The Roaming Homesteaders

Dark Star zucchinis are still popping fast and furious in the summer garden! We were able to knock the squash bug pressure down to almost nothing, and with regular watering and feeding, it's our best zucchini season yet! Over 250 lbs. of fruit and counting from 5 plants! :)

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2 years ago | [YT] | 0

The Roaming Homesteaders

We had a wonderful and inspiring time at the Modern Homesteading Conference (2023) in Coeur d'Alene, Idaho on June 30th and July 1st. We got to meet several of our fellow YouTube homesteaders and build some hopefully new friendships! We encourage all our viewers to consider attending next year!Keep watching for our new conference episode to drop in the next few days! @modernhomesteading @melissaknorris @modernhomesteadingconference

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2 years ago | [YT] | 2

The Roaming Homesteaders

This is a shocking video about PFAS (so-called forever chemicals) contamination on farms coming from biosolid fertilizers: https://youtu.be/X9GTa3a-tFo

In a similar vein, I'll be making a video soon about Grazon contamination striking farms and homesteaders across the world and poisoning their soils for decades. Stay tuned!

2 years ago (edited) | [YT] | 0

The Roaming Homesteaders

As promised, the recipe for Jake's award-winning Apricot-Mango Mead. No promises or guarantees are given with this recipe! Use at your own risk and discretion! Results may vary. :p

Apricot-Mango Mead Recipe:

A dry-sweet mead using white clover honey, Santa Cruz Organic apricot-mango juice, and Scott Labs Lalvin QA23 (a Portuguese white wine yeast, especially prized for developing tropical, citrus, and white fruit notes in Savignon Blanc wines). This recipe won 1st place in the 2013 Mazer Cup International Mead Competition in the Other Fruit Melomel category.

Base Ingredients -

3 quarts water (boiling honey)
1 quart cool water (cooling honey)
1 quart hot water (mixing bentonite)
8 lbs. clover honey (boiled and foam skimmed off)
2 quart Santa Cruz Organic Apricot-Mango juice blend (primary fermentation)
2 quart water to top off
1 quart Santa Cruz Organic Apricot-Mango juice blend (secondary fermentation)

Yeast Starter-

1 cup warm (not hot) filtered water
10 gram packet of Go-Ferm Protect Yeast Nutrient
1 cup of room-temperature orange juice
8 gram packet of Lalvin dry QA23 Wine Yeast (Scott Labs)

Additives -

5 grams (about 1.5 tsp.) Opti- White (mouthfeel) – mixed with water and added at start of ferment
2 tsp. wine-making acid blend (50% Malic Acid, 40% Citric Acid, and 10% Tartaric Acid)
2 grams (3/4 tsp.) FT Blanc Soft Tannin (balance) – mixed with water and added at start of ferment
5 grams (1.5 tsp.) bag of Booster Blanc (mouthfeel) – mixed with water and added toward end of ferment
0.3 grams Lallyzyme EX (for better color and mouthfeel) - dissolve in 10x weight in water and add at the beginning of fermentation

Miscellaneous Ingredients -

Bentonite Clay (for fining and clarifying mead)
5 grams (about 1 tsp.) of Fermaid K – mixed with water and added after 2 days of ferment (1/3 sugar gone)
1/2 quart of Apricot-Mango juice – added at secondary fermentation for improved aroma/flavor
¼ tsp. Sodium Metabasulfite or 1 campden tablet – to protect wine from spoiling after bottling
2 tsp. Potassium Sorbate – to stabilize wine/mead at bottling.

Instructions:

Add 1 quart of very hot, filtered water to a sterilized 8-gallon bucket, and add 1 package of Bentonite clay finings to the hot water. Mix thoroughly until fully dissolved.

In a large, sterilized pot, add 8 lbs. of honey and 3 quarts of water. Mix thoroughly and bring to a slow boil. As the water-honey mixture boils, it will form a scummy film on top. This is beeswax and should be skimmed off until the film stops forming. This will help clarify your finished mead.

Cool the boiled honey-water mixture and add it to the bucket with the Bentonite in it and mix thoroughly.
Add 1 more quart of filtered water to the new mixture and stir thoroughly. Add 2 quarts of Santa Cruz Organic Apricot-Mango juice, or any other fruit juice of choice. Check Specific Gravity/Brix, which should be between 1.083 (20 Brix) and 1.092 (22 Brix). If the mixture is not in that range, then adjust accordingly by adding either water (to drop S.G./Brix down into this range) or more of the skimmed honey-water mixture or juice (to increase S.G./Brix to this range).

Pre-mix 2 tsp. of pectic enzyme with a small amount of filtered water in a glass and dissolve thoroughly before adding the mixture to the bucket. Stir thoroughly to ensure evenly distributed. Wait 24 hours.

An hour before starting fermentation, prepare the Yeast Starter in a large glass jar or sterile container. Let sit for 15-20 minutes. You should start seeing activity from the yeast. Add ½ cup of the juice/honey/water mixture (must) and stir. Wait 15 minutes. Add another ½ cup of must and stir. Wait another 15 minutes.

Reserve 1 quart of fruit juice in an unopened bottled for secondary fermentation.

Mix Acid Blend, FT Blanc Soft Tannin and Opti-White with filtered water until fully dissolved. Add mixture to must and stir well.

Yeast should be acclimatized and rehydrated at this point, so pitch the jar of yeast starter into the must and stir well.

Check Specific Gravity/Brix, which should be between 1.083 (20 Brix) and 1.092 (22 Brix). If the mixture is not in that range, then adjust accordingly by adding either water (to drop S.G./Brix) or skimmed honey and/or fruit juice (to increase S.G./Brix).

Water level in bucket should be between 2 and 3 gallons. Cover inoculated must and store at room temperature overnight until fermentation starts.

