The Original O'l Farts Club.
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OleReynard
Well-known member
A friend of mine makes wild plum and that stuff is fantastic not refined you could put it over ice cream and just get totally shitfaced of from one of them short Falstaff glasses
Old Uncle Ben
Well-known member
This is view a week ago from my easy chair, Reed avocados. In about a month the greenhouse will be perfumed with citrus mangos, avocados, and annonas in full bloom. I sit there listening to and watching the bees, flies, wasps, moths, butterflies enjoy the nectar.
Got about 200 or so Meyer lemons ready to pick. Leaves look like hell as they are getting ready to drop for a new flush. Got all kinds of varieties, all grafted. Key lime tree has about 8 varieties of all kinds of citrus - oranges, lemons, Persian lime.....
Moro blood orange. Makes a great marmalade.
Dragon fruit, "Sugar" variety. One of the most beautiful, HUGE flowers there is. Blooms one time at night. Fruit is excellent. ANY homegrown fruit beats the crap you get from a grocer.
Praying mantis baby on a new avocado graft.
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moose eater
Well-known member
No clue what 'mustang wine' is.
We had a small grape arbor when I was a youngster in SW Michigan. Ate the grapes when they were ripe and used the green ones before picking time as sling-shot ammo in battles with each other (green grapes out of a slingshot hurt like a bastard).
The resort next door sounds sucky, though a moat might have its uses. If you load it with Cajun alligators when no one's looking, it might cut down a bit on the unsuspecting tourist traffic.
The choke cherry wine is/'was' exquisite, smooth like a nice cabernet, but with the choke cherry finish (choke cherry trees kill moose, especially calves, and specifically during the first freeze when the cold concentrates the toxins in them. Other critters are fine with them but because the moose are ruminants, they hang onto stuff in their 7 stomachs longer, making them more susceptible. I only learned this this last Fall, after living here for 46 years. with plenty of moose around, I hadn't noted any deceased swamp donkeys in the yard, so... who knows. but we like the wine enough that the trees are staying, though if we become more conscientious, we might put up a 7-ft. fence around them, like we did for the main raised beds veggie garden).
The raspberry wine retains that 'raspberry pizzaz' that is acidic, with definite raspberry flavor, and a misleading sense that it has more sugar remaining in it post-fermentation than it actually does.
Surprisingly less fructose in the raspberries than in the choke cherries, and the choke cherries are inherently less acidic to taste or ferment.
I believe the raspberry wine also struggles more to ferment in shorter time due to the acidity.
In both cases we used Premier Cuvee/Couvee champagne yeast, which dies off at about 18% but can be made to live a little bit longer, in slightly higher alcohol concentrations.
The raspberry wine finished a about 14.5%, and again, I believe the acidity is partly responsible, but it's awesome. With a chocolate brownie or chocolate ice cream, it goes better than well.
The choke cherry wine is from the recipe that belonged to the mother of a former staff person at the Hippie School in the Yukon Territory in the 1970s, and is nothing shy of OUTSTANDING, and finished at pretty close to the 18% that was anticipated.
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OleReynard
Well-known member
So I got this thing going its a White russian x Ak47.
It has 4 main arms coming off it but in different stages of flowering. Weird as shit.
Any insight, closest thing I've seen to this strange was a plant that was 1 branch male and 1 branch female.
It has 4 main arms coming off it but in different stages of flowering. Weird as shit.
Any insight, closest thing I've seen to this strange was a plant that was 1 branch male and 1 branch female.
moose eater
Well-known member
An old fellow from Tennessee used to ship up 'peach lightning' (in boxes of resealed water bottles) to another southerner I know up here, years ago (the maker's dead now and his son won't engage in the family tradition); moonshine made with fresh peaches in season.
We'd keep that in the freezer and MAN!!! Sip it, put it on ice cream, etc. incredible stuff. But no longer available.
moose eater
Well-known member
My wife's got an urge to make a pineapple wine recipe she's been staring at for a while, but, obviously, THAT would not involve local fare. Still sounds delicious if the acid doesn't screw with the fermentation too badly.
I strongly suspect that if we messed with the acidity in the raspberry wine must, it'd notably change the delivery of that 'raspberry pizzaz' that the taste buds experience.
Old Uncle Ben
Well-known member
Sounds great.
I don't bother measuring TA, just pH. Pasteur brand of yeasts are nice. I like their Pasteur red. Champagne or Blanc du Blanc for whites. Some of my winemaker friends really go nuts with some of the exotic dry or wet yeast strains.
18% alc. is admirable. I assume it finished a little sweet as that's way high for a dry. Tolerant yeast, feeding the sugar in 3 stages. Good on ya!
We pick my grapes at a brix from say.....22 for the whites, 25 for the reds. .58 X brix gets you the finished alcohol, real close.
