Sakonnet Vineyard Tour

This year we decided to take a staycation. We took daytrips to tourist sites in our own back yard. One of the sites we visited was the Sakonnet Vineyards according to their web site…

Sakonnet Vineyards, in Little Compton, Rhode Island was founded in 1975 on the well-researched premise that the microclimate and soil conditions found along the Southeastern New England coast closely resemble some of the great wine regions of the world, particularly, the maritime climates of northern France. At present, fifty acres are planted with many Vinifera varietals including Chardonnay, Gewurztraminer, Pinot Noir, and Cabernet Franc as well as Vidal Blanc one of the French-American hybrids. Wine production has climbed to over 30,000 cases annually with many wines receiving awards in domestic and international competitions.

Our tour began with a 20-minute video about the seasonal cycle at the vineyard we were then allowed in the crushing, pressing and fermenting room. It did not seem like a big operation – more on that later! Our guide told us all about the process that the vineyard goes through to go from grape to wine. The vineyard used two types of oak barrels French and American different types for different wines. The barrels are only used a maximum of five times and are sold to other vineyards or home brewers like us! I guess I know what to get Phil for Christmas!!

We then went into the bottling room. They only bottle 65 days a year and we were lucky enough to be there on one of those days. Most of the bottling operation takes place in a sealed room so the photos are I took are not the greatest!!

We then went into the ageing room, I could not get over how small the operation was then the guide gave us some insight as to why. The major varieties of Sakonnet Wines such as Eye of the Storm, Rhode Island White and Red are grown and pressed in California – so it is not a RI wine!!

Oh, those Marketing People are playing with our minds again!! Why is it a RI wine if it is grown in California??



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Sakonnet Vineyard

The Mystery of Compost

The mystery of compost. We have two compost bins one for all the fruit and veggie scraps where red wiggler worms eat the scraps and turn them into compost. The other where we throw yard and garden waste and just let nature take its course and break it down without any help.

In June when we planted three fruit trees, to enrich the soil we went to the yard and garden waste compost pile and added the compost to the hole where the tree was to be planted. Well I guess some seeds from a butternut squash must have been in the mix because we now have a butternut squash plant at the base of our Bartlett pear tree!!

Here is to a fall harvest of butternut squash!

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The Ants Go Marching Out Of My Yard!!

On June 1st of this year, we planted three fruit trees all was going well until a few weeks ago when we noticed the cherry tree was infested with big black ants. The ants were feasting on the cherry tree leaves!

We wanted to find a green way to rid ourselves of the ants so we turned to the internet and found several solutions. The one I thought held the most promise was garlic. It was simple, I had it in the house and I felt it just might work.

We just sliced up a few cloves of garlic and off I went to the back yard. I shook off all the ants from the tree sprinkled the garlic on the grass then for a bit of insurance I took one piece of garlic and rubbed it on the trunk to act as a barrier. Now the back yard smells like an Italian kitchen and the ants have vacated the tree!!

As you can see on this photo the new leaves have not been eaten, they emerged after the garlic was used.

When Life Hands You Cucumbers

I must have planted too many cucumber plants! We can’t keep up eating them so what do you do when life hands you cucumbers…make pickles! I love crunchy refrigerator pickles the “clausen” type so this recipe fit’s the bill

Fermented Dill Pickles – Refrigerated “Clausen” Type

Pickling Cucumbers
12 Fresh Dill Flower heads, or
2 Tbsp Dried dill weed and
2 Tbsp. Dried dill seed
10 to 12 Cloves Garlic
6 to 8 Peppercorns
1/4 Cup Vinegar
1/2 Cup Salt
1 1/2 Quarts Water

Rinse but do not wash the cucumbers. In your container add garlic, peppercorns, and vinegar. Dissolve salt in water and add to container. Stir. Add your cucumbers and dill. Fill container the remaining way with water. Cover.

Fermentation sequence
1. Clear brine – no cloudiness for 1 to 3 days
2. Cloudy brine with gas formation, 2-3 days
3. Cloudy brine – no gas formation, 5 to 6 days

Pickles ready to eat after 10-11 days.
Refrigerate pickles if you do not want to process them.

