The sour cherries are ripe in Central Minnesota. We have the best crop ever and will continue to pick for a few days.

Traditionally, cherries have been used as an effective treatment for gout so they have medicinal properties as well as the delightful flavor we enjoy in a variety of recipes. Most people appreciate cherries for the flavors they impart to pies, jams and for us here at Leatherwood Vinegary, wine and vinegar.

My son-in-law, Jim, was here for a few days last week and when I mentioned something about the cherries being nearly ripe he said that our friend Laszlo, of Hungarian Goulash recipe fame (visit Examiner.com's Minneapolis Herbal Kitchen Examiner-June 8), makes a seasonal treat called simply Sour Cherry Soup. Jim was busy doing professorly things on his laptop in the gazebo when I went to see just how soon the cherries needed to be picked. I selected a lovely ruby trio and dropped them off in the gazebo on my way to pick raspberries.

Sometime later, after the raspberries were harvested, I went back in the house and checked my e-mail. There was a message from Jim. The subject title was, “Wow.” The message said, “They were great.” He’d added a link to a sour cherry soup recipe. I e-mailed him back, though by leaning to the left I could see him outside my office window, and proposed that we would have Sour Cherry Soup before dusk fell on the land.

Jim was an accomplice to the plot and picked the pound of cherries the recipe required. I made it early in the evening and it was still a little warm when Dawn and Hilary arrived for the weekend. We ate it anyway and put the leftovers in the refrigerator and ate it again, properly chilled, the next day.

Sour Cherry Soup is a refreshing cold soup served as a first course or a dessert. It doesn’t have any herbs in it but I suppose you could try sweetening it with stevia instead of the sugar. We talked about artificial cherry flavoring in the July 7 entry. Be assured Sour Cherry Soup has plenty of natural flavor, and a beautiful pink color. Your difficulty might be in finding sour cherries. Don’t use sweet cherries; you’ll want the tang of the sour ones.

Wash and pit a pound of sour cherries. This is about four cups. To pit the cherries, use a knife and cut the pit out, use the dull end of a skewer to push the pit through the stem end, or use a cherry pitter. No matter how you do it you’ll lose some of the cherry juice as it’s inclined to drip down to your elbows as you work. We’ve found that placing an old bath towel on your lap is a good way to catch the drips. Cherry juice stains so it’s a good idea to wear an old shirt when you pit the cherries.

Put the cherries in a four-quart saucepan along with six cups of water and ¾ of a cup of sugar. Bring to a boil and simmer for about ten minutes or until the cherries are cooked through.
Stir 2 tablespoons of flour, 1 teaspoon of powdered sugar and ¼ teaspoon of salt into 1 cup of sour cream. Add some of the cooked juice to this and whisk together. Then add it to the cherries in the saucepan. Simmer for five minutes. Cool by immersing the pan half way in a container of water and ice cubes. Then transfer to a bowl and chill in the refrigerator. Serve as a first course or add a dollop of fresh whipped cream and serve as a dessert.

Two days later we picked about 50 pounds of cherries. There are many more still on the trees since they don’t all reach the perfect stage of ripeness at the same time. Hilary took enough back with her to make a couple of cherry pies. We’ll freeze some for similar uses but most will go into the wine and vinegar process.

And now it's October

It was spring. Now it's fall. Things at Leatherwood Vinegary go just that quickly! We planted. We reaped. We're making wine and vinegar.

If it only were really that simple! Yes, we planted but it wasn't a good growing season. Too cool and wet in the spring. Then hot and dry. Now as frost is nearing, we have plenty of moisture and great growing conditions, but time is running out.

In a normal growing season the cherries, plums and apples blossom in succession. The rhubarb comes next, then the grapes blossom. All of that happened except the grapes were really late in leafing out. Because of the cold wet weather when the plums and cherries were blossoming, they didn't set on well. In fact, we had no cherries and only enough plums for fresh eating. Some of the apple trees are heavy with fruit while others only have one or two. This isn't a problem since off years help break the moth cycle and give the trees a rest. Last year's grape crop was glorious. This year we had four, yes four, clusters.

When our crop is poor we're especially appreciative of those who have and share a bountiful harvest. Conditions vary throughout the area and the crop isn't consistently good or bad. We're using the abundant rhubarb and apples that we have along with plums and grapes from others in the area. No cherries so there'll be a dearth of cherry vinegar next year.

We've had lovely herbs so have abundant herbal vinegars. Ron bottled a generous amount of French tarragon vinegar. The garlic is infusing now as well as an experimental batch of catnip (it's stimulating for cats but calming for humans). We dug the horseradish just a couple of days ago so we'll taste the first horseradish vinegar in a couple of weeks.

Tour groups have been wonderful this summer and continue coming as we move into cooler weather. We've enjoyed sharing the vinegary and gardens with mystery tour groups, veterans' reunions, girlfriend groups, families, couples and individuals. Amity came from North Carolina to write a story for AAA Living magazine. Jeff and Inese came to celebrate their fifth anniversary. An opera singer from Australia stopped in on his trip around the world.

We cooked another vinegar themed dinner for a school fundraiser, hosted a large family gathering, and Ron has shared his wine making expertise with classes. We've also learned from our visitors and now know how to grow bigger onions (hoe the soil away from the bulb and let it sit on top of the ground), better garlic ( mulch with six inches of leaves and top with plastic to winter over), jucier tomatoes (trench between rows and fill the trenches with water, let it seep in, repeat).

