Poof! Tomatoes and Pears have disappeared....Tomatoes re-appeared!

This is how we began our pear wine - pears were seeded and stems removed.  We purchased a wine sieve bag to place in our 6.5 fermenter.  We had just enough pears to fill this half-way, which was about 23-24 lbs. of pears.  We added one cup of sugar for every pound of pears (approximately), then poured boiling water over, with enough water above pears.


We let it cool over night, and will add the yeast today. The lid is on with a 3-piece airlock (they also sell double "S" shaped ones, but this came with our basic equipment kit.  Kit also came with a 3 gallon carboy (vs. a 6).  We may end up having to purchase another 3 gallon carboy.  The kit came with 3 gallon, so we see what happens.  Most recipes use a 6 gallon.  I should have read more recipes, but the comments on the kit said that most people bought it for pear wine making and it worked great.

We'll let this sit for 3 1/2 weeks before the next step.  I'll be honest, I'm not sure what recipe we are using.  First, I told Hubby he was to check for one, write down everything we needed from the wine store, and when we started slicing pears, he had no idea which recipe he got the ingredients for.

I thought we were using the recipe from Grit Magazine (Pear Wine), and so did he, but we were missing one ingredient in their recipe.

So, this is why we went with the "boiling water" recipe.  We read through comments, and the boiling water will kill anything and start the process.  There was some concerns on the powder they send in the kit that is used to sterilize as well, so boiling water was the choice.

It's all trial and error for this first time at wine making.

I guess we'll see how this goes, but on a positive note, you can't really mess up wine.  I'm told every batch will taste different, but "wine wants to be wine."  Unlike the work that it takes to make beer, wine is much simpler (I'm told).

The pears are now all off the table top, and so are most of the tomatoes.  I canned another 5 - half pints of ketchup yesterday, and went out and took a look-see at the garden.

Oye.

I brought in another 23# of tomatoes.  That makes the grand tomato tally a whopping 388.74# this season.  

Today, I'll let those tomatoes ripen on the table.  I have a lot of green peppers to wash up and blanch today.   Then I need to check the current status of the dirt out in the garden.  I haven't dug up the remaining potatoes yet.  And due to Hubby's current condition, we purchased a potato/onion bin vs. him building one.  It's being shipped and will arrive in time for those potatoes and onions.