the diva cup [no, its not a horse race]

Last year before i started blogging i had been looking into tampon alternatives *memories of sea sponges from my uni days* and then i fell pregnant and didnt need to think about menstrual cycles for a while. But now that my body is back on track (whats the point of breastfeeding if you get your period!?) I had been meaning to talk to my daughter about buying some of these for months now and yesterday i fnally remembered. Now, for you male readers out there, if you havent already been enlightened to resuable menstrual cup use through your reading of other green blogs or your partner/sister/mother uses one or you are interested in eco-friendly 'feminine hygiene product' (god how Ive always LOATHED that term, its a bit like when news readers use the word 'panties' UGH, internal cringe, its so, so, so ummm.. uptight!) then read on or gracefully exit.


Now most things I choose to do she is very supportive of, sees the logic and approves. This was one that I really thought she may look at me with a 'what the?' expression and proclaim 'no way, that's gross'. But she didn't *pick me up off the floor someone* The girl's a champion. She asked me 'does that mean i never have to worry about carrying tampons around and having to take a bag to the bathroom?' (dont we all know that feeling) when i said 'Yup', she sad "yes please, that sounds really cool". Now this sounds really really cool. According to Diva Cup manufacturers, in 1998, 7 billion tampons and 12 billion sanitary pads and their packaging were disposed into landfills and sewage systems in the U.S. alone and menstrual cup usage obviously will reduce the serious eco-footprint of feminine hygiene. And thats not counting in manufaturing and distribution. So, i hopped on ebay this morning (dont fancy freecycling this one) and purchased 2 of the little contraptions. Maybe i will or wont let you know how we go...

Haiku Friday

moist and musty ground
buckets filled with earths magic
ready for new life

Beetroot wine recipe

In response to a few requests for a wine making recipe, here's a relatively easy one for Bosun's Creek Silver Medal Beetroot wine. My husband is really the veritable wine making champion in this family and getting him to do a post was first on my mind when confronted with the request. However, my husband is, besides being gorgeous and brilliant, a pedantic GASBAG so i felt it was safer to respond myself. However, i did glean a few salient tips from the maestro himself. Now wine can pretty much be made from any fruit or vegetable, and im gonna show off here and tell you that in our cellar we have wines made not only from beetroot (1 half bottle left i found today. in pic), but carrots, parsnips, fejoa(ugh, no thanks) elderberry, elderflower, stock standard grape varieties,various blends, damson and satsuma plum, orange, peach, lemon balm, passionfruit, gooseberry, loquat, apricot, nectarine, blackcurrant, blackberry, rasberry, loganberry, rhubarb, rice, quandong, and quince.

In addtion to a still wine, we also have done the rhubarb and quince in the methode champenoise style which is quite spectacular and well worth the not so much more effort, just time. For my taste, which in a grape variety tends towards the more dry style of wines, the root vegetables make a really nice wine as do the plum and plum/grape blend.

1. Borrow a book from the library or net search wine making basics, just so you are familiar with the basic chemistry of wine making and fermentation; yeast and sugar issues.
2. The right gear is pretty essential and requires a few more bits and pieces than beer making so a trip to the brew shop will be on the cards. I think you can hire corking machines from the brew shop too.

Beetroot wine is interesting as the wine will change colour once exposed to light so bottle up in a dark glass. Once it oxodises it will turn from a lush amber to clear liquid after time, so dont leave it open for too long...

Beetroot Wine ( Silver trophy winner for best overall wine made from a fruit or/vegetable 2002)
3 lbs beetroot
2 bananas
3 litres dark grape juice
3 1/2 ltr water
4 limes (zest of 4)
6 oranges (zest of 4)
3 oz ginger (grated)
1 tsp coriander seeds (bruised)
1 tsp allspice
1/2 tsp whole cloves (bruised)
1/2 cup blackcurrant wine (juice if you dont have to hand ;-)
1 tsp malic acid
2 tsp tartaric acid
2 lbs 80z sugar
ENDFERM H2 (2.5g /10ltr)
DAP (150mg/1ltr)(diammonium phosphate, is necessary to prevent formation of the byproduct urea which the yeast cannot metabolise)
FERMAID (yeast nutrient)(2.5g/10ltr)
RAPIDASE EXCOLOR (2.5g/10ltr)(Rapidase® Ex Color is a pectic enzyme with enhanced side activities, it will promote a rapid extraction of color during maceration of red grapes (or beetroot!)
TANIN GALACOOL (220 mg/1 ltr)(protects the must from oxidation)
VINOSUPER - removes pectins

You'll need food grade bins for the mash and fermenters for the wine; the ones with the fermenting seals.

