More apple canning and my backhoe is home!

Apple pie filling

I found a recipe online that looked interesting and didn't require apple juice (the Ball recipe requires apple juice).  the recipe doesn't call for blanching the apples, but cold packs them in quart jars, and THEN proposes to pour the thick sauce over the cold apples!  I made 7 quarts this way.  I had to remove the cold apples from the jars and alternate packing apples in and pouring the thick sauce over top.  I water bathed quarts for 40 mins because 25 just didn't seem long enough for raw apples!  One quart jar didn't seal so I brought it back to taste.  It is good, but i really am going to keep an eye on these!  The next time we are going to use a Ball or similar recipe!


A better recipe may be found on NCHFP.

My Backhoe is home!

Yep!  They finally delivered it Saturday afternoon.  I was getting concerned because by 1 pm i had heard nothing.  I started doing the leaf vacuum thing and was well into it when i saw the truck pull up!  It really wasn't that expensive a fix - they replaced several leaking hoses and rebuilt a hydraulic manifold.  They also serviced the engine, looks much nicer and has considerably more power!  I am very happy!

My baby is home!  I parked it there because i need to use it more in the next couple of weeks!

The Drainage ditch

The next day I put my backhoe to work digging the drainage ditch I had put on hold since last fall!  This ground is stony and well packed so a backhoe is needed to dig it up!  The backhoe did a great job!  I need to clean up the ditch a little and then lay down the tile.  I will have to wait until next weekend though.  There just isn't enough time this weekend.

First leaf gathering of the fall

I fired up the cyclone rake and mowed/vacuumed up the leaves in the front yard.  Nothing unusual.  The grass was a bit taller than it should have been for optimal performance (the vent screen got clogged a couple of time due to grass clippings).    Looks and smells much nicer now.  More leafs are coming down though, so I am sure there will be more vacuuming in the future!

First corking of my concord (well, any) wine!

I finally got the equipment I needed to cork my wine (and the wine was ready - I think) so away I went!  I only did one of the carboys of concord as a test.  The other one was topped off with the leftovers from the first carboy.  Even though I didn't go through a whole carboy of wine I still managed to fill 2 cases of bottles! The second carboy can be bottled at my leisure now since its topped off tight.  Here are some pictures of the setup:

Bottle tree loaded with bottles.

This is a gadget that holds sanitizer and can shoot it up into the bottles.  Very handy!

Here are the bottle after corking.  First 1-2 days they are kept upright.  Then they are stored on their sides.

Bottle rinsing attachment for the sink.  This allows one to clean a bunch of bottles very quick!

I didn't get a picture of the floor corker.  I will try next time I am up at the farm!  It all went fairly smoothly.  It is quite a production though.  Very messy.  Many rags/towels were used!

Pear wine

I racked the first batch of pear wine into a narrow mouth bubbler/carboy.  I added another tablespoon of pectic enzyme to help it clear - its still very hazy.   We will see how it looks next weekend.

I went out to the garage and gathered the remaining pears.  Good lord!  They were ready and there were lots!  I weighed them out after trimming the bad spots and cleaning - all told I ground up 80 lbs of pears for wine tonight!  Counting the first carboy that makes a total of over 120 lbs of pears!   I added double the pectic enzyme to both of the new batches of pear wine to help in the haze issue noted in the first batch.  I did not add any acid to these batches.  I added sugar to get to a SG of about 1.060, as called for in the purple book recipe for "perry".  I used Cuvee yeast since that's what they call for with champagne.   This should be a drier wine.  I need to get some more champagne bottles for this though - I only have 24 champange bottles!   I should probably get more claret bottle for corking too!