To process the pickles
Fill clean, sterilized quart jars with pickles to within 1/2inch of the top. Wipe, seal, and process in a hot water bath at 170 degrees for 15 minutes. Remove and place on towel in a draft free area. Let jars stand for 12 hours. Label and date. Store in a dark, cool area.

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Clausen style dill pickles

New England Brown Bread

We were invited to a birthday party and when I asked the hostess what could we bring she suggested brick oven baked beans and New England Brown bread. We have made beans in the oven many times but the brown bread, now that was different.

For those of you who are not from New England; brown bread is steamed bread cooked in a tin can!! It is sweet, moist and goes great with baked beans.

1 cup of whole-wheat flour
1 cup of rye flour
1 cup of corn meal
1 ½ teaspoons of baking soda
1 ½ teaspoons of salt
2 cups of buttermilk
¾ cup of dark molasses
1 cup of raisins

We sprayed two tomato tin cans with vegetable oil

Combined all dry ingredients, added the wet ingredients stirred then added the raisins and mixed again.

We poured the batter into the oiled cans. Covered with tin foil

In a large cast iron pot we placed to upside down ramekins and placed the tin cans on top. We then added the water to the half waypoint of the can. Covered the pot and put it in the brick oven for 2 ½ hours the oven temperature was about 300 F. You can cook this on top of your stove simmering for 2 hours.

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New England Brown Bread

Garden Update 7.26.09

More rain and some sun this week. Our squash plants look very water logged and I’m not sure we are going to get very much of anything out of them this year. The tomatoes, carrots, peppers and cukes are looking great. The second planting of beans, peas, radishes and beets are looking just fine. What I can not get over is one of the grape vines we planted last fall is growing very fast the other three vines are doing ok but the Niagara Grape has officially reached the top of the pergola; 11 feet high. The other vines do not get as much sun as that one so maybe that is a factor. It is just amazing to watch.

Took some photos of the fruit trees as well. The cherry seems to be growing the most and the pear tree has some sort of squash growing with it. It must have been from a seed that was in our compost pile, we amended the soil with our compost when we planted the trees. So we will have to wait and see what type of squash we are growing.

One of the many mystery tomato plants is most likely a roma tomato by the looks of the shape, can’t tell the variety of the other mystery tomato plants we will just have to wait and see.

This week I have started to keep a log of how many pounds of produce we are growing in the garden; this weeks take a 7 pounds - we harvested Cucumbers (2 ¼ pounds), raspberries, purple pod beans, green beans, purple potatoes (1 lb 1 oz), red bliss potatoes, lettuce, radish, yellow and white carrots and banarama peppers. Next year I will keep track from the first harvest…don’t know why I did not think of this
sooner!!

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Garden Update 7.26.09

Samuel Adams Brewery Tour

I expected to be blogging about our exciting trip to the Boston Samuel Adams Brewery – we were not impressed. The brewery is actually a Research and Development facility the actual brewing is done in Pennsylvania and Ohio. The tour lasted one hour – most of which was spent in the tasting room drinking three 7 ounce samples of Sam Adams beer; it made for an interesting breakfast since it was 11 o’clock and I had not had breakfast and Phil only had a bowl of cereal!!

Our first stop was a small room where we learned about the roasted malt our tour guide gave us samples to nibble on we tasted a pale barley and chocolate roasted barley. They were sweet and nutty the chocolate one had a faint coco taste. We learned about the Hops that Sam Adams uses it is grown in Germany and they use the whole hop as well as pellets. They passed the hops around and we were able to smell that wonderful hop aroma.

Our next stop was a room where we were lectured on the brewing process and saw the copper pots where they boil the malt mixture, the mixture now called wort is then sent to the wort chillers then to the finishing tanks. That was it. We then went to the tasting room!

We never got to smell the wonderful smells of boiling malt, simmering hops, fermented beer being racked to go to the next stage, no clanging of bottles being filled with the malty goodness of beer. How sad that we had expected to see a brewery – after all it is called the Boston Brewing Company – so why is it brewed in Pennsylvania and Ohio? Silly us!!

We did get to sample three beers, Boston Larger, Summer Wheat and one that will be on the market in the next few weeks Summer Lemon Wheat. Lesson learned next time we want to tour a brewery ask if they actually brew and bottle beer!!!

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Sam Adams 7.20.09