Garden thread.

[fourx]

I am a fan of the cask as well, Don, and most of the bottles we drink run to no more that five or six bucks each - on the 2 Buck Chuck subject, the equal here would be Chateau Tanunda...there are many charming folksy convict-bred terms for vomiting in  Aussie slang- chunder, Park A Tiger, Call Herb On The Great White Telephone, etc- Chateau Tanunda, originators of the very cheap and nasty, have been known for decades as Chateau Chunder
Wine with meals, Glenn, is by no means a Yuppie thing here- it's very much blue-collar and-yes- even redneck. Plenty of beer gets downed in the hot weather, for sure, but most Aussie homes have a cask or two and a few bottles of good red or white floating around. I was given an eggcup-full of claret or reisling with my meals from around age seven- concidered then as an education into the relationship between wine and food and as a preventative against teen-years binge drinking. I don't think things have changed all that much. We have wine with meals except when the missus whips up one of her fabulous asian dishes or a curry ( or Mexican)..to drink a fine wine with something that overpowers your tase-buds seems a waste.
A cask, Don, is 10 bucks here for four litres- mostly Shiraz or Grenache, and whites are mostly reisling style. There are lots of great wines produced here, Semillon( Hunter Valley) and Carbanet( Clare region and Barossa Valley) being my favourites, but the very best are only for domestic consumption in most cases, with only the overpriced Hungerford Hill and the average quality Bannrock Station and Jacobs Creek exported in huge amounts.

[benevolance]

Making your own beer is cheap fun and it tastes so much better than what you get in the store...

It is a no brainer

[MountainDon]

A cask, Don, is 10 bucks here for four litres... There are lots of great wines produced here,

A 5 litre box (cask is so much more elegant sounding... have to adopt that) of a medium quality like I buy is $12 - 17 depending on which vendor you choose.  Yellow Tail has made big inroads in the market from what I see, tho' I don't browse the wine shelves as much as I used to. I have my favorites and that's that!

Making your own beer is cheap fun and it tastes so much better than what you get in the store...

Usually it tastes better...     Do you bottle or keg it? I like to use the Cornelius Kegs, much easier than washing, disinfecting, etc all those bottles. Of course it's not as portable as bottles so I also like to bottle. I've got a bunch of the short stubbies like Red Stripe comes in here (also used to be used in Canada... not sure if they still use them). They save space, tho' not as nice in the hand as a long neck.

[glenn-k]

One of my dad's uncles made a bunch of beer and buried it so the revenuers wouldn't find it.  Apparently he didn't find it either.  Years later my uncle was driving his Cat bulldozing when the ground started foaming.  An emergency was declared, the Cat was shut down and the unbroken bottles were rescued and consumed.

My wife has friends and I have relatives who drink more wine.  I have a bit of an allergy to the sulfites used so don't drink too much of it.  Sometimes it doesn't bother me much - other times I just feel I'd rather avoid the sneezyness etc.

I had an old Croatian friend who made barrels of wine - probably 6 or more per year from his grapes.

[benevolance]

Don,

I have a beer fridge....Took an old 50's fridge and painted it up with hot rod flames...And out the side I drilled 2 holes and installed draft taps...

Two 5 gallon corny kegs joined to a tee and a bottle of Co2

So there is always 10 gallons of cold beer on tap...The beer fridge is at the new house in the Laundry room

Been making my own beer since college....About the only thing I ever learned when I was away at school :-/

Started to make beer with the kit where you cooked it on the stove...and used a plastic bucket..

Just kept getting more into it... Built a grain mill... Switched to the kegging system and the beer fridge because it is so much easier....And I find the beer tastes a lot better.

Usually have a imitation bass ale and a imitation newcastle nut brown in the beer fridge...

My wife hates generic american beer like miller or bud...She loves Mexican and English beers... Newcastle and Bass are among her all time favorites..

The really cool thing about making beer is that you get to make gadgets for the beer... Like the counterflow chiller that hooks to the garden hose.... Or the wort Aerator... Then there is the custom brew kettle and things like false bottoms and stainless steel screens... I have a false bottom in mine and a 3 pronged sparge manifold... I found a good gadget site ten years ago that is now defunct... and the guy used a DC motor on a long shaft and fan blade to create a downard current in the wort as it was cooking... it created a flower or funnel in the kettle...Pulling it down in the middle and upwards on the sides...Kept everything from burning or sticking...

So I have one of those...  Sort of looks like crap...a piece of plywood with a hole drilled in it... that sits on top of the kettle.... But it is great because it means I do not have to sit there and stir

I currently do not bottle individual beer bottles.... I would like to... I have awesome plans a guy sent me for a counter pressure bottle filler....It would put the Co2 in the bottles with the beer...

