Despite Two Feet of Snow, Spring has Sprung

Although our land is still blanketed by 2 feet of snow and the lake remains frozen, spring has sprung this week.  How do I know?

One clue is the first of many flocks of migrating geese and one, lone sandhill crane (where is its mate?) announcing their annual return to The Great Land.  Welcome back!  I have missed you!

Birch Sapping in Spring

A second is that twice a day, my husband and I stomp through softening snow to collect sap from the birch trees we tapped on April 20.  We drink this bracingly cold liquid as a vitamin rich spring tonic, and use it instead of water to make wine, beer, coffee, and anything else.  After ten days of clear flow, the sap turns milky, ending the tree’s gift to humans.  The rest belongs to the tree.  This change signals the imminent budding of the leaves.  So, one night, a few days later, I go to sleep in a black and white world and awaken to soft, technicolor green. 

Where the snow is thinnest or has melted and refrozen as ice, as at the base of a tree or building, I am always awed by the tenacity of a green bit of fern or dandelion or myosotis (forget-me-nots) already formed and ready for the heat and light of the sun.  Wild currants pop out of the snow already in bud.  Last year the haskaps flowered when their lower trunks were still encased in snow.  These plants, too, know when spring has arrived, and they are prepared to make the most of our short summer season.

I love such seasonal changes.  They teach me to take nothing for granted.  The flying bird will disappear, the sap run will end.  The green plants and deciduous trees will leaf out in May and then shrivel or flutter, yellow, brown, and red to the ground five months later.

It is my privilege to pay attention.  To notice.  To appreciate.   Nature does not need this appreciation.  It does not need me.  But perhaps that is exactly why I say thank you and endeavor to reciprocate for her many gifts of food, home remedies, shelter, and beauty.

Every day, I take a “walk about” to pay careful attention to the plants on our property and in the woods.   JX Mason (on this site) has described this sort of activity as a walking meditation. I had never thought of it that way, but I do now.  I am focused and calm.  Maybe my heart rate or blood pressure slows – I do not know.  But the daily practice is important to me.  My spirits rise and I feel a sense of expansion in myself. 

As the snow recedes, I hop out of bed thinking about the plants.  In the spring, I prune dead or damaged branches, and cull plants girdled under the snow by hungry voles and hares.  Later, in a sort of reciprocity, I watch for short, two week periods of optimal harvest conditions for tasty and nutritious leaves, berries, roots, and shoots that I am lucky to gather and enjoy.  Shall I eat this lambs quarter raw or cooked today, or in a pesto? Shall I dry or pressure can these other leaves for winter food?   Among the edible plants, our first spring salads are of dandelion leaves, fireweed shoots, and fiddleheads (ferns).  Next I harvest the flavorful young leaves of berry bushes, birch, and alder for tea and flavored vinegars – fresh leaves now and dried for later.  In early/mid May, I harvest bright green spruce and larch tips and snip them into salads, cakes and muffins to which they confer a delightful citrusy flavor.  Other plants share their beneficence later in the summer.

Leaves to rake in the Fall

Late in the summer, I gather seeds of edible, medicinal or beautiful plants that I wish to spread to new areas – the delicacy of columbine, the hardiness of daisies, the scent of iris and yarrow, and rake birch leaves onto tarps that I dump onto raised bed gardens and around fruit bushes and trees as a winter blanket.  Under the weight of the snow, the leaves break down and leaven the soil the next year. 

I do not have a TV or radio or alarm clock.  I have plants and animals that tell me what time of year it is and to get outside and DO SOMETHING joyful and meaningful and healthful.  So I do.   

I hope that you can and do, too.

The Beauty of Winter Trees

Natural settings can speak to people, make them feel at home.  One of my sisters has  been attracted to oceans, another to the desert.  For me, it is forest settings that have always beckoned.

 Every morning, I feel a sense of peace and gratitude as I look out my window at the mature Boreal Forest in which I live.  I regard the trees as my friends, mentors, caregivers, and benefactors.  Alive, they protect me from sun, wind, and cold; they yield nutrients and medicine, as well as beauty. Dead, they continue their beneficence, transformed into my cabin, decks, docks, furniture and fire wood.   

