Wet, Wet, Wet, Chickens too

Haven't featured the Chickens lately, so thought I'd show them enjoying one of their favorite treats, Super Mix Corn from the Smallholder range of Ex-Bat feeds.

So from left to right:
Peggy, Hetty, Betty & Maud (with her back to you).




So back to today and what a wet day it's been, non stop all day, well at least it will top up the rain butts & maybe the well too on the Allotment.

But here is Peggy again, in mid preen after a soaking this morning, shes sheltering up near the house where it's a little dryer.



So I got busy this week and started making the Blackcurrant wine. The recipe I use can be used for lots of fruit, so here it is:

Place 3lb 1,350g of fruit in a large bucket, crush with a potato masher or similar then add a gallon of Boiled water. Leave for 3 days stirring each day with a wooden spoon (sterilised with with boiling water).

Then strain the fruit mixture through a Jelly Bag (as in my picture) or use Muslin and a sieve.

The strained juice is then put in a large preserving pan (one that will hold at least 2 gallons) and warmed up over
a low heat then add 3lbs 1,350g of Sugar and stir until disolved.
When the mixture has cooled a little add 1.5 to 2 tsps of Wine Yeast & mix in, then transfer into Demijohns & fit an airlock, as you can see I managed to fill almost 3. So make sure you have plenty of sterilised Demijohns ready.

When fermentation has stopped, takes about 2-3 weeks, keep checking bubble rate in air lock daily. You can do 1st racking, by using a syphon tube, transfer the wine into a spare Demijohn, this helps to clear the wine and might have to be done 3 times, but will cover this process when I do mine.

Thanks for reading/returning. Ian