First Draft Pick.

My vision of a brew room had started long before my kitchen remodel and got it's jump start when I tore my kitchen apart.  The first step to the kitchen project was to move the range into one of the utility rooms in the basement, we rerouted the power so I could us the stove in the interim.  After moving the water softener and cleaning out some things left behind by the previous owners, a coat of
paint on the walls and a few pieces of salvaged linoleum my basement brother got from work, the room was a space clean enough to prepare food in while the kitchen was no longer in a condition to do such things.

At this point I began watching the Auction Master's site looking for the right stainless steel washing sink with a drying rack.  After a few bidding losses I got an idea of exactly what I wanted in a sink and what I was willing to pay.  There the sink was, a thing of beauty.  A deep basin for washing carboys and kettles with a drying rack that drains directly back into the sink. It completed my basement kitchen, well after a series of plumbing projects that totaled as much as the actual sink cost me the kitchen in my basement was complete.

The space was ready for brewing but with the actual kitchen had not been finished and my greenhouse season consumes my schedule through the summer, there was no brewing.  Life seemed to be keeping me from making my first batch. Which is quite alright, sometimes life has a way of filling the days without one actively looking for new projects and adventures.  It's when there is a break in the action or shift in pressures that give us a chance to experience new things.  This October I had that opportunity, the arrival of my first hop harvest was just the incentive I needed.  Finally the perishable crop of Cascade hops, created an urgency to get brewing. 

Cascade Hops from my backyard trellis. 

I recruited a more experienced brewing friend to guide me through the initial process.  Having the equipment and experience of making Mead much of the skills transfer over, though its always nice to have someone around who knows a bit more than you do.   Much like my style in the kitchen, we followed the recipe more like a guideline. With an outline of correct temperatures and timing we played around a little.  Using the supplied grains and malt extract for a Double IPA, we used the hops I grew myself and added a touch of the Farm's honey.

The grains get added.

Using fresh hops, it was hard to know how much to use. 
We went by handfuls, many handfuls.

Adding the malt extract to the wort. 

The new sink and additional plumbing works awesomely for cooling down the batch of beer before pitching the yeast.

I dry hopped during the second fermentation and added another half cup of honey for good measure. 
After the second fermentation I racked the beer with a priming sugar and bottled into recycled brown bottles I'd been saving for years.  Being well aware of my hoarding tendencies, I've been limiting my accumulation of unnecessary things.  I don't want to be one of those old farmer's piles of broken equipment and miscellaneous rubbish about, instead there only be reusable bottles, reclaimed lumber, belt buckles and vinyl records filling my many outbuildings. 

Floating science stick in the tube told me the beer sits at about 8.5%.

Pre- priming sugar samples.

Bottling, from start to finish a three and a half week process for beer. 
Another three weeks of waiting while the priming sugar and yeast find balance.

I ended up with a high alcohol count at 8.5%, a tasty auburn color with a mild carbonation which works really nice with it's sweet honey finish.  The hops came across more mild than initially expected, which can be explained by the young age of the vines they grew from.  Turned out to be a very enjoyable beer, one for casual sipping. Perhaps my next batch would be strictly from a kit to take out the variables from experimentation and to refine my skills, but I am really happy with my first draft pick. 

Darkness Consumes the Day

  Its Autumn, each day there is less and less light to get things done.  The sun is already on the western horizon each day as my work hours finish.  There is a seasonal urgency in the crisp air.  Every passing day more leaves pass through nature's hour glass as they fall to the ground.  We see the passing of light with more reverence, and the night grasps harder as each day passes.    
  As the loss of summer can weigh heavy on our minds, there can be a many great wonders in the coming of autumn.  Through the change in temperature and light brings on a world of changes we experience in the north that just don't happen nearly as drastic in the tropics or even the southern states. The biological triggers; the shorting length of day signals many cues to the natural world around us.
  Light affects us physically and emotionally, it affects plants too.  The science world calls light's affect on plants Phototropism.  Leaves in the presence of light can orientate themselves to achieve higher photosynthesis efficiencies.  Plants grown in the absence of light uses etiolation continue to grow while conserving energy and searching out a light source.  These plants grow pale and thin in hopes of light, and as soon as a source of light is returned the plant begins to green and flourish. Even in the absence of light, a plant knows which way is up.  Gravity, the natural pull of the Earth drives a plant up.  And if the plant can grow against gravity, the only direction is up and light comes from above. 
  In the scope of whole trees, days shorten from the summer solstice through to the winter solstice and the trees take their cues to prepare for winter and bring the wonder of their shows of color.  The oaks around the farm were speaking to me today, perhaps because their leaves tend to persist longer while many other leaves have already hit the ground or that there is enough variety in and texture amongst the oaks to please. 