Trees at noon in December

This time of year, I watch the long blue shadows of birch and spruce trees slither across the snow and I am dazzled by the brightness of hoarfrost that coats every surface of the trees.  An occasional owl hoots or raven caws, but otherwise, our winter woods are silent and magnificent.

Almost every afternoon in February and March, my husband and I drive a snowmachine (snowmobile) and sled into the woods along trails we groomed several days before and left to harden.  Our goal is to cull 11 cords of standing dead spruce trees each year for firewood to heat our home and the outdoor soaking tub.  

Sadly, our part of Alaska was infested by spruce beetles about eight years ago.  These tiny insects killed most of the mature white and black spruce throughout millions of acres.  It was very sad to cut down the three stately 85 foot trees near our cabin, but it is even worse to view the skeletal remains.  Dead trees are hazardous, too, both for fire and falling, so every year since the infestation, we pick an area, first on our property, and subsequently, on the state land that surrounds us, to cull dozens of dead trees.  They are put to good use. 

Hoar frost on the trees

Aside from the practical aspect of gathering firewood, this seasonal project generates joy, as well.  Although the beetles devastated mature trees, they did not kill the saplings.  Trees below about 10 feet tall survived the onslaught.  Every time we fell a thicket of dead ones, we find spindly young conifers below them.  Next summer, they will enjoy more sun and space to grow straight and tall and healthy.  In subsequent years, other plants colonize the clearings, too, predominantly prickly rose, elderberry, and highbush cranberry.  Hares, martens, and weasels burrow under the dead branches that clutter the forest floor.

In March, as the snow begins to soften and rot, springy alders and highbush cranberries pop up from their heavy blanket of snow, waving for a moment before they assume a vertical position for summer.  

When the snow starts to recede in April, brown doughnuts of soaked earth encircle the warming trees.  My husband and I tap several birch trees for ten days before the leaves emerge, drinking the bracingly cold sap straight, as well as using it in any recipe that requires water, such as coffee, rice, and homemade wine and beer.  The clear liquid is a nutritious spring tonic, chock full of vitamin C and minerals, such as iron, zinc, calcium, and potassium.  It tastes slightly sweet and vaguely woody.  Eau de paper bag.    

When the soil dries up, I wander through our property, carrying flagging tape and pruners.  I clip the broken branches of saplings and cut out trunks girdled beneath the snow line by hungry hares and voles.  With delight I flag tiny seedlings so that I will not trample or weed whack them when the fast growing wild grasses obscure them.   In subsequent years I marvel as these tiny growths add branches and height, in many cases growing out of the stumps of dead trees.

My woods are a vibrant community of the elderly and the young, the sick and the healthy.  I wander in wonder and awe.   

My Recent Survivalblog Posts

 Please follow these links for articles recently posted on Survivalblog.com:

 

Homesteading Cautionary Tales – Part 1, by Mrs. Alaska

 

Homesteading Cautionary Tales – Part 2, by Mrs. Alaska

 

Our Practical Uses of Amateur Radio – Part 1, by Mr. & Mrs. Alaska

 

Our Practical Uses of Amateur Radio – Part 2, by Mr. & Mrs. Alaska

 

How to Make Berry Wine (from fresh, frozen, or canned fruit)

For a dozen or so years, I have made palatable wine (usually pinot noir and pinot grigio) from commercial kits that vary in price from $69 - $200 per 6 gallons.  To some, I added fresh berries that we grow at home. 

I have also made 4 batches of mead with the honey that our honeybees produced.  One batch of raspberry mead was glorious, but three others failed to ferment, so I ended up with three gallons of raspberry/honey syrup – more than anyone needs.

Last month, inspired by a friend who makes about 10 types of wine from apricot and wild plum trees, dandelion flowers, and fireweed flowers, among other ingredients, I decided to start with raspberries and red currants that I gathered and canned last summer.  Next up will be high bush cranberry wine.

