We bought a fridge freezer for the shed and it was delivered today. Now we can store yeast in cold temperatures and have cold drinks to satisfy our thirst in the remote wilderness of the shed. It's a Bosch and it's reasonably energy efficient at E.
We also harvested the cooking apples (Bramley) and had a bumper crop this year, with some massive apples, one of which is enough for an apple pie. So we will crush and press a whole lotta apples tomorrow. Perhaps try our hand at cider. Very exciting.
Very dark red. Nice scent. Bland taste. I tested the Brix and it came in at 9 but quite unclear. Specific gravity came in at 1.000. That shouldn't be. We transferred into two demijohns using the stainless steel funnel and a large glass measuring cup (all sterilised). The room temperature went from 20.7 to 21.8 while we worked.
While cleaning up, we ran out of hot water, so we'll have another round of clean-up tomorrow.
The weather yesterday was filthy and today lovely. Cool this morning -- almost nippy -- so we collected many of the vulnerable potted plants and transferred them to the polytunnel. The temperature hit 13.2C today compared with 16.5C yesterday and 18C for days before that. Unnatural.
The vineyard is looking very colourful as all of the red grape vines have turned lovely colours. Curiously, the white vines remain green.
The clear glass bottles arrived by courier today. The box was ripped and smashed but miraculously the bottles are intact. The green bottles and corks should arrive Friday. Alex is next undertaking learning how to use the new equipment, especially the bottle washer and the heater. We won't be bottling for a while as we have to rack at least once, but I'm thinking of racking twice because the juice is quite cloudy. We'll see.
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We hit a high of 18C today. It was sunny and calm until mid-afternoon when the clouds started rolling in. It was a day when I really felt like just hanging out, but I did alot as usual. While Alex weeded and mowed the lawn, I did laundry, picked raspberries and apples, painted the fence, checked on the vineyard, pruned roses, and so on. But I did it fairly slowly. The day started very foggy, so foggy they closed down Shannon Airport. But by mid-morning it had burned off.
What's interesting is that many of the Pinot Noir vines have clusters of tiny grapes turning red. Also the Rondo is having a second cropping that is turning red. The roses in the vineyard are stunning with so many perfect blooms.
The apples are huge and plentiful this year as well, and the crop of red and yellow raspberries was extraordinary.
Sunny, still, T-shirt weather mid-October. And then this...
It is definitely Autumn in the orchard and garden, but you could believe it was summer. We hit a high of 18.7C today according to the MSC weather station. Yesterday, as we drove from town, the car registered 18.2C. I know it's heresy to say it, but I am enjoying this brief period of climate weirdness.
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