 

  With all the lessening of the day, a cool fall can come on earlier than a tree is ready for.  A few quick frosts, or one deep freeze can stall the tree's preparation for winter.  Instead of a brilliant show of yellows, oranges and reds a tree's leaves are frosted, green, crispy and left holding on.  The shock of the frost will not kill the tree, the tree will survive, though it just may be a longer winter than expected.

  If anything, with the days shortening... there isn't as much time to wait from the time we wake until the chance to take in the wonder and beauty of a sunset. 

State of the Fields (July 18th)

 I am sure its much like most people, I have troubles drawing the lines between my work and the rest of my life.  I even tell people my job isn't a career its a lifestyle.  Even when I get a the occasional day of from the farm, if I don't leave town I'll end up there a couple times that day.  With the best intentions to focus on me and the things I would like to get accomplished in my yard, work beckons. 
Yesterday, started as a rain day, which can truly be glorious.  We received some much needed rain and I got a chance to sleep in.  Goals for the day were simple... write, garden and take some pictures in the yard.  Time allowing, go to the gym (didn't happen) and then dinner in the Cities.  I needed to tend to my tomato plants, they look the best that they've ever looked in my backyard.  Is it appropriate to look to plants with pride?  They've all been caged but needed some additional tomato clips to reign in some stray branches (this required a drive to the farm for supplies).  I also had to work on a "new" grape arbor that I just added to the yard (will share more details another time).  And through this process I brought along my stills camera to document the Joy in the Garden. 

Indigo Rose Tomato: Purple on the outside, will be red on the inside.
Bred for having the highest concentration of anthocyanins which have great antioxidant capabilities.

 

Red Zebra Tomatoes: Still green but looking pretty.

Striped Caverns: When the show some red, I'll be ready to stuff them for a delicious dinner.

More fruit to come.

 

 

 

 

 

Redbor Kale: Tasty and Beautiful.

Alma Paprika: I started growing this one for an appetizer dish involving cream cheese and bacon bits.... mmm.

Garlic: Hung out to dry, in a good way.

 This is where my walk around my back yard came to an end, and work blurs with play.  When your backyard over looks this, its hard not to take a stroll.  Through the deer gates, I continued my photo survey and decided to document it as a State of the Fields: July 18th.

Through the gates we can see low ground fields, a place mother spent most of her childhood summers and where we grow the best cucumbers for pickles around.

Kohlrabi: a tasty treat.  Hard to believe that his sister is a cabbage. 

There is dill in many stages timed out for season long pickling.

Bees can be found all throughout the farm, with thirty-six hives we know someone is always tending the crops.

One of our apiaries overlooking the a wildflower meadow and a cucumber patch,
I sure hope all that clover doesn't distract them from those cucumber blossoms.

 

Pumpkins growing for fall.

This one seems to be running a bit early?!

There is wagon-fulls of pumpkins out there!  Just beneath the green canopies.

Seems the 10 foot fence wasn't enough, this six inch one should keep them out. 
Electrified to keep the raccoons from harvesting the sweet corn before we can.

Four varieties of corn to ripen throughout the summer and fall.... I could eat it for every meal.

The rain has transitioned to overcast leaving a moist breeze in the air and lasting droplets on most everything. 

Squash.  Squash leaves, hope there's tasties beneath those.