A mere month after starting the fermentation, I was delighted by the early flavor of the currant wine.  In fact, I vastly preferred it to the raspberry wine!  Who would have thought that!  The former already has a vibrant flavor and silky mouth feel.  It tastes so rich that I add a dollop or two to flavor occasional glasses of the commercial pinot grigio or pinot noir that I made at the same time.    

By contrast, the raspberry wine is currently disappointing, but of course I expect wines to take several months to age.  At the moment, it tastes and smells thin, with a watery aftertaste.  I also made a second gallon with the “seconds,” which I found as an extra on one recipe.  This uses the pulpy seeds left over in the cheesecloth bag after the first batch has soaked for a week or ten days.  I think this may be the berry equivalent of grappa.  This batch had a slightly leathery taste, which my mentor thinks is due to the tannins in the seeds.  Since I am not a fan of woody wines, I don’t care for this flavor in the raspberry wine, either, but another palate may like it.  Over the next six months, I will check the wine to ensure that it does not mold or go bad, but otherwise, let it age in a dark spot behind the couch.

I have concluded that my dramatically contrasting reactions to the currant and raspberry wines may result from the fact that I seeded the former in a food mill before canning, but not the latter.  Like the currants, I always seed the cranberries that I juice, so I look forward to making some of that.  In future batches, I will seed raspberries, too, for wine.  

Recipe

You can find many recipes on line for the fruit of your choice.  One of the most famous people in this industry, with dozens of fruit wine recipes, is Jack Keller, who died in 2020.  You can find his recipes on many websites, such as www.homebrewtalk.com and www.winemakermag.com. I would heartily encourage any fruit wine maker to start with his recipes and then adjust for taste after a first or second batch.

  Jack Keller’s raspberry wine recipe:

 

    3 pounds of red raspberries

    1 pound 11 ounces of granulated sugar

    Water to 1 gallon

    4 teaspoons of pectic enzyme⁹0

    1 teaspoon of yeast nutrient

    Half a teaspoon of yeast energizer

    1 gram of Fermaid K  (I did not use this)

    Lalvin’s RC 212, a red wine yeast  (I used Lanvin 47)

Heat one gallon of potable water to temperature that will allow the sugar to dissolve into a thin solution.  Stir.

If you add berry juice, just pour it in.  If you add fruit with seeds or some other chunky fruit, like cherries, put it in a cheesecloth bag first, for easy removal. (You can use fresh, frozen or canned fruit).

Let the pot cool down to about 105 degrees F.   Stir again.  If you plan to let the wine ferment in that same pot (which I do), move it to a place where it can remain undisturbed, preferably in a temperature range of 65 – 75 degrees.  Sprinkle the yeast energizer and nutrient across the top of the liquid, and then the wine yeast.  Do not stir. Loosely lid it, and add an airlock or alternative (see below, under equipment).

If you plan to ferment the liquid in a different pot, crock, or bucket, pour the liquid in, set in in a place where it can remain, undisturbed for several weeks, let the liquid settle, and then sprinkle the yeast energizer and nutrient and wine yeast over the top. If the location’s temperature is below 65, the yeast will take longer to multiply, delaying and sometimes stalling fermentation.  A stalled ferment can be fixed, but if not, you have juice or low alcohol wine. 

On the second and subsequent days, stir it vigorously with a very long spoon for a few minutes, sometimes  twice a day.  Be sure to push the cheesecloth bag down below the surface so the fruit will not mold.  (If you do not contain the fruit in a cheesecloth bag, it will float on top, creating a crust that (a) can mold and (b) segregates the yeast from the air that it needs to survive.)  I find it fascinating to see, when the yeast population grows,  the colony actively swimming in the liquid.  I would use the word, swarming, except for the negative insect imagery.  If the yeast growth has slowed to the point where I see no movement during the first week, I sprinkle a teaspoon of yeast nutrient or yeast energizer on the surface.  This will feed and energize the yeast, so they can consume more of the fruit sugar and turn it into alcohol. 

