Author: Paul Gorman

Coffee Anyone?

Coffee Cherries

When CA bought her property, she was given three small coffee plants. She gave one to a neighbour and has been maintaining the other two (indoors). One is starting to bear fruit! She might get a small cup of coffee. Time to figure out how to make that happen.

Serene Fall Day

Lately it has been sunny, cool and windy in central New Brunswick. Today was much the same, except for the windy bit. So just after lunch I decided to go out for a ‘short’ jaunt on my paddle board. Today’s definition of cool was around 5º, so I pulled on a neoprene suit and headed down to the river.

Bear Island Cove

I was out on the water all afternoon… 😊

Wild Grapes

Before leaving New Brunswick 24 years ago, I don’t recall seeing wild grapes. While clearing trees and scrub on CA’s property over the past summer, I found many large vines growing. I considered them a nuisance, as they were strangling the trees and difficult to pull out. When the clusters of fruit started appearing, I realized what they were.

In early September, we spent an evening harvesting wild grapes from an accessible patch.

After the grapes were cleaned and sorted , CA made a small batch of delicious jelly.

Wild Grape Vinegar & Wine

She also started the fermentation process for vinegar (left) and wine (right).

Wild Grape Vinegar

The wine did not turn out well. (We may try again next year.)

However, we were rewarded with a 750 ml jar of a very nice vinegar.

Check out the Forager | Chef‘s instructions for making vinegar from fruit scraps.

Looking forward, we will do some research on how we might to ‘train’ the vines to produce a more accessible harvest.