P is for...

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Plums and Precarious

Today I harvested what looks to be the last of our plums.  While Robb steadied me, I climbed up on a rickety ladder, and picked the plums that were over-hanging the chicken coop.  These last plums were a bit too ripe to eat, and so we started the process of brewing plum wine.

Pits and Proportions

Our plums are a cling-stone variety (almost surely Santa Rosa), and so I cut the fruits in thirds, slicing on either side of the pit.  I chucked the sliced fruit into a jelly-bag and smooshed the juice out with my hands.  I like to think of this as the small-scale version of stomping on wine grapes.

We harvested about twenty pounds of plums today, and used around thirteen in this recipe.

Pomace and Patience

I hung the jelly bag over the frame for my vintage chinoise, and squeezed and squeezed.  I then transferred the pomace (that's the skins and pulp) to a sieve, to let it strain some more.

The pits and pulp will be given to our poultry.  They can't crack the pits, so it isn't poisonous.

Potential and Potency

We made our first batch of plum wine almost exactly a year ago.  And today we transferred it from the glass carboy into actual wine bottles.  We took the opportunity to have a taste, and to test the specific gravity, or alcohol content (13%).  Although a bit rough or raw, the wine is quite tasty.  It's plummy, and pleasantly dry.  We also tried our young mead today.

Ptooey! Premature!