Aronia harvest and redneck wine tasting

Our aronia berries ripened about a week to 10 days early this year. "Normally" they are ready on Labor Day weekend which makes the name appropriate - Labor Day. 

With the dry, hot year, I started picking in late August to sell at the local farmer's market and picked for ourselves on the off days. Ripening lasts only a couple of weeks but, again with the hot year, the berries were drying on the vine sooner than I wanted.

 

Yields were pretty good after sorting through the discards and we sold a good portion of that and kept some for processing into our home-made wine. It takes almost 3 gallons of berries to make one gallon of juice and one recipe uses 2 1/2 gallons of juice. We have enough juice for 3 batches this year, plus I'm looking at a rhubarb/aronia mix for next spring.

 

We do not sell but have given a few bottles away. Reviews have been positive and I'm looking at further experimentation with recipe mixes. 

We don't have a license to sell and we don't, repeat, don't sell to either family, friends, acquaintances, neighbors, or even family we do like. Nope. Once we come up with a proper recipe, we may look into it but danged if there isn't a hundred wineries per county in Iowa.

Which means we have to be different to make it a success.

In the mean time... A little redneck wine tasting.

Aronia dry 2021 and a half bottle of aronia semi-sweet. I use a half-pint jar.

In my earlier life, I visited a few bars where the glasses were pint mason jars, which made for cheap beer glasses for quarter draw nights. Yep, it was a while ago.

But for here, we aren't wine snobs but still, wine deserves glass. No frills label, regular half-pint jar, and a basic home-made red. I could have spruced up with a better cloth and background but I don't want to get carried away with a snooty atmosphere.

The Aronia Dry 2021 was a pretty good year... Cheers!

Miles to go...

In April and May of this year it was too wet to plant and our popcorn was delayed until June 3rd (6 weeks later than average and 4 weeks later than last year). I was beginning to wonder if this would be a repeat of 2019, when it rained through until July. No corn was planted that year and our bean production was nothing to brag about.

Through July and August, we had less than an inch total which, along with the summer heat, severely stressed everything including our market crops. I had to haul water - we don't have a well or electricity onsite. I have to pump water from the homestead and deliver using a 12 volt pump and batteries. There was no way I could keep up in order to water everything, so I left much to nature and hoped for the best.

I've lived through deluges such as hit Kentucky and Texas this summer and if nature would have shared a little of that with us, I would have been grateful but that wasn't to be our fate this year.

This past weekend was our first inch of rain in a day since June.

Better late than never, I guess.

But on the brighter side...

We have our first apple production on trees planted a few years ago. A couple of trees didn't survive winter but those were replaced. Now, if I can just get the pH balanced...

The aronia harvest was early because of the dry summer with production and sales that exceeded previous years despite our annual fight against Japanese beetles. The first batch of 2022 wine is currently fermenting as I write. (Strictly for private medicinal purposes only, of course.)

Our farmers market produce did well but I still have hopes for the popcorn which have 2-3 weeks until harvest. I'm guessing it won't beat last year's yields which brought repeat customers and rave reviews.

We still have beans to harvest and dry (navy, kidney and green beans for seed). This is my work for this week until a roofing project that came my way gets started.

The farm has occupied more of my time this year and I've pushed off other projects but fall is approaching and I have prep work before winter. 

As Robert Frost wrote: "Miles to go before I sleep"

Out of Character

(Know your audience. Make it interesting and fun. – Advice from people who give speeches.)

What if your audience is pre-K to 7-year-olds along with mothers holding toddlers in their arms?

Our local library has story-time each week for a group of kids and their parents. The regulars are home-schooling families and I was asked to give a talk about things I grow on the farm, mainly popcorn.

“I’m a little out of character with kids.” I admitted to the mothers. A rule in giving speeches is to show confidence but I was going to set that expectation bar low.

Kids filed into the room dressed in Halloween costumes of yellow and green monsters, a purple dragon, a Pikachu, and the little 3-year-old girl as a bumble bee. Bumble Bee looked to me offering a big innocent grin that would melt a hardened steel heart.

“Who likes popcorn?” – Cheers!

“A kernel is planted into the ground, grows into a stalk, then produces ears of corn like these.” I showed several ears of Ladyfinger popcorn.