Now with winter on its way, the plan is to write a book about our experiences as the first vinegar proprietors in Minnesota, and perhaps update this blog more faithfully. But first I want to transplant the strawberry bed, plant the garlic and shallots, make some beet pickles, get two bushels of tomatoes from a generous person who has an abundant crop, make tomato wine and vinegar.......and so on it goes.

Hobby Wine Making- the Country Courier by NPL

As hobbies go, wine making can be among the most satisfying: saving money over buying expensive wines, using fruits that otherwise might go to waste, bringing attention to the appreciation of eating well.

Wine making can be as simple as stomping on grapes and letting them ferment with natural yeast from the skins of the grapes. It can be a little more complex when using other fruits: washing and mashing the fruit, adding water, sugar and yeast, and then watching the fermentation process. It can be as scientific as testing the specific gravity and acid content in order to determine the amount of sugar to be added and if the pH should also be adjusted; choosing specific varieties of yeast; adding enzymes, nutrients, and tannins and other enhancers; controlling the temperature during fermentation and other technical steps in the process. Commercial wineries age some of their wines in oak barrels and this can be adapted for the home wine maker.

The equipment used by wine makers can vary as much as the techniques. Buckets, bowls and bags can be used as primary fermentation vessels. After the liquid is racked-off (siphoned off the “must” or fruit mash) it is usually put in glass jugs with narrow necks. Some use balloons on the top to allow the fermenting wine to release the carbon dioxide without allowing room air to enter the jug. A more controlled method is to use airlocks, wine makers’ tools which accomplish the same task, without the powdery substance that keeps balloons from sticking together falling into the wine.

Carboys (large glass jugs made for wine and beer making), specific gravity testers, wine thieves (used to remove small amounts of wine from a carboy or barrel), thermometers, siphons, hoses, clamps, long handled spoons, cleaning equipment and a plethora of additives can be added to the supply list.

Fifteen years ago I made grape, apple and beet wines using basic recipes and hoping for the best. Some were quite good, though very sweet. Other times the end product made me suspicious if it should actually be called wine and if it might be better not to drink it.

Several years ago Ron took over the family wine making. He appreciates the scientific approach which results in a more consistent product; wine that we enjoy with meals and share with family and friends.

“I keep careful records and write down everything I do. That way I know why my wines taste the way they do,” he said.

Since we’ve handled wine and beer making supplies we’ve met other wine making enthusiasts. Some prefer the basic method, forgoing the more complicated steps in the process which might ensure a drinkable end product but increasing the learning curve. Others approach it with the zeal of having found a new avocation.

Mark Parteka, who lives just outside of Browerville and is known to many in this area as the Sprint man, has been making wines for five or six years. He says when you start making wine be prepared to throw some out. He’s experimenting this year with honeyberries which were developed in Russia from the bitter honeysuckles.

“I ordered the shrubs from Oregon three years ago,” he said.

“I racked-off the honeyberry wine a few days ago. It doesn’t seem to have much flavor,” he said and noted that when he’d picked the fruit it was lacking in flavor. “I’m considering blending some of the wines to see if I can come up with a good one.”

Parteka has also made apricot, peach, strawberry, raspberry, chokecherry, apple, rhubarb, and grape.

“I have my seven year old nephew come over to stomp the grapes,” he said. “I send him home with purple feet.”

He let’s his fishing crew and hunting buddies try out his wines.

“They complain that they never get any more than a taste of the good ones,” he laughed.

While wine makers often use fruits from local orchards, some chose to work with fruit that has been canned for wine making. This is especially useful when making wine after the seasonal fruits are no longer available. Mark Faust has experimented with the canned fruits and hopes to expand into grapes and plums that grow on his land east of Long Prairie.

Loren and Celeste Miller are using apple juice.

“We squeezed the apples and froze all the juice our freezer can hold. We’re going to make wine out of the rest,” Loren said.

He’s been making apple juice the last four or five years. He made apple wine two years ago and this year added wild plum and rhubarb.

Al Fortmann and Joel Anderson downloaded recipes from the internet. These recipes call for Campden tablets to sterilize the “must” of wild yeasts. They also suggest using yeast nutrients to get the fermentation process off to a good start.

“I’ve seen some old recipes,” Joel said. “I’m a little afraid of making bad wine if I don’t use the Campden tablets.”

Tim Mikish makes wine in the fall as the plums, chokecherries and plums ripen. He likes using his own fruit but plans to experiment with the canned fruits as well.

“I’m going to make blackberry and cranberry,” he said, indicating the Vitner’s Choice canned fruit on his stainless steel counter.

John King, Amy Hunter, and LeRoy Williams have recently bottled the wines they made in one of Ron’s classes. They’re happy with the roughly thirty bottles produced from a six gallon start-up.

LeRoy says that making wine has no connection with his role as a Master Gardener. He says it’s just enjoyable and he likes the personal challenge of making some good wine. Williams also highly recommends taking a wine making class rather than trying to learn from a book. “It’s great to have some one show you what to do and why. I screwed up and it was nice to have Ron explain what happened and why and how to correct it. It was neat starting with rhubarb and going home with thirty bottles of wine that taste fantastic.”

John King made apricot wine and chose to make it sulfite-free. Some people are sensitive to sulfites and the home wine maker can adjust accordingly. King’s wine took a little longer to finish fermenting.

King was pleased with his wine too. “I’m going to use some for gifts,” he said.

Minnesota has about fifteen commercial wineries. Touring these wineries can be a fun weekend getaway. They can also help the home winemaker learn more about the process and provide taste comparisons. Buying commercial wines with the intent of learning the complexities and character of individual varieties can also be a pleasurable and educational process.