About Day 7, use your wine thief (a turkey baster) to squeeze enough liquid into the hydrometer for the thermometer to float. Read the measurement.  If it is near 1.03, this means that your juice is partially fermented.  Squeeze as much liquid as you can from your cheesecloth bag into the liquid and then remove it.  About every other day after this, measure again until the hydrometer reads 1.00 or 0.99. Numbers above this mean that much sugar remains unconverted by the yeast into alcohol.  The sweeter the taste at this point, the lower the alcohol.  If you choose not to use a hydrometer, you can simply taste a few spoonfuls of wine every other day after Day 7 until you like flavor.  (You can also use the hydrometer to calculate the percentage of alcohol, too, through a formula that you can find on-line).  My wines (from kits or from my harvested fruit) generally ferment by Day 10 - 12. 

When the wine reaches a palatable profile for you, siphon the liquid into a glass growler, leaving behind the yeasty gunk that coats the bottom of the prior container.  Install the air lock, so that any remaining CO2 can escape.  You don’t want to cap the wine too soon or residual C02 could cause the growler to explode. If there is a lot of yeast and residue at the bottom of the growler, (a reason to use a glass container), I siphon it again into a clean container.  This results in a clearer wine. 

I don’t bother to bottle and cork the wine.  I simply store it in the growlers and drink it within the year.    

Equipment

To try a few small batches without much financial outlay, you can start with the following equipment.  Note alternatives for a first batch or two to further reduce your initial expenditure.  Like many types of hobby equipment, you can probably find much of this used.

*A cooking pot bigger than one gallon to heat the liquid. 

*The same or a second pot or crock or jug with a lid that fits loosely and preferably has a hole in which to put an air lock.  For one gallon batches, I use a pressure cooker (not a pressure canner) in which I removed the plastic plug, leaving a hole in which I plunge an air lock.

*An air lock or two.  This is a small, inexpensive multi-part plastic gizmo that allows CO2 out but does not let oxygen into the liquid.  A second choice is to lay cheese cloth, a thin T shirt or even a paper napkin over the hole.  This will keep out bugs, ash, and dust, but will let oxygen in, which can influence the taste over time.  But this will work. 

*A rubber stopper or two with a hole in the bottom, that holds the plastic air lock in place.  Buy the size stopper that fits your growler or carboy (a 5-6 gallon heavy glass jug).  The former is smaller than the latter.

*A cheesecloth bag or two (big enough to hold a heavy gallon of sodden berries and juice).  (These inexpensive bags are useful for jams, jellies, cheese, teas, pickling, etc.  Buy a dozen.

*A plastic siphon (to move the wine from its initial fermenting stage container to its second, aging container).  Yes, you can simply pour it, but a siphon enables you to leave behind the yeast in the first container, so that your final product will not taste yeasty.

*A hydrometer (this looks like a 10 inch thermometer that fits in a tall, thin glass or plastic container and measures alcohol level of the liquid you pour into the container).  Alternatively, taste your wine every other day after Day 7 or 10.  A sweet flavor and a higher hydrometer reading means that the fermentation is not finished and therefore, the alcohol level is low.  A reading below 1 (0.99) means that fermentation is complete. (In my experience, unfermented fruit/sugar/water solution starts around 1.08.)

*A wine thief, which is simply a turkey baster to collect wine to squeeze into the hydrometer

*Wine yeast.  The most versatile and reliable that I have used are Lanvin 47 and Lanvin 1118, however, wine connoisseurs suggest particular yeast strains for different fruits and flavor profiles.  You can buy wine yeast on-line or at beer supply stores, along with the optional items below.  One packet is enough for a batch of 1 – 6 gallons of wine.  These will age out at some point depending on storage temperature and humidity, so do not expect to stockpile several years worth. 

Optional but useful purchases:

Yeast nutrient and yeast energizer.  These are powders that gig the yeast to consume the sugars if they have slowed down. Here in our wood heated cabin in Alaska, I need these aids and/or I move the fermenters (the first container to which you have added the yeast) closer to the wood stove.  

Citric Acid:  If your wine is too sweet for your liking, due to the fruit, you can add citric acid to balance the flavor.  If it is overly sweet because the fermentation stalled, that means that the yeast has not consumed the sugar and converted it to alcohol, so the wine will be low alcohol.  The citric acid will balance the flavor but do nothing about the alcohol level. For some wine makers, this could be an intentional choice, such as 4 or 5% alcohol wine.

