Boy that looks delicious, doesn't it? Here is a picture of the first batch of mulberry wine I started. I read and/or heard somewhere that wine is often made using only the wild yeast that naturally exists on the outside of the fruit. After the first few days of collecting these berries I pressed all the juice out of them and put it into a pitcher. I put a lid on the pitcher and covered it with a towel to keep light out. That was one week ago, as of last night. Last night I racked it (in laymans terms, put it in a new container away from all the old yeast and settled debris.) This is a view of the pitcher when I first opened it. As you can see the yeast builds a protective layer on top of the vessel, keeping other undesirable microbes from taking over their delicious fruit juice buffet. The yeast eats the sugars in the juice, and discharges alcohol.
Here is the resulting containers of racked wine. Yes I tasted it and no it is not death poison. Wine made from straight mulberries has a taste much more like a lambic beer - mulberries are very mild flavored and the tartness found in other fruits just isn't there. The large bottle was salvaged from Dead Horse Bay in New York; the small bottle came from somewhere, it is a nice small size for sharing samples (in a few weeks.) The color is a deep, slightly purple red.
The third container, the sugar jar, is my first attempt at making vinegar. I added a dose of fluid from what I'll call 'forgotten produce' that had the distinct odor of vinegar to it. Only time will tell if I have a viable culture or not.
The mulberry tree continues to dump fruit on me at an alarming rate. Every day I go out and collect a large colander full of berries. I have taken to dumping them in the Crock Pot and cooking them for 4 hours, separating the cooked berries from the syrupy cooed juice. I HAVE 10 POUNDS OF FROZEN COOKED BERRIES. I expect the collecting to go on for another 2 weeks, until I have enough berries to mold into bricks and build a shed.
As for my next wine-experiment, the cooked juice has a higher specific gravity than the raw juice does (this means it has more sugar, and thus more alcohol potential.) In a few more days I plan to make a starter (yeast culture) from a day's worth of raw juice, and then mix it into all the cooked juice to make an even better wine!
I just finished making the 'radish green soup' Sharon had posted earlier. WAY too much lemon flavor, it dominates the soup. Anyone wanting to try this, I'd recommend the zest and juice of 1/4 lemon. It also took about 13 mins for the potatoes to soften, a little longer than the recipe said. 
Here's a couple fresh salads I made, all from garden ingredients. Lettuce, green beans, radishes, green onion, and wood strawberries. I went back and added cheese, tomatoes, and a little turkey before we ate them (its not challenge time yet!!)
A week ago Sunday was the first day that food was ready from the big garden - and boy was there a lot! We had 11 gallon freezer bags of lettuce and spinach that day. This past Sunday I was at it again, collecting even more! We had 9 more bags of food - 1 bag of radishes, 1 bag of radish greens (many more were discarded, but I wanted to try that soup recipe Sharon sent out,) 2 bags of spinach, and 5 more bags of lettuce! My mother in law took one bag of lettuce since she still had 2 left over from the previous week, which means not only is my freezer full of frozen berries, but my fridge is full of bags of greens! I blanched the spinach and put it in the freezer last night, there is still more lettuce than I could eat in a month!
Boy that looks delicious, doesn't it? Here is a picture of the first batch of mulberry wine I started. I read and/or heard somewhere that wine is often made using only the wild yeast that naturally exists on the outside of the fruit. After the first few days of collecting these berries I pressed all the juice out of them and put it into a pitcher. I put a lid on the pitcher and covered it with a towel to keep light out. That was one week ago, as of last night. Last night I racked it (in laymans terms, put it in a new container away from all the old yeast and settled debris.) This is a view of the pitcher when I first opened it. As you can see the yeast builds a protective layer on top of the vessel, keeping other undesirable microbes from taking over their delicious fruit juice buffet. The yeast eats the sugars in the juice, and discharges alcohol. 
The third container, the sugar jar, is my first attempt at making vinegar. I added a dose of fluid from what I'll call 'forgotten produce' that had the distinct odor of vinegar to it. Only time will tell if I have a viable culture or not. 
Finally, I remembered to bring my camera on Sunday! Here is a view of the garden, a 75' x 40' plot. The left half of the garden was planted much earlier (and had many more weeds growing as a result, the newer-tilled soil has much less of a problem.)
Here is a young tomato plant, one of over 70 in the big garden!
Pictured here is a New Zealand spinach plant- a much more substantial leaf than regular spinach.
A lettuce plant, growing up amongst the grasses that used to inhabit this space. This is one of the last lettuce plants left from my first planting, and it will be pulled out next Sunday.
A lovely young cucumber plant - but wait - where are all those missing leaves?!? Curse you rabbits!
Swiss Chard growing up amongst a sprawl of plants. This area needs a good weeding!
A pair of cabbage plants, coming along nicely! Lets hope those white moths don't eat too much!
Kathy and I installed a fence around the garden yesterday - bye bye bunny rabbits!
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