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Strangely enough, I have have one of those in the orchard which I think was planted when the house was built in the early 1920s. A few fruit grow quite large, but they remain rock hard and, essentially, tasteless. I have tested them with fermentation, and they do make a wine - which is also tasteles...

I tend to chuck a handful or chopped raisins/sultanas into everything now and back off the normal yeast nutrient. All my wines seem (yes - seem. I haven't timed it) to start earlier and more forcefully. For the sake of a handful, I'll keep adding them, if only because it makes me feel happier. Meanw...

It works with schnapps too

... made with real randoms! I decided to take a look at the things in the garden which usually just disappear - early fallen apples and premature blackberries in particular. I noticed a few ripe blackberries (yes - THAT early) a week ago which the birds had and decided that they should have been min...

Actually - that sounds a bit interesting. I may do a little experimentation ... ... ...

Hello, Dungareegirl. Don't forget the winemaking section when you enter despair territory.

I wonder what Brussels cooked in liquorice juice taste like. Mmmmmm - scrummy!!!!!

Plum moth caterpillar wine? It could be a a revelation.

As Bernard has pointed out, no seal is required during fermentation - a loose cotton wool plug will stop insects getting in. When fermentation has finished, the enemy changes to the air itself - if oxygen gets in there, your wine will readily take it in and ... ermmm ... oxidise. However, any imperm...

Here you go, Ina ...
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/gardening/g ... rdens.html

It's a lot of bother to go to to chew a brown stick

I've just done my cleg research. Apparently, they're not like horse flies - they ARE horse flies. Amazingly (I think) I've never met a horse fly in my life - at least one that fancies biting me. Hornets and wasps, on the other hand, think I'm target practice.

I went through a lot of furnished accommodation when I was a student (and loons with naturally-frayed bottoms were perfectly normal legwear). All the mattresses I slept on were more than second-hand. Never got a single scratchy spot. This may be because ex-tenants were scrupulous or bedbugs and flea...

Apparently (I don't use the things) some (maybe most or all - no-one's saying) flypaper adhesives are based on rosin or sugar. The last one makes for some very creative ideas for cake baking (and I bet you really believed that they were currants).

There are thousands of people in this country who go to great lengths to grow weed, and they would hate it to be killed. What? Oh - sorry. Wrong kind of weed. For the right kind of weed, I would have thought that mowing in dry conditions may be more effective. Grass (the green kind) can take that tr...

I've just been looking that up, as it's far from clear. Methi is actually ANY part of the fenugreek plant. MaP's recipe states curry leaves, but just methi for the fenugreek, so I suspect he means fenugreek powder or seeds. Then again, all forms of fenugreek taste the same to me, so maybe it doesn't...