Strawberry Wine

Over the weekend I made my first batch of strawberry wine with my dad.  It is a long process, but so far not too difficult.  It took 3 1/2 lbs of strawberries to make, what will be, 4 bottles of wine.  The wine should be ready to drink by the end of the year.  So far it is proving to be a very difficult wait.

It smells so good!

Cheers,
EM

Garden Update!

Mint and some greens sprouting on the porch.

Garden plot!  Added in some eggplant to the peppers, tomatoes, zucchini, beans, and cucumbers.  Not all the seedlings survived the transplant, so I supplemented with some additional plants.  Everything is looking good so far!  

Happy Gardening!
EM

Yogurt World Tour

I have this habit of spending an agonizingly long time debating small purchases and then making snap decisions on larger ones.  I can easily spend an hour trying to pick out a single pack of Post-It notes.  However when I bought my car two years ago I went into the dealership, without even test driving the car I wanted, and bought my car immediately.  So, you can imagine earlier this week when I was at the grocery store trying to pick out yogurt for breakfast I was a little overwhelmed.  So many choices.  Then I spotted a cute little cup of yogurt with a wallaby on it.  Australian style yogurt?  Hmm...and right next to it New Zealand style and Icelandic style?  I decided to try all the new styles of yogurt that I found and ended up with seven different styles of yogurt, each from a different county.  On Sunday I started off with the New Zealand style and worked my way up geographically to the Icelandic style that I had this morning.  Here is what I found.

All the yogurts!  

New Zealand
Delightfully sweet and light.  The cream top on the yogurt was a nice addition and the yogurt had a slightly thinner consistency than typical American yogurt.  

Australia
Almost a drinkable yogurt consistency.  The raspberry flavor was very light, but overall the yogurt was sweet with a very slight tangy quality at the end.  

India
This mango lassi was my favorite!  The flavor and rich texture of the mango really translated well into this drinkable yogurt.  It was earthy, rich and full of flavor.  

Greece
This yogurt had a very think consistency and was quite tangy.  The honey was a lovely addition and made the yogurt have a nice balance in flavor.  

Mediterranean Style
By far the creamiest yogurt and the first yogurt to have pieces of fruit in it.  Very sweet and rich.

Switzerland 
This very sweet yogurt was slightly thicker than the New Zealand style.  Not too much tang and also had real fruit in it.  

Iceland
About 3 times thicker than the Greek yogurt, this yogurt was almost paste-like.  The blueberry was very light and it was quite tangy.  

Happy Travels,
EM

Seed Bombs

Every January I make a list of projects that I want to try in the coming year.  One of the projects this year was making seed bombs.  Seed bombs are little balls or discs of seeds made so you can just toss seeds where ever you are, without digging or planting them.  I have seen several different varieties, I settled on making clay ones.  I mixed one part air dry clay with one part soil.  Added in a little bit of water to mix them together and then added in the wild flower seeds.  I formed the mixture into flat discs about an inch in diameter and an eighth of an inch thick.  The clay in the mixture is suppose to protect the seeds from being eaten before they can sprout.  Now all I have to do is toss them into a sunny spot and watch them grow!

Flowers everywhere.  

Happy Seed Bombing,

EM