Pikachu pointed out the difference compared to field corn.

“This was going to be a tough crowd,” I’m thinking in Rodney Dangerfield voice.

To make this educational, I brought another variety of popcorn and remarked how corn was different just like how kids have different hair, eyes, etc.

“Sometimes nature produces something unexpected like this…” I showed an ear that split into two. – Laughter! It has legs!

I handed out popcorn ears so they could try shelling it from the cob. This delighted the boys as kernels shot across the room. – Chaos!

“I’m losing my audience?” --- “Not yet!”

Pikachu explained that water inside of the kernel expands and that’s how it pops.

“Hey, this is my show, kid!” I thought in Bob Hope’s voice.

I popped some corn which was devoured by the group, especially Purple Dragon and Bumble Bee.

Questions from mothers and kids were answered and I gave out bags of popcorn to enjoy at home.

One mother asked if I wanted something for payment.

“Smiles from little bumble bees was enough,” I heard my voice say.

“I actually said that?”

“Yep. A little out of character, indeed...”

 

 Linked to Poets and Storytellers United: Friday Writings #1: I Write with My Food

Rainy day thoughts

The weather has turned towards its winter slide here and we won’t see a “warm” day for 5 months or more. “Warm” being a relative term because when you have -20 F, getting back to just above freezing feels warm in January/February.

As it rains today, the internal debate between grasshopper and ant rages. Cloudy/rainy days zap my energy and I sometimes fail in my motto of “get back to work.” When the cold from the north wind slaps me in the face or rain dribbles down the back of the neck, my desire to spend time outdoors evaporates quicker than I’d like to admit.

This is a day for “inside” work. There is some prep work that needs to be done before winter sets in (a win for the ant) or maybe we’ll pop some of the popcorn from this year and settle in for an old movie (a win for the grasshopper.)

At the end of the day, maybe both can take it as a win.

As the leaf hangs on to the tree or clings to the windshield, it reminds me to be resilient against forces that are meant to distract from the goals that are set ahead.

Yes, the irony of being distracted by a leaf on the windshield is not lost on me.

Enjoy the irony in life - it makes it interesting…

Leaf on the Wind(shield) - bonus points if you recognize the reference

 Linked at Poets and Storytellers United: Writers’ Pantry #93: NaNoWriMo Anyone?

Legacy of Wee Sprout

In June of 2020, this Iowa farmer dedicated a sugar (aka hard) maple tree seedling to Poets and Storytellers United. When Rommy correction - Magaly (sorry) commented about this “wee sprout” the name stuck and Wee Sprout became an official Legacy Tree™ on the Stranded Tree Farm.

A legacy tree is planted as a visual representation of those who have significantly impacted us at the farm and go through a rigorous nominating process. Family, friends, and loved ones who have passed on have a tree designated for them. We spend a little more time to fertilize, weed and protect them from the evils of predators like cute fuzzy rabbits that take one bite from each seedling and move on to the next. Sadistic deer enjoy taking their bites as well while the aggressive bucks rub on the younger trees to shed their antlers (nature doesn’t always cooperate with us.)

Wee Sprout - caged, June 2021

Wee Sprout is the only tree dedicated to a group, a community of free writers, poets, and maybe a few lyricists in the corner, all of us sharing our words. I thought the idea of a living symbol, growing along with the community, might one day shade a gathering of the members.

Wee Sprout - free, June 2021

One day perhaps, but not soon. Wee Sprout is still quite small but has grown twice as much as one planted to the west. I can’t explain how one tree grows so well while others of the same species planted nearby lag behind. Maybe the worldwide good thoughts boosted its morale but it could have been the extra fertilizer last winter. It’s a mystery…

To the east is a 30-foot black walnut producing a quantity of nuts this year and to the west is the sugar maple planted at the same time. Its northern neighbor is a Kentucky coffeetree and to the south is a black cherry and a hickory. Further away are more walnut, red maples, white and black oaks, ash and elm trees. A growing variety of native trees.

Wee Sprout is in good company and more trees will follow as we continue to reforest a small acreage in Iowa where no tree grows alone.

Posted to Poets and Storytellers United - Writers’ Pantry #90: Why Do You Write and Share?