Knock down head with a sterile instrument (brewing spoon or masher) and place fermentation container in refrigerator unit to cool. Set fermentation temperature to 68° and cool for 8 hours. Punch down head again and set for desired cold fermentation at 62° (recommended range 59°±68° for QA23 yeast).

Ferment for 4 days at 62°, punching the head down with a sterile instrument every 12 hours or so.

After 4 days, rack juice off lees into a sterile glass carboy (3 gallon). Combine racked must with Fermaid K mixture, stir well, and return to fridge at 62°.

Continue cold fermentation until signs of slowing, stirring twice daily with a sterile instrument.

Let sit for several days to settle out before racking off the lees again into a sterile, 3-gallon glass carboy.

Add Booster Blanc additive and stir well. You may add the reserved quart of fruit juice at this point treated with ¼ tsp. pectic enzyme for 24 hours and/or clarified with bentonite, otherwise only use a pre-clarified (clear) fruit juice at this stage, so you don't add pectic haze back into your must. Return to fridge at 62° for secondary fermentation.

Check Specific Gravity/Brix, which should be about 1.024/6.1° Brix or so (not exact; could be higher). Leave undisturbed for 10 days to ferment.

After 10 days, check Specific Gravity/Brix, which should be close to 1.000 S.G./0° Brix or less. If close to that level, the wine is done fermenting and should be stabilized.

Add ¼ tsp. of Sodium Metabasulfite or 1 crushed campden tablet to a small amount of filtered water and add to the must, mixing thoroughly. Wait two days to make sure fermentation stops, and then Sorbate by adding Potassium Sorbate to a small amount of filtered water, mixing and adding to the must.

(*Alternatively, you could skip sulfiting the mead and bottle it with bottling sugar in a capped champagne bottle, and the mead will carbonate for a champagne-like effect, but use proper baps and bottles that can take the pressure and watch out for exploding bottles!)

Mix the must vigorously and thoroughly with a sterilize instrument (spoon) for about 15 minutes to release any trapped gasses in the wine, but be careful when you do, or it could effervesce (foam) and overflow the carboy. If you don’t do this step, your wine won’t clear properly.

Check your Specific Gravity/Brix so you can make adjustments to the residual sugar level in the next step.
The next step is called back-sweetening, and it can be controversial to some mead/wine makers. Basically, if you have over-fermented and your yeast has consumed all the available sugars, your mead will be “dry”. You can fix this by adding a sugar source “back” to the wine to make it more palatable/tasty. This is no big deal if you are making wine, but when making mead, it can affect the honey flavor. Some people will back-sweeten with honey, but unless you are using ultra-clarified honey, it can affect the steps you took to remove any wax/haze caused by the raw honey. You could boil some more honey/water and skim it before using it to back sweeten instead, but there is nothing wrong with a dry mead. Just remember that every time you add more juice or honey that hasn't been subjected to pectin enzyme, bentonite, or other additives, you could be adding pectic haze and/or wax back in to your mead. And so, many people just use simple syrup, as it avoids these issues entirely.

To make simple syrup, mix 4 cups sugar and 2 cups of filtered water and heat on the stove in a stainless steel pot, stirring constantly for 15 minutes. Just prior to boiling, the mixture will go from cloudy white to lightly yellow and clear. At this point, immediately remove from the heat and let cool. You have just made Simple Syrup, or Wine Conditioner, as it is also known.

Use the cooled Simple Syrup to back sweeten your wine a bit at a time until it tastes right. Do it in small batches on the counter before adding to the whole batch.

You should be aiming for 3° to 5° Brix (1.012-1.020 S.G.) for residual sugar purposes.

Your mead should now be stable, sweetened to taste, and ready to bottle, with a Residual Sugar of 3-5% and should contain about 12.5% Alcohol by volume (A.B.V.).

Bottle in sterile 750ml wine bottles, cap with synthetic corks, and colored shrink caps, and age in a cool, dark place (cellar or basement) for 12+ months before enjoying! Label as desired.

Recipe makes about 12-14 bottles (1 case).

© 2023, The Roaming Homesteaders

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2 years ago (edited) | [YT] | 0

The Roaming Homesteaders

We're excited to attend the Modern Homesteading Conference in Coeur d'Alene, Idaho, June 30th - July 1st! Keep an eye out for us wearing our new Roaming Homesteaders / Homesteaders.Legal t-shirts and be sure to say, "Hello!" We'll be recording our adventures at the conference and bringing some new interviews in the weeks and months to come! modernhomesteading.com/

2 years ago | [YT] | 0

The Roaming Homesteaders

Started the main irrigation work in the Mountain Garden yesterday! Trenches are dug and most of the first zone (rock gardens 1 and 2) is assembled. Need some more parts from the big-box store to connect the 1" main line to the 3/4" zone feeders, but otherwise looking good! :)

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2 years ago | [YT] | 0

The Roaming Homesteaders

Building a new Hoop Coop for the chicks, but had to take a break from all the rain. Updates and a full episode soon!

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2 years ago | [YT] | 0

The Roaming Homesteaders

Thanks to some great online resources and plants from Nourse Farms, Jake was able to build and install 120 feet of berry trellises before the snow! Hopefully, we'll have lots of gooseberries, raspberries, and blackberries this year at the mountain garden! :)

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2 years ago | [YT] | 0

The Roaming Homesteaders

Onion update! Our first round of onion seed sprouts are looking great! The second batch of Red Whethersfield didn't come out too strongly though. Regardless, we'll have plenty of starts for the garden this year!

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2 years ago | [YT] | 0

The Roaming Homesteaders

Our garlic is starting to pop up in the town garden, with a few sprouts peeking out on the mountain! Onion seeds are growing in the garden and will go outside soon as well!

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2 years ago | [YT] | 1