Spiced-wine and liqueur-making...a skillshare

I've been making hot-spiced wine for a few years now during the colder months, mostly because it's so darn easy.

Last year I decided to start making liqueurs for the holidays to give out as gifts for family and friends. I appropriated interesting-looking bottles from friends, recycle bins and and occasionally goodwill. I made a little custom card with the name and recipe of the liqueur to help pass-on the knowledge of the home-made goodness.

Yesterday, I held a skillshare to teach others how to make liqueurs and spiced wine. It went really well....6 people came out to learn. We made vanilla bean, creamy almond and coffee liqueur, plus a simple hot-spiced wine. We also tasted cranberry liqueur that I had been steeping for 2wks. I provided some recipes, bottling tips, places to get cheaper organic ingredients and an estimate of what it costs to make them. Here are some recipes & tips (some only relevant to local bizs here in Portland).

Can Mushrooms Benefit Corn, Wheat on Sub-acre Urban Farms?

Paul Stamets: "Wheat farmers benefit from the [endophytic mushroom] Piriformospora indica... this species is [an] ... endophyte that promotes growth of wheat shoots and roots and is capable of increasing leaf and seed production by more than 30% while shielding roots from infections by pathogenic microbes. Furthermore, seedlings paired with this mutualist successfully germinated 95% of the time, compared to only 57% for seedlings grown without this species. Root and shoot mass also doubled. (Varma et al. 1999)."

He goes on to say that the mushroom "demonstrates growth-enhancing properties when paired with" corn, tabacco and parsley. It's easy to cultivate in a lab and "widely coexists with many grasses".

From permaculture books, it's clear that indigenous cultures have increased diversity & yields of crops by growing them in partnership with other plants... for instance, the 3 sisters: corn, beans and squash grow better together than in isolation for a number of reasons (and traditionally a 4th "sister" was involved, i forgot which plant, in order to bring beneficial insects in...perhaps a flower).

But, now here's another possibility for increasing yields, reducing disease/crop failures and respecting the earth by partnering with mushrooms. The issue with growing grains in urban locations is how much space is required... so perhaps this mushroom mycelia is a way to grow more wheat and/or corn on even small sub-acre plots...1/4, 1/3, 1/2 acres that might be available to urban farmers, such as Kollibri, working on expanding his Staples Food Project in the next year. And, wheat can be stored somewhat indefinitely, as compared to grains like rice, which will go rancid in 6 months-ish. Having staples on hand is something we should all be thinking about in the times ahead.

My questions: is this mushroom prolific in our Willamette Valley climate? Is this mushroom easy to cultivate OUTSIDE the lab, i wonder? (the days of labs are dwindling and aren't accessible to the layperson anyway...i.e. can you do it yourself?)

Tree Tenants & Friedensreich Hundertwasser

I was first exposed to the wacky buildings of Friedensreich Hundertwasser in 1994-95 when i traveled and studied in Austria. He designed some of the funkiest, nature-inclusive buildings in Vienna and is considered to be the most famous artist of Austria.

He was an ecological artist and activist to say the least. I just began revisiting some of his art in a book Jay gave me a few Xmas's ago and discovered to my astonishment that he understood back in the 70s the notion that man could not exist separated from nature and advocated for buildings to include both human and "tree tenants"... the trees would purify the air and water and the humans would provide nutrition to plants through composting toilets.

...which leads me to a future article on homemade sawdust toilets and properly and safely recycling humanure (human manure) at home... In order to close the nutrient cycle and survive when there are no industrial inputs (oil or even do-it-yourself complete organic fertilizer), we will need to understand how to re-use/recycle all our personal wastes (externalities). This will maintain and perhaps even build precious topsoil to keeps us nourished/fed.

Next steps in making beer/wine

Possible next steps / future improvements:

• get rid of all industrial ingredients (find the homemade/wild equivalents)
• growing my own grains, hops and other bittering herbs (See the book, the Homebrewer's Garden)
• malting my own grains
• replacing organic evaporated cane juice (i.e. sugar) with local honey (honey takes much longer to ferment than sugar)

Wine and Beer Making

I started my second batch of wine a few weeks ago. And just racked it for the 2nd time. In Aug 07 I started the first batch, 1 gallon of blackberry wine... 7lbs of blackberries collected from the alleys of North Portland. A rewarding experience, which only produced 4 bottles of wine. In July I made my first two batches of beer, a stout and an amber ale... both fantastic according to the consumers.

This year, I picked 15 lbs of black/purple plums from a local tree and started 5 gallons of wine with my friend Melanie's help. In the first 10 days, it reached 8% alcohol, though it should ferment for months until it finishes. About 3-4 wks after the fruit had been removed, it had about 3/4 gal of sediment on the bottom and I just racked it 2 days ago to get it off the sediment. The wine is a brilliant pink. And it will come to about $2.50-$3.50 a bottle, depending on the actual yield. Pretty amazing for wild, homemade goodness.

The sediment makes a wonderful, rather nutritious drink I imagine.... wine, spent yeast (kinda like nutritional yeast), some fine fruit pulp. Definitely still sweet, might be even more perfect as a wine spritzer of sorts by adding sparkling water.

While learning to make wine, I continue to think about ways to improve the process, and by improve I mean thinking back to techniques. I like to do things naturally...and I don't mean like "naturally grown" or "all natural" you see on labels in the grocery store. Oftentimes, that seems like bullshit or greenwashing.

People used to do things much differently... 50 yrs ago, 100yrs ago... they didn't rely on the machine or a big cement box to pump things out for them that they needed. So in making fermented foods/drinks myself, i research and dabble in finding replacements for things that pass through the industrial cement box before reaching me. After all, i'm making it for myself with pure intent...why would i choose anything less.

Making beer and/or wine the modern way requires many industrial ingredients, no matter whether they are naturally derived or not. For example, commercial yeast strains, yeast nutrients, pectic enzyme, tannins, acid blends, malt extract, chemical sanitizers, sulfite tablets to kill bacteria & yeast and sterilize the wine must.

Post-carbon/oil solutions:

• sanitizer -> boiling water - from everything i've read, if you're careful, you'll rarely have a batch go bad.
• modern commercial yeast -> what about that wild sourdough starter you make bread with; they say it won't result in consistent wine/beer, but hey, it originally came from the same strains... i'm interested in trying a sourdough starter and experimenting to determine the right amount that works
  
• acid Blend -> citrus fruits (lemons) do the trick and minimally affect the flavor, if at all
• tannins -> a couple oak leaves (haven't tried this yet) or strong black tea will do
• malt extract -> take the next step to all-grain brewing

The other ingredients i'm still researching.

I'm also not a big fan of fermenting in plastic vessels, so the first gallon of wine I did, I started in a 2 gal fish bowl I found at goodwill. It was cheap and clean. I need to find a 6-gal equivalent glass container for starting 5gal of wine. Carboys don't work for the first week or so of fermentation, because you need a large open top so you can remove the fruit later.