Remember how I always say “keep notes”?
Let me clarify and add a very important detail to that statement,,..Don’t just keep notes, but keep CLEAR notes. Notes that you can actually read accurately in case you want to duplicate, adjust or share your recipe!
I am a little embarrassed,( well a lot actually!), and have felt a little stressed about this, but, My “Best”Dandelion Wine recipe, Has a flaw. It won’t yield the 12 L that I stated, But only 8 L. This due to not being able to read my own handwriting!!
The recipe now has the correct amounts to fill a 12 -15 liter carboy
12 liters water, 3 kg, (not quarts), of dandelion flowers cleaned.
I also wanted to add that while a nylon stocking is a brilliant trick for filtering infused herbal oils, which I have done a lot of recently, it will be nearly impossible to fit a pot full of boiled Dandelion flowers and orange pulp into it!! What I should have added as a nifty way to filter your wine, was a clean Pillowcase! I think that is it as far as corrections to that recipe go.
Dandelion Wine 2013
Prime Dandelion Wine real estate. Sometimes, timing ,is everything. Dundas Ontario
Dandelion Flower Diva. If you have a counterpart/partner/”friend”, Spring, Flowers and Love are a magical combination that can make both the process and your Wildflower Wine memorable.
Since we are on the subject, and after getting this years batch of Dandelion Wine into primary fermentation over the weekend, I might as well add a couple of words.
- There is a lot of leeway when it comes to improvising with various flavoring materials, not only can you play with adding more, or less Oranges, lemons, cloves and Wild Ginger etc. you can explore adding other natural materials to your Wild Flower Wine. For instance I added 60 grams of oleo-resin of Frankincense Papyrifera to this last “Beltane” batch of Dandelion flower Wine. Something about it makes me think it will add something unique and beneficial to both the flavour and the aroma of this batch. I will find out if it actually does, in December.
Cleaning Dandelion Flowers for Dandelion Wine. All it takes is on small ray of sunshine to shine.
Dandelion Wine. Squeeze out all your liquid through a pillowcase
Dandelion flowers after cooking. In pillowcase and cone colander for straining.
- There have been some inquiries about adding water, or topping up a wine. If you need to add some liquid to a wildflower wine recipe, at any stage of fermentation, you can usually add a couple of liters of room temperature boiled or distilled water to a 12-15 liter batch,without worrying that you might be diluting it or affecting the flavour too much. This is sometimes required when you want to keep the volume of air in the secondary fermentation to a minimum.
- Remember it is always wise to use a light hand when trying something new in a recipe, and you can only really test the effects of any additions or adjustments when your wine is ready to drink, so make sure to take notes, and learn from both your successes and failures. Life is a process.
I will post updates on this batch of Wildflower wine as the process unfolds, and hope to share a review of the final product in December when it is ready for consumption.
Until then, enjoy these gorgeous spring days, and don’t forget to keep notes. Clear, readable, notes. Your future self will thank you.
Dan
Cheers for fixing that error Dan as I am planning on making this in our coming spring :). We make lots of blackberry wine and apples are incredibly cheap here (along with pears) at this time of year so I might make a batch of cider (even though Steve isn’t a great fan). Just one thing…do I have to have a pretty lady pick my dandelions? Can’t I just do it myself? 😉 I swear Steve wouldn’t do much dandelion picking if your lovely dandelion model was in the picture 😉
I passed your comment on to my partner and Dandelion model lisa. She was tickled to read it and is Probably blushing still!
Mmm Blackberry Wine!! Yummm i have heard about it for many years. Can’t say I have ever tried it or made it. They are not readily available in any quantity around here unfortunately. I have made a great syrup from our local black raspberries though. They are small, wild and packed with flavour. I might just try to make a wine from them this season, just to keep up with you..
Dan
We, too, have native raspberries that are miniscule. I had never seen them before I moved to Tasmania because we don’t have them in Western Australia. I only noticed them after we had done a few years worth of horticultural study and I suddenly realised that they were a lot smaller than the regular blackberries that the tend to hang with. I was going to dig some up for our garden but after I tunnel mined the area under the deck (when dad died and left us Serendipity Farm he did so with a parting gift of at least 5 years of solid hard work to untangle this jungle of blackberries and weeds… cheers dad! 😉 ) I discovered that the local birds had deposited the results of gorging on the tiny fruit and we had lots of our own. I haven’t seen any fruit because it is so sweet and delicious, the birds always pinch it first. When we have our fully enclosed veggie garden I am going to replant lots of them inside the perimeters and allow them to grow up stakes inside so that I can get to try the fruit.