It is one of the things on my list... I would like to give friends cases of beer for gifts making their favorite type of beer and print them their own label....

Take some wood and make a old timey box for the beer to sit in... It is fun to make and print labels on the computer...

I remember the old hardwood chocolate boxes when I was a small boy...My grandpa worked in the mill as he was a machinist/sawyer...I think it would be way cool to make some crate type beer boxes to put beer in for friends and family.

Maybe we can make a batch sometime...

Peter and Don's "Hot Rod" ale

Would be neat if you had some pointers or recipee help for me...I am always amazed when I taste someone else's beer and see how good it is... Just that people are capable of making great beer so easily...It just floors me

Why do people buy store bought???

[fishing_guy]

Speaking of making your own beer...

I trained my son right, I think.  We had a grapevine in the backyard, and when he was 14, he asked me if we could make wine form them.  I did him one better, and bought him a book on winemaking written by a guy from England.  I told him that I would fund his endeovor, but that he would have to provide the expertise.  He read, went online and found the experts, and has beeninto it ever since.

His first wine was drinkable...if you pinched your nose while doing so.  I also seemed to remember that it was a double whammy...it would bite your tounge on the way down, and the high alcohol content would bite you the next morning.

He's turning 20 next week.  He's made a lot of wine since then.  Our favorite was peach wine.  When we'ld take the oldest to school in Georgia in the fall, we would bring back a crate or two of peaches.
Right now we have 6 gallons of strawberry wine fermenting away.  He made 1 gallon last year, and we decided that it is very drinkable, so we bought him 3 flats of strawberrys this year.

His vision is to open a winery, and is currently attending college for that.

[MountainDon]

Why do people buy store bought???

Why do people eat at McD's?

You are way deeper into brewing than I, Peter.    What I make is from ingredient kits; sometimes store/online purchased but more frequently from a local microbrewery where I know one of the principles. It's a short cut, I know, but it suits my attention span.    As for bottling, bottles like the Grolsch style with flip top lids work very nicely and obviate the need for a capper. They're also available in larger sizes like 1 and 2 litres.  


fishing_guy, good luck and best wishes to your son's endeavor's. I haven't made any wine in a couple of decades.  :'(

[benevolance]

I am not into winemaking...I know some people that make very nice white wine...

Don I sometimes buy the kit where the wort comes from a can.... Dump er in the kettle boil it and you are making beer....

I did that for a long time and it is amazing how good the quality of the beer is with it...

If I remember some of the better kits are the Coopers IPA and the Blue Mountian

I have toyed with the idea of going to the bottling recycle depot and asking to buy a couple dozen bottles of Grolsch... emptied of course... Take em home steralize em... and presto

Don the Grolsch bottle eliminates the need for a capper....But there is still the problem of priming sugar...Which is why I got rid of the bottles in the first place..

when we were in college it was no big deal to pour the beer into a glass and dump out the last couple inches in the bottle...So the left over sugary solution from priming the bottles would not get mixed into your beer

That got old for me very quickly and when someone suggested I upgrade to the keg system I almost lost my mind I was so happy

So when I said I wanted to build a counter pressure bottle filler I should have said for Grolsch type bottles.

My wife has some unlces that are beer drinkers and they love european style lagers ales and pilsners... Which is why I thought making the Wooden crate type beer boxes for the beer and printing a label for them would be way cool

I used to have this crazy dream when I was in college I would someday open a microbrewery.....

I have no time or money for that sort of endeavor and I like the old cars....So it  worked out well that making beer is a fun hobby for me.

takes me a long time to drink 10 gallons of beer....So I only have to make it a few times a year....and mostly other people drink as much as I

For some weird reason it is a super rush to make beer and see  the look of amasement on other people's faces when they try it and love it.

[glenn-k]

Yup - I'm lazy - don't drink much so can do with a good store bought or a bad one sometimes- long time since I made wine - only a gallon or two.

Picked a peck of pickled peppers today -- OK -  it wasn't a peck - maybe 5 or 6 lbs.  OK they weren't pickled either .  Anaheim's.




Garden is growing like crazy now too - Foot and a half long Armenian cucumbers every couple days.  No pix right now of them -

[benevolance]

Glenn I am way jealous

Peppers look amazing..Are they easy to grow? I need easy food to grow...
My wife and I both love green Red green and Yellow peppers of all varieties.

[glenn-k]

Put them in the ground -- add water.  I noticed the steep bank right behind the largest tomatoes and the Anaheim peppers seems to have stored the early sun heat and given them an extra boost.  Black buckets of water - Wall-O-Water  - milk jugs of water etc can also store heat near the plants if necessary for an early start.  The next rows out seem to be growing slower but coming right along.  If you have the peppers in a frost protected area they will produce for several years.