Pectic enzyme:  Pectic enzyme helps draw out the liquid of fruit, requiring less mashing work from you.  This is not as necessary for juicy fruit like berries, but useful for fruit with more texture, like apricots, cherries, and plums.

Sugar or honey:  If your resulting wine is too dry for your palate, you can “back sweeten” it.  Heat the honey or sugar so that it dissolves.  Pick a test amount of wine, like a quart, and measure how much sweetener you add to your liking.  Then extrapolate to the whole batch.  Obviously if you pour the sweetener in cold, it will just sink to the bottom and you are likely to add too much. 

Clarifiers and stabilizers:  The commercial kits come with packets that clarify and stabilize the wine.  I have not used any in my initial batches of dark berry wine, but would do so if I made a light colored wine, from grapes, pineapple, or apricots, and if I intended to store the wine for longer than I currently anticipate. 

Conclusion:  There are many advantages to this hobby.  

1)  Whether you choose to make wine from a commercial kit or from store bought fruit, the cost per bottle of wine will be MUCH lower than purchasing wine.  Basically, 5 bottles = 1 gallon.  A commercial kit of concentrated wine grape juice usually makes 6 gallons = 30 bottles.  The price for kits range from $65 to $200 depending on the provenance of the grapes.  If you pay $10 - 30/bottle, that = $300 - $900 for the same volume of wine. If you grow or forage the fruit, the cost for making the wine is simply the one time purchase of equipment, ongoing yeast packets and some optional items, like yeast energizer.  If you wish to make wine from store bought fruit or juice concentrate in the freezer section, you can price that out.   

2) The expense for equipment is for hardy elements that can be used over and over for many years.  We have had to replace plastic and delicate pieces occasionally, like a broken hydrometer, but otherwise, the purchases are “one and done”… for many years.   

3) Much of the equipment, like containers, cheese cloth, and airlocks, and the baster (evocatively called a wine thief) are multi-functional for other kitchen processes. 

4) For the gardener or forager, it is a  joy to harvest fresh fruit and turn it into something delectable.  I routinely harvest 6 gallons each of raspberries, currants, and cranberries per year for a variety of gustatory pleasures.  For wine, next year, I will harvest even more. 

5) The preparatory time commitment is low.  

The negatives:

1) You need to have space to store the equipment and the aging wine.  My son did so in a dormitory closet. 

2) While store bought wine is consistent in quality along a particular brand, your fruit wine quality may vary, depending on the quality of the fruit and your temperatures, just like any other agricultural product you grow at home. 

I recommend this endeavor for anyone who wants to save money and make use of fruit that you can buy, grow, or forage.

Ways to Save Eggs for Months

Egg laying is partially predicated on the season.  Our hens, of various breeds, are always most prolific layers in the summer months.  In the autumn, when they molt (shed their feathers and grow new ones) they do not lay at all for 6 to 8 weeks.  During the cold winter months in Alaska, they shiver in the chilly coop, laying maybe half as often as in the summer.  It is only in March, when we have 12 hours of daylight, that they venture out into the snow and start to lay regularly again.

Therefore, I learned various ways to save eggs to eat during the molt and all winter.

Note:  In the USA, people who buy eggs at a supermarket are purchasing eggs that are washed, which removes the bloom, which is a clear thin coating that the hen naturally produces as she lays to protect the egg from bacteria and dirt.  This is why, in this country, eggs are stored in the refrigerator.  

 In the many other countries that do not wash the shells first, shopkeepers store eggs on room temperature shelves, and millions of shoppers store them at home this way, too, up to about 21 days, depending on ambient temperature.   

Since we do not wash our hens’ eggs either, I store them in a large metal bowl on a kitchen counter for up to three weeks.  If I am surfeited with eggs, I store them long term in the various ways listed below.

The following are my experiences and opinions.  Someone else's could be different.  

HOW TO TEST EGGS FOR FRESHNESS

Put any questionable eggs in a deep, flat bottomed pot and cover them with water.  If any float, air has gotten inside the shell and you do not want to eat them.  If they rise slightly off the bottom and turn sideways, I cook them sooner than the eggs that do not rise or tip at all.