There are blackberries EVERYWHERE here in Tassie and they are one of our weeds. We can just head up the road and pick bucket loads of them. The wine that we made last year was amazingly sweet and delicious but we did have a couple of kilo’s of frozen blueberries that a friend whose parents own a blueberry farm had gifted us that we tossed into the equation so it might have had something to do with them as well. Oh well…these experiments are fun whatever the results!
Cheers to your partner and dandelion model Lisa :). She really is a most pretty lady and could be used for distraction purposes should you ever want to pick fruit on the other side of the fence whilst the owner is busy watching her ;). Have a great day Dan
Fran and Steve 🙂
Awww. Now your’e making Me blush.. So,, It sounds like you guys have your work cut out for you!, though there is definitely a silver lining. It really sounds like a lovely lush and fertile country you found yourselves in. It sounds perfect for your temperaments and needs since you two really seem to be making the most of it, ( and after it’s all said and done you both are having a lot of fun!). Hmmm I wonder if customs would allow a bottle of that Black and Blue Berry wine over the border?? I somehow doubt it. :-(.
Dan
I doubt it too 🙂 Christi, my “twin” in Olalla Washington just tried to send a container of kefir grains to a friend over the border in Canada (about 50km away from her) and 2 weeks on it still hasn’t arrived! I can imagine they have it quarantined in a secure laboratory probing it with full body suits and panicking about it being germ warfare! ;). Steve and I haven’t been able to get out into the garden this week because of our studies. Our dear lecturer is a bit bolshie and has thrown us all of our work and has given us a very short timeline to get it in to him. We are lucky in that we can study completely online from home which is amazingly good BUT sometimes it would be nice to have a bit of a break from this manic pace that he sets and pace it out a bit better! Oh well…at least we are keeping up! (for now 😉 ). We make some mighty find single malt whisky here in Tassie…I wonder if THAT would get across the border? 😉
Hi Fran, I meant to mention that if your “twin” can’t get those Kefir grains over the border, my room mate has been making a lot of it lately, so we have an abundance of grains. I would be happy to ship some from here to her friend. They probably got through customs eventually but, if not this would be an elegant solution. Further perhaps, but no customs hassle. Isn’t it crazy? So close, yet a whole country and miles of red tape for something so simple!!
Cheers Dan.
Cheers for that very kind offer Dan :). The grains got through after 16 days and they were still happily floating around scarfing their remaining milk and the lady in question is now kefiring (is that a word?!) up a storm and has already made muffins and a delicious looking smoothie with the results :). The blogging world is amazing isn’t it? 🙂
It is indeed!! Happy the package arrived. Does she use the excess grains for cooking? My room mate never uses milk. He approaches it like Kumbucha, growing them in a juice/tea/herb and sugar base. He ends up composting the accumulating extra solid grains. Always wondered if they have nutritional value or could used for something other than fermenting Kefir.
Dan
He must have “water” kefir grains? I had both once. I only have milk kefir grains at the moment. As a vegan, I use mine to culture non-dairy milks that I use in my morning green smoothies. I need to get hold of some water kefir again, it’s great fun and you make juice/tea/herb/healthy soda’s. You can process the excess grains up with your smoothies but I made the mistake of putting too many in my green smoothie and it was like drinking blended slugs! I drank it because they had worked so hard for me and I owed them that much! The texture left a LOT to be desired ;). I have a friend who makes bread out of her kefir whey. She makes lovely loaves 🙂
Cool! Didn’t know there was a difference between dairy and non. I know what you mean they work so hard for you. They seem to have a collective intelligence and personality! I will research their nutritional value.
Thanks Fran.
Dan
Milk kefir apparently has over 60 probiotics. I use it to culture coconut, soy (the only way I use soy is fermented) and my homemade oat and almond milk. I use date paste (homemade) to sweeten it and it’s this date paste that my kefir grains LOVE! The resulting non-dairy kefir isn’t thick like regular kefir, it’s thinner and fizzy! Lovely stuff :). You can culture cream and make lovely kefir cultured butter with it. It’s very versatile 🙂
Thanks.. You DO love your food!! I admire your passion and creativity.
I will pass the info on to Blair, our household Kefirmeister.
;).
love the above dialogue! after reading your previous post i was miserable at having missed the ‘window’, then took a day trip in the mountains and realized it was like going back in time—now i have plenty of dandelions and am thrilled to try your recipe. thanks!
Thank You! I am delighted it worked out and you found yourself a good patch of Dandelions. Honestly I would feel bummed out if my guidelines left anyone disappointed :-(. Let me know how it goes with the wine or if you have any questions along the way.
Cheers
Dan