#everybitcountschallenge, 29 August 2022 - Quite a bit achieved

Today has been a busy day.

I started off by checking the Blackberry/Bramble wine, as it was fizzing well before I went to bed last night and I had popped both Demijohns into a bowl just to be on the safe side.

This morning it was a case of "It's frothy man", and it is truly a very active fermentation going on with this particular wine.

I then set too with the Ginger Beer Plant, and made the drink up by initially straining the plant through a fine jelly bag.  You then use the liquid, and add in the juice of 2 Lemons, 8 pints of water and 2 oz of sugar, stirring well to dissolve the sugar.  

This is the liquid all mixed together.

We will deal with the plant in the jelly bag in a moment.

Then the liquid is added to the sterilised bottles (they had been soaking overnight) and then capped.  I then washed the bottles down.

Now to deal with the plant.    It is basically just sediment and does not look very appetising.  Looks are not everything though.

Add half of the plant to a clean jar.  Add 2 teaspoons of sugar, 2 teaspoons of ginger, and 1/2 a pint of water.  Mix together and start feeding the plant from tomorrow night.  I have two plants on the window sill at the moment.

I have managed to fill 10 bottles with the Ginger Beer mixture.  Now to let it to rest for the next seven to ten days.  

There were Lemon shells left over from squeezing and so into the Lemon Vinegar pot they went.  Waste not, Want not.

OH had his mid-day meal cooked.

I then set too and cleaned all the winemaking equipment.  I have used all the clean Demijohns and so for today at least the Apricot wine is not being made.  Two further Demijohns are now soaking in Bleach and hopefully should be cleaned up and all ready to use tomorrow.  It will be rinsed out thoroughly and then sanitised with Metabisulphate.

I have also sorted out 20 jars in readiness for the jam making.

Then to the Victoria Plums bought yesterday.  There were two kilos that were very ripe.  I have therefore destoned them and chopped them into quarters in readiness for turning them into jam. I then added them to a heavy based pan, and added water to the same depth of the plums.  

These were then cooked until soft.  At which point because the plums had dissolved in irregular pieces and not many of them I sieved the puree to make it a full puree and to get rid of the skins which on some of the fruit were a little dark.  

The sugar was added and then it was all bought up to the boil until set was achieved.

The recipe is quite simple, two kilos of plums, two kilos of sugar, water to cover the plums and juice of one Lemon. I now have seven jars of Plum Jam for the Pantry shelf.  Pretty pleased with this and it is a lovely colour.  Will make some good eating in puddings and baking during the cooler months.  On average I seem to get about three to four jars per kilo of fruit, so seven jars is not so bad.

Left over from the jam making there were the Lemon shells and they have also gone into the Lemon vinegar pot.  So nothing wasted.

I also have two kilos plus to turn into plums in syrup for use in puddings/breakfast during the winter months. That will probably happen tomorrow now, although I may make up the syrup so that I can get straight on tomorrow.  I keep the syrup in a jar in the fridge overnight until ready for use.  You can keep it for a little while like this rather than waste any syrup.

Tomorrow is going to be another busy day. Still lots and lots to do.

Catch you later.

Pattypan

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