LONG TERM EGG STORAGE

GLASSING

I do not know why the term, “glassing” is used for this technique, which involves submerging raw eggs (in their shells) in a lime solution and setting the crock or food grade bucket somewhere, undisturbed, at room temperature.  I have successfully cooked with eggs that I glassed and stored at room temperature for nine months. I have read in Mother Earth News, that people have stored them for two years.  The most I have stored for 9 months is 125, in two food grade 5 gallon buckets with lids. 

To make the solution, I measured out a proportion of 8:1  water to pickling lime, and then heated the water enough that the lime dissolves, stirring thoroughly.  After it cools to room temperature, I pour it into a food grade bucket and gently place unwashed, fresh eggs into the water, making sure that no egg shells rise above the solution.  Over time, the solution will sink to the bottom, so it is important to gently stir up that bottom layer, to recoat the shells.  I do this once a month.   

One year, I neither heated the water nor stirred once a month.  Big mistake!  The eggs on the bottom layer were practically cemented to each other in the lime, but the eggs above the bottom layer rotted.  What a noxious job it was to pull those out and toss away 60 eggs!  Plus, I hate wasting food.

When cooking with the eggs that have been glassed for several months, I rinse them first, and then crack them into a transitional bowl to check.  I find that both the yolks and whites are runnier than fresh eggs, so they are better suited to scrambling, custards, or baking than for fried eggs.

IMPORTANT:  This treatment works only for farm fresh, unwashed eggs that still have the protective “bloom” on the shell.

FREEZING

1)      FAVORED:  Raw beaten eggs can be poured into muffin tins or ice cube trays, frozen, and then popped out to be stored in plastic bags or other containers.  It is helpful to measure the amount of one eggy ice cube for future recipes.  I found that a muffin tin holds about an egg and a half, and my ice cube trays held less than one egg.  These individual units thaw quickly.  When scrambled, the texture of these frozen, raw eggs is the same as unfrozen, raw eggs.  I rarely separate eggs and yolks for recipes, but you can do so and freeze the beaten raw yolks separately from the raw whites.  Either way, freezing raw eggs in measured portions is a very convenient and reliable method.

2)      NOT FAVORED:  Hard boiled eggs can be frozen in or out of the shell.  Shelled eggs will crack when the interior expands in the cold.  Either way, the texture of the white will be rubbery but the yolk will feel normal..  I freeze whole eggs as a winter treat for my dog or hens, but I would not serve them to people.   

3)      VARIABLE RESULTS:  Raw, eggy recipes, like quiche, pancake batter, etc. can be made in advance, packaged well, and frozen, to be thawed overnight for cooking the next morning. I have done so short term with a number of brunch dishes for large gatherings.  NOTES:  a) Like anything in a freezer, if it is not wrapped well and if it is frozen long term, it will develop ice crystals, making the recipe more watery. (b) Many raw vegetables do not freeze well, but cooked vegetables do.

   

PICKLING

My husband and I are not fans of pickled eggs, but many people like them.  To me the texture is rubbery and the vinegar/egg combo is unappealing.  However, my father-in-law told me that “back in the day” pickled eggs were a staple snack food, often free, on the bar at pubs.

 

SAVING EGG SHELLS

 I utilize all the egg shells, too.

1)      If you want to reduce the bitterness of a batch of coffee, drop a half egg shell in your percolator or coffee maker.

2)      To give my dog extra calcium, I grind up dried egg shells and sprinkle it on his food.

3)      I crush hundreds of egg shells each year and distribute the material in my gardens.  The shells have several benefits:  calcium, of course, and the texture lightens heavy soil, and the sharp edges are supposed to deter slugs and other soft bodied pests, although the amount of egg shells in my gardens has never deterred slugs in rainy summers.

In conclusion, we love raising hens for fresh eggs and all the other benefits that hens bring to our homestead.  As with any summer bounty, like zucchini, it is useful to figure out how to save eggs for later in the year and how to utilize the shells. Waste not, want not! Don’t take July’s production for granted.  Planning ahead for low productivity later in the year will be well rewarded.