This is a good sign, the curly-q marks the ripening melon.  Three dry pig tails and the right vibrations after a tap will let us know when to pick them.

Red hot chilli peppers: I hear they're hot and red.

Banana peppers can be both hot and sweet, both tasty.

Eggplant; blossoms present, and fruit coming along nicely.

A sea of peppers. 

Tomatoes. Staked and growing nicely.

Looks like a field of corn... but the Corn Maze is taking shape and is taller than me in places.

There is red and ripe tomatoes at the stand from the High Tunnel providing us all with delicious tomatoes. 

Many beautiful plants throughout the Garden Center.

Foliage plants can bring some of the tropics right to our Northern part of the world. 

The fresh rain has left it's mark in the soil.  And my day.

This concludes my State of the Fields walk, apparently the pull of the fields drew me out of my own yard once again.

Shiitake over the World

A man can never have too many hobbies..... especially when some of them are slow paced yet don't consume much time.  After discussions with an Arborist friend, the cultivation of mushrooms came up.  In theory all of the work is upfront and then you sit back and wait to collect the fungi.
It sounded so pleasant and simple.  Take and inoculate a few logs, place outside in the forest and 6 months to a year you begin gathering mushrooms. 
This is where it went an bit wrong, a few logs became 11 with a thousand 1" dowel pegs of Shiitake spores that needed to be drilled, pounded, and then sealed with wax into each of the four foot long red oak logs of 4"-7" in diameter.  All of this needed to be done in May, my busiest retail time at work...

Needless to say this simple additional yard hobby ended up being 5 1/2 hours of the most grueling 'off duty' time I have ever spent.  With gathering the logs and sealing all the fresh cuts with wax happening a week or two earlier, this was no simple free time activity.

Dowels come with swirls cut into them for the Shiitake spores to grow on.

After each log was drilled and inoculated the each had to be sealed with wax.

But I will be able to reap the benefits of this lonely time spent in the barn drilling 5/16" holes every six inches across and around my red oak logs.  Hopefully if everything went right, and there's no way to know until something happens, I shall have more mushrooms than I'll know what to do with. As of now they are just logs stacked in the backyard.

Logs of Shiitake mushrooms sit under the canopy of a Norway Maple.

  The patience game is what follows, and I that is one game I am good at.  

Hops 'Cascade' Up

Three years ago I was given a few sprigs of a 'Cascade' hops plant from a good friend, a brewer and a farmer.  I began growing them in pots at the Garden Center.  At that point I began daydreaming of trellis systems and where the best place would be for one in the yard. 

My thoughts were to build one more for aesthetics than utility, there are many system designs online for trellising hops, but I wasn't drawn to the metal poles and cables that most suggested.  I had come across some old 6x6 timbers, and decided to re-purpose them.  Along with that I found an old wood & chain conveyor belt at the Farm and the materials designed themselves into a trellis.

Rough sketch of trellis, simple and rustic.

From then it was still a process to build and implement.  Assembly went well, though it was too big for one to install on their own.  Last year, at the same time as when I dug the holes for the posts, the power went out in the barn.  This put an hiatus on the project until the power could be restored to the barn.  A slight relief was gathered when it was determined to be gophers and not my shovels that took out the power.  Though my battle remains with the yard varmints. 

This spring, the power back on, nothing was going to stop me from getting my trellis up and my hops in the ground.  Heck, I was already getting reports of batches of beer made from offshoots of my original 'Cascade'.  And here I was still watering mine twice a day in a container. 

Potted plant ready for planting.

Finally, one Monday (April 23) this spring my hopes for hops had been planted. Lets just hope its not another three years before I get to the next step with these vines, brewing. There has been much progress since the planting and before the post.  Here's a few photos of my trellis being filled with the vines of 'Cascade'. 

The Hops climbs trellis' chains with ease.

Old chain and wood rungs add to the aged look of trellis.

Little fella found the leaf tasty, don't he know the flowers are where the flavor is?

Hops have nearly reached the top, have have just begun to grow side shoots..