins Perpetual Rhubarb
• Vegetable Marrow Squash
• Vegetable Spaghetti Squash
• Black Pearl Soy Beans
• Yin Yang Beans
• Early Pink & Calico Popcorn
• Chichiquelite Huckleberry
• Emerald Gem Melon
• Scaly Bark Watermelon
• Striped Stuffing Tomato
• Virgina Peanuts
• Jerusalem Artichoke
• Bull's Blood Beet
• Indigo
• Black Hollyhock
• Golden Margerite
• Wild Indigo
• Safflower
• Chinese Woad
• Flax
• Milk Weed
• Erlene's Green Cotton
• Mississippi Brown Cotton
• Bo-Tree
• Rainbow Mix Aster
• Pacific Beauty & Pink Surprise Calendula
• Halequin Marigold
• Farinacea Blue Bedder Salvia
• Music Box Sunflower
• Kong Sunflower
• Chinese Latern

Weaving Tip / Trick

A little trick I thought up for table loom weavers is to mark your leavers for difficult or complex treadling projects. What you do is get some Post-It page markers and for every leaver that you are using mark all the treadles that leaver will be pulled.

For example leaver eight is marked 3, 4, 6 and leaver seven is marked 3, 4, 5. You read your ti-up from left to right for each leaver and mark which number in the draw down that leaver is to be pulled. In the examples I'm using, leavers seven and eight are pulled when you get to 3 in the draw down as well as 4. Leaver seven is puled at 6 and leaver eight is pulled at 5. I used these two leavers for the example because you can see what i have written on them from the picture. I also omitted the tabby from the tabs since I know what tabby is I didn't need to add it. When your done you just remove the tabs and add new ones if you need to for the next project.

I will recognise that not every table loom owner will be able to use this system. Since some leavers are on the side of the loom instead of the front or maybe you can stick the tabs so they are visible on the leavers. I really don't know it's just a thought. I hope this helps new and experienced weavers out.

Seed Starting Time

First i need to apologize for not blogging about my seeds this year. After last years disastrous results I guess it wasn't that important, but then it is since I haven't given up and have started my seeds this year and got lots of new ones back in January.

Something that I learned last year was to start not only the cool weather veggies yearly, but also start the perennial and herb seeds early. Last year some of them didn't even germinate and the rest were small when I planted them out side and didn't even survive. If there are any that don't come up then I can start them again and see if I can get them to germinate. If not then I just can't grow that stubborn plant, so it the plants lose any way.

Some new seeds that I got this year are asparagus, artichokes, rhubarb, scaly bark watermelon, melon, peanuts, some new dye herbs. I got milk weed, because I found out that you can use it to spin flax. I know what your thinking the seed fluff, nope that is to brittle and will break down of time. But it has been used for stuffing in life jackets so they will float. I'm told the fiber are hallow and that is the reason they work. The part that you use in spinning is the stem, you don't have to rett the stem after they are dry. You can bend the dry stems to realise the outer casing and expose the inner fiber, then you hackle it like flax.

I'm also going to try Jerusalem artichokes, they are not here yet since I could only get they tubers. I would suspect that the will arrive just in time for planting. We shall wait and see.

I also got a soil test kit just to make sure the soil at the farm is alive. Not so much alive because there are plenty of worms in it in the spring when I plant. I guess I just want to make sure everything is in the ranges they are supposed to be at. Since they farm was turned in to a nursery there are a lot of full grown trees and bushes. They may have taken a lot of the nutrients out of the soil. I can't do any tests though since the mountain is still covered in about six inches of snow. They are saying that its going up into the fifties this weekend I hope so then I can get some soil sample and plan out the garden this year.

I've been stalling on the planning out, until I know how many plants and what soil amendment I may have to do. Amending the is the problem so much as knowing how many plant I will have.