The composted horse manure and raised beds over our clay soil  has greatly improved our garden this year - things are growing twice as big twice as fast.  I read that the French intensive gardening used just horse manure in places.  Things can then be grown much closer together shading out weeds.  I have put a bit of very light commercial fertilizer - vegetable type - nit grass type - in addition to the manure, and sprayed them with miracle grow once for foliar feeding.

The peppers pictured above average 5 to 6 inches long and 1 1/4 dia on the big end.

[benevolance]

Yeah I mix a little miracle grow in the watering can once every couple weeks just to make sure the plants are getting everything they could possibly need

Directions on the back and such

I went the burn the leaves route over composting...I would like to try the compost manure method though... this fall when the half dozen oak trees lose their leaves

[glenn-k]

If you want to compost the Oak leaves, then you need a stronger manure such as chicken to add to the leaves.  Horse manure is the perfect mix of carbon to nitrogen for composting as it comes from the horse - stand there with your little scoop to be sure it is pure--

You need to approximate that mix when using other materials - chicken is high nitrogen and needs more carbon such as leaves and straw.  Too much straw in your horse manure requires added chicken manure to compost at the fastest rate,  I don't have specific amounts.  Just mix it to taste.

[benevolance]

so the oak leaves are extra sturdy and need the extra boost of notrogen to break down...

Hmm Glenn you seem to be a manure specialist...

[benevolance]

It is a good feeling knowing we are using mostly natural products on food at the house with no pesticides

You just never ever really know what you are being exposed to when you buy in a supermarket

though since we are talking manure and compost fertilizer I am sure there is a study done somewhere that says it is bad for you and will kill you

[fourx]

Looks fantastic now, Glenn.
I don't use a spray- just horse manure and a little commercial fertilizer. What is that on the left in the bottom pic with leaves a bit like punpkin, Glenn? Is that the cucumbers? I find them rather tough- only grow Lebanese now. Have you tried growing them?

[glenn-k]

The big leaves on the left are winter squash of various types.  I want them for storage - they will keep all winter and still be good to eat by the time you replant the next years garden besides the winter stuff in the garden.

The Armenian cucumbers are very mild with a very light skin.  In this picture they are behind the corn.  Th vines are growing about a foot a day - and are growing up the fence behind th corn now.  No need to peel.  They are good even if longer than 1 1/2 feet and 2 inches dia. but they may get hollow inside.

I haven't seen the Lebanese cucumbers.

Between the squash and corn is potatoes -- I keep throwing straw and worm compost on them and they keep coming up right through it even stronger.  Supposedly that will make more potatoes.  

[glenn-k]

Peter - not just the oak leaves - straw or any other carbon needs the proper amount of nitrogen mixed with it to compost at maximum speed.  Horse manure with no bedding - straw etc is the perfect mix.

Leaves - wood, straw etc have too much carbon to compost fast -- chicken manure has too much nitrogen -- mix the two together in a proper proportion and you get something that will compost fast like horse manure.  Remember to add water and air weekly.  Water until it just dampens your hand when you squeeze a hhandful but not dripping wet.  Turn weekly to add air.  It well get very hot -- it it catches fre or starts turning to ash it is too hot.  Add more water.

Horse with straw or sawdust - wood etc needs chicken added -- I think you could add commercial nitrogen fertilizer als if no chicken available.  If you don't add the nitrogen to the carbon, it will rob it from your plants in order to break down the carbon.  Then your plants will suffer for nitrogen even though you are adding compost.

[fourx]

Can I suggest, as it's still early summer for you, that the next time you are looking at seeds to plant you try Lebanese? They are the sweetest, best tasting fastest-growing and least disease prone of any cucumber I have grown- they crop in less than six weeks from seed.

[glenn-k]

I'll see if I can find some -- I intend to keep planting throughout the summer.  We're good until about November for weather usually.

[glenn-k]

Seems they are called Amira here.

http://farmerseed.com/detail.asp?nav=&pid=7347

[fourx]

Yeah, that's them-I'll see if I can find an aussie reference.

[glenn-k]

When I looked up Lebanese Cucumbers, most of the references to seed co's were down under.

[glenn-k]

I ordered the Amiras from the above company - hope they get here soon.

[fourx]

No worries, I have grown them very late in the season and they will still bear heavily. They will run as do most cucumbers, Glenn, but if space is scarce they will grow just as well on a trellis. You don't need to peel these- they are similar in flavour to a Crystal Apple ( round type) only sweeter.