Pioneer Woman at Heart

The last pear wine update was posted here ( November 9, 2016 ).  We had some wonderful taste tests, and eventually bottled it.  However, the bottles with corks popped some tops, and turned pink.   We didn't have enough bottles with screw caps, so much went bad.  However, to our delight, we kept one screw cap bottle.   We popped it open last night.  It was very good, but too much carbonation in it.  More like a high alcohol champagne, ha ha! We are so excited that we've learned so much already, and next time we will have another carboy and we'll let it sit longer with the bubble airlock on it.   We were so happy to enjoy that one single bottle, and now we are prepared to do any fruit wine.  Peach, cherry, any berry, grape, plum, apple....I may need more fruit trees, ha ha! We now have a supply of empty screw cap wine bottles too (thanks to my wine drinking friends and family).  Many wine companies and changing o...

Beets are finally filling up my freezer this fall.   We have a good supply of shredded zucchini, so the next ones went in the freezer sliced.  I know these sometimes thaw watery and softer, but I just drain the water and cook.  We use these mainly in our teriyaki dish over winter, but have added them to other casserole dishes and mixed vegetable sides.  I'll be honest, I'm surprised my zucchini is still producing.  It looks terrible right now.  I doubt I'll get much more, but would be blessed to get a few more. I purchased some large head garlic (organic) at the Farmer's Market, which is much easier to slice and dehydrate than my homegrown this year.  It's much smaller (in fact there were farmer's selling the smaller size for $.25/each as well).