Wednesday, April 8, 2009

Spring.

It's spring, supposedly.


snow?!


Apparently the snow didn't get the memo.



We're ready for Spring though, and a couple of weeks ago, we planted some seeds for the garden.

seeds


starting seeds


I usually start with seedlings, and this is our first try at starting seeds. I'm keeping my fingers crossed! After we got them going, the weather turned and the poor guys weren't getting much sun or warmth. They still aren't warm enough, I don't think. But we did move them and put them under a fluorescent light we installed. It's been about 3 weeks since we planted them and a week since we put them under the light. I hope I didn't kill them before they even sprouted!

We're hoping for some tomatoes - roma for canning and brandywine for eating. Being still semi-new to gardening, we'll get our heirlooms at the market. Um, peppers. Broccoli. Scallions. Lettuce. A whole mess of herbs.


We also have another batch of wine going! This is the first shot at a from scratch recipe.
The wine is slow moving too, and I think it's because it's a tad cold in the house. We should have been able to move it to the carboy between days 5 and 7 and we're on day 8 and it's still fermenting. I think we'll be good in a day or two though.

Day 1

Day 1


Day 2 - Yuck!


Day 2

Day 2

Day 5 - Looking better!

Day 5

If all goes well - the wine (did I mention it's strawberry?) should be ready for us to bottle by June.

Tomorrow the weather is supposed to be better, 50 or so - so we're planning on a little bit of hiking before the snow hits again!

3 comments:

Jodi said...

Strawberry wine sounds divine. And from scratch? WOW! My husband is new to wine making. He made 2 batches last summer/fall from kits and he's patiently waiting for the basement to be warm enough to start the 1st of 4 batches he wants to make this summer/fall (again, from kits, though).
We're talking about planting some grapes for future endeavors, though!

gardenofsimple said...

We're pretty new to wine making too. We used kits for the first batch, and this is our first from scratch!
You can do it when it's cooler, we did with this and with the kit - but it takes longer to ferment. It was supposed to reach the S.G in 5-7 days and it took 9 I think, before we could transfer it to the carboy.
My husband did beer last year and that is way more temperature sensitive than the wine is.
I really want to plant grapes too! We're renting now, but once we buy a house we plan on getting some grapes and fruit trees going!

Jodi said...

The warmer basement is just as much for his comfort while he's down there staring at it as it is for the wine. HAHA