Mustang grape vines are found all over Texas. Folks use them for wine and jelly.
You speak the truth. There were Palmer and Haden mangoes in the grove too. Old varieties.One of those eyes closed over the sink experiences, pure Nirvana!
Your citrus Garden is beautiful. I can smell this lemons from here.
Old Uncle Ben
Well-known member
Have the place to raise them? Aint nothing like it, better than what you get in Hawaii off a truck cause you can let them sweeten up to gold. I can show you how if interested. Involves twisting off the top of a store bought one.
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moose eater
Well-known member
Conversely, our choke cherry wine, at 18% (+/-), tastes drier than the raspberry at 14.5%.
The choke cherry has far less discernible acid flavor to it. But they're both good enough to want to make enough to not have to buy any wine at the store. Yeast, even good yeast, is relatively cheap. same for sterilizing agents, corks, etc.
For Christmas my wife got a floor-standing Portuguese-made corker. She's all twitterpated now imagining future uses.
I haven't made any home-brewed high-test beer in almost 30 years now, and most of my brewing buckets went to salmon brine buckets decades ago (something I don't want to go back from; salmon brine is an odor/flavor that clings for years in porous plastic), but when I look at craft beers at $10.50 to $16/six-pack, versus comparable brews for $2.50/6-pack, my frugal, twice-removed, Depression-era Hoosier roots perk up a bit again.
moose eater
Well-known member
All eyes and ears.
Old Uncle Ben
Well-known member
Your citrus Garden is beautiful. I can smell this lemons from here.
Thanks.
So can the bees. I have huge computer motorized controlled vents, roof and wall. Planned on pollinators coming and going.
Flies on avocado. Some have cute shiny blue butts.
Old Uncle Ben
Well-known member
Yep, have that corker it's bad ass. Red. Hand corking sucks, eh.
I gave up on beer too. Wine is a PITA, beer is more so. I have a kegerator controlled with a outboard plug it in thermostat, thermocouple runs inside. I do a Corny key of soda water for scotch.
moose eater
Well-known member
Any pineapples we'd use would be from the store or from friends sending them up.
But we often let them ripen in the kitchen cupboards when we have them. Used to give a fresh pineapple to our youngest son at Christmas time each year. That, and pomegranates..
Got some pics?
I googled the old place. When the house was moved the last hurdle to cross was an above grade railroad crossing. The Florida East Coast Railway had a line that ran along the eastern edge of the 10 acres. It took the moving crew 8 hours to crawl across and over those tracks while my Mom was a nervous wreck. There were guys in the ditches with 4x4s supporting the house on the trailer to keep it steady.It's the new Zill M-4. Zill used Kent to make a lot of his designer mangos. I used to have all the great Gary Zill designer mangos which I grafted to rootstock. Lost most to some catastrophe, heater failures and such, which has now been resolved with lots of spare propane tanks, wireless temp alarm, etc. I still have Lemon Zest, Orange Sherbet, Glenn, Juicy Peach and Pickering. Hope to get Rosigold from Alex of Tropical Acres. Lost stuff like Pineapple Pleasure, Fruit Punch, Cotton Candy, etc. Folks who have never tasted a homegrown mango don't know what they're missing. One of those eyes closed over the sink experiences, pure Nirvana!
We had an incredible avocado last night from my greenhouse, just pure nutty cream, very rich, super small seed. I only grow SoCal types like Jan Boyce, Kona Sharwil, Reed, Ardith, GEM, Lamb Hass, etc.
@buzzmobile, do you know Carlos delaTorre of Homestead? He used to have a 20 acre orchard. Great site, good friend. Haven't touched base with him in years though. He's been hit by that damn laurel beetle and hurricanes. https://www.myavocadotrees.com/
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You'll recognize this name I bet - Oro Negro.
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Turns black with a gold flesh.
UB
The trees stumps in front were all large mango trees. The palms and shrubs on the right were planted after we left.
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Old Uncle Ben
Well-known member
Take the top, twist off, don't cut. Pick a pineapple with a nice top, not damaged leaves. Let it sit on the counter for a few days to dry a bit. Starting at the bottom rip off the little leaves. The beige nubs you see are roots. Do this about 4-6 rows up. You can drop it in a glass of water to root or better still drop it in a 1-2 gal. pot. to root. Stake. This (bromeliad) has a very large root system when mature, the plant being about 2-3' across when ready to bloom. Likes very strong sun, doesn't like temps below 45F.
Feed in the cup till runoff Dyna-Gro Foliage Pro, about 1/2 tsp./gallon frequently. I also add Osmcote to the soil mix. This is part of a tutorial I did for a Fakebook gardening group.
If it's hard to bloom drop a couple of Calcium Carbide nuggets in the cup. Amazon. The gassing off of the ethylene will trigger it. Some use apples, PITA for me.
Good luck
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