Method: wash beetroot, slice thinly and place in a saucepan with cold water. Add sliced lemons, ginger, orange and lime zests and spices. Boil for approx. 30 minutes until tender but not mushy, this is the mash or must. Strain this 'must' into fermenter, add grape juice, orange and lime juices and wine. Now this strained liquid is called the 'wort'. Cool to 20*C, add remaining ingredients, pitch yeast (add yeast to the wort) and add to fermenter, ferment for 7-10 days. (pH=2.8/6.2g total acids per ltr) Starting Specific Gravity(SG)=1032, after addition of sugar SG=1090.Read this. SG is the viscosity of the wine, the sweetness measure; thick wines are sweet wines. You measure SG with SG instrument. likewise pH can be measured using pH strips like those used for swimming pools.

After fermenting wine 7-10 days, strain into another fermenter.
Leave for 3 months. Siphon wine from one container to another leaving the sediment behind. This is called 'racking' the wine. To this is added 50mg/L of So2 ( sulphur dixide). This protects the wine from bacteria and spoilage and is an impotant measure in sanitation of the wine. Rapidase is added 50mg/L and Vino Super 0.3ml/10L, resulting in pH of 3.15.

5 months later a second racking was completed. pH was 33, SG was 990. Wine was seperated to make 1,5Ltr of dry wine and 4.5 Ltr had 11lb of sugar added to make a sweeter wine (raised SG to =1026) also SO2 was addedd to sweet wine only (5mg/L).

One week later potassium sorbate was added to the sweet wine to further sweeten it. (350mg/L). The dry wine was bottled and a few days later the sweet was also bottled.



I hope i've explained everything clearly.
Happy wine making!


**addendum** The fermentation process can be done in any container; food grade bins, demijohn or fermenting bottle. The essential component is the rubber bung and air lock which lets gas out but keeps the inner environment sterile. Search Flickr for wine and fermenter and you will get an idea of what the various processes all look like.

cellars and pantrys

Maybe its being a taurean, you know, a reputation for living the high life, too much wining and dining, overconsumption, eating all day, cant say no... two of my most favourite rooms in the house are the cellar and pantry. now im no post war/depression born kid, so i dont think i have issues of dearth and wanting that are fuelling my passions here, maybe its just a human condition to like to hoard food and drinkstuff?? maybe its about a feeling of abundance? but i get a sense of peace and fullfillment every time i go into either of these rooms. Looking around at walls stocked with homemade wine of every imaginable type and seeing the foodbins packed with grains, flours, pasta and rice makes me feel like mother hen. Im like a pig in... Well this post is a homage to the last bottle of beetroot wine in the cellar which we drank last night. it was a 2001, smooth and velvety and its colour was intense, like amber. it was truly very beautiful.

So here's a respectful cheers and thank you to the maker of this particular drop, Gabrielle, Simons late wife, Australian champion amateur wine maker many years running *Clink*

the dinner dilemma [again]

we have an unspoken deal around here that i do most of the cooking...its just worked out that way, i think we tend to migrate towards ownership of responsibilities that best match our proclivities and talents. Not that im boasting, but my husbands late wife was mother bear inside the house,inside was her space,'her' kitchen, outside was his. My SIL told me a story about when, just after simons first wife had passed on, her son asked her who was going to get uncle simons breakfast now that aunty gabrielle had died? So when i met him, he was very timid in the kitchen having basicly not thought about meals for 25 years. i just cant imagine it. This traditional splitting of the household tasks made me very uneasy when we first got together, but im ok with it now, i figure im just as unlikely to go out and rebuild the bridge thats rotting over the creek as much as he is about to offer to make pancakes and omelette for the whole family on a sunday morning, besides, sometimes i really want complex flavours and know that i will have to make them if i want imbibe. He cooks at least one night a week and they tend to be simpler, one pot affairs; risotto, soup, pasta, pizza. What does get me however is the sheer bloody regularity of feeding. We do it every day people! Trying to make healthful and varied food choices every day requires mindfulness and some skill. We tend to not do takeaway very often at all and with a 10yo who is a staunch vego since age 4, a teen who doesnt like the taste of meat anymore and 2 adults who dont eat much meat due to issues around cloven hooves, topsoil and input/output energy values, takeaway is limited fare; indian, some thai or pizza. My mum is a vegetarian so growing up we ate pretty well but it was in the days of the meat substitute; gluten roasts, mock chicken, TVP bolognese. Shes better now...the introduction of asian cooking into aussie culture has been a vegetarian delight. My kids are not fans of the mock meat style of vege cooking so we do lots of interesting things with beans and lentils. I digress, what im really trying to do is say sometimes throwing a chop on the grill and making a salad sounds like heaven! Im not sure whats on the menu tonight.

Spring in my garden