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.
I was out on the water all afternoon… 😊
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.
She also started the fermentation process for vinegar (left) and wine (right).
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.
On a whim, CA picked up a pack of pumpkin seedlings of the Jack Sprat variety in the spring. These are touted as ‘pie’ pumpkins. Into the garden they went, and eventually took over that quadrant of the garden.
The harvest was ten small gourds. These were used for pumpkin salsa and a well praised thanksgiving pumpkin pie.
The seeds were roasted for snacking and pumpkin seed brittle.
A couple hurdles out of the way in the past two days. The NB Power service tech dropped by yesterday to stake out the service poles for the site. He pointed out two additional trees that should be removed, so I cut them down. I finally found an available electrician who will be submitting the forms for the service permit.
The house foundation now will be a concrete slab. A contractor was recommended and has provided an estimate. When he was looking at the site he had concerns about the sideways slope to the site access and recommend I bring in more fill. I contacted my septic/site contractor and today he delivered a few loads of crushed rock to level things out.
The concern now is weather. If it gets too wet, a concrete truck may not get up the lawn to the access. After a very dry couple months, the autumn rains have begun…
One of those rare mornings where I went down to the shore front and happened to have a camera in hand…
