With all the trees down at Ross House, Alex brought some timber home from the trees downed on the avenue. He had some leftover lumber and corrugated metal sheets, so he built a roof over the logs so they could dry.
Meanwhile, a fellow beekeeper asked if he knew anyone who would want fermenting honey. Apparently, if you don't get enough moisture out of it, the honey will ferment in the jars. And that's what happened. Hundreds of jars that could not be sold. Alex told the beekeeper he could use our equipment to make mead but he didn't want to as he doesn't drink. So Alex did a crash course in how to make mead and accepted the donation of honey. He boiled the water and let it cool, emptied the honey jars one by one, bought yeast and sterilizer, and then set about making mead, which neither of us thought we liked. We'd had rot gut mead at a Renaissance dinner years ago and were put off mead since. He bought special demi-johns and bottles, then went about sterilizing them.
We tasted the first ferment and we liked it. Not like the Bunratty mead of decades ago at all. Lovely taste, lovely aftertaste, on the dry side. Alex decanted it into demijohns and it is precipitating out and clarifying.
Alex added frozen raspberries to the second batch which made a lovely rosé colour. We can't wait to try that one. When this is all done, we're going to have many litres of mead. Never a dull moment in this house. Friends and neighbours will be recipients of our good fortune.
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| Ghostie wondering what Alex is up to. |
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| Fake wasps nest to keep wasps away from the wood |
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| Ghostie attentive. |
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