The Cottage Smallholder

Having started the pickled walnuts I still had loads of nuts left over, so I looked around for other green walnut recipes. I was tempted by an Italian walnut liqueur that my last hairdresser makes every year. He buys pure alcohol in Italy and makes enough to last him until the next annual visit. He Read More »

I sampled our two and three year old rhubarb wine on Monday. And the 2006 greengage wine. All pretty good and as Danny said,
“They taste just like wine.”
But I reckoned that they need more time. As Daphne Moore writes in Discovering Country Winemaking, a wine that is unpalatable can often improve with keeping. Now I Read More »

Have you ever tasted dandelion wine?
Dandelions can be annoying in the garden. They’re a palaver to remove as their tap roots are thick and sturdy. But they are the key ingredient in an excellent homemade white table wine.
Gilbert will sometimes pour a glass if you pop round on a summer’s evening. As long as you Read More »

I found this book Discovering Country Winemaking by Daphne More on the church fete bookstall a couple of years ago. A snitch at 30p. It’s pocket size disguises it’s value. In fact, it was several months before I flopped beside the fire and gave it the attention that it deserves.
Daphne More, a well known journalist, Read More »

It was Joe Cox who finally tipped me over to making country wine. Joe is a central character in Joanne Harris’ novel Blackberry Wine. I loved the book and was intrigued by Joe. Half way through the novel I was trawling the internet for winemaking equipment. By the time I was reading the last page Read More »

Back in the seventies, when buying a bottle of wine was an expensive treat, the author C. J. J. Berry shot to fame with his series of amateur winemaking books. This is the rather smooth looking character on the left. He cashed in on the great home winemaking boom of the sixties and seventies.
As glugable Read More »

The first wine that I wanted to make was Pea Pod. This wine had a starring role in an episode of The Good Life. As our peas had barely produced a flower let alone a pod, I searched the vegetable section of Tesco and found fresh peas in the pod. I hadn’t realised how light Read More »

Tonight Danny has gone to bed early and I am racking off the rhubarb wine. It has been in the airing cupboard for a couple of months and I want to move it to the barn, which is cool and perfect for storing fermenting demijohns. Racking the wine is good as it skims the wine Read More »