Winemakers Winter

by Debbie Van Till

Winter finds me doing three activities.

Relaxation activities include going for walks and enjoying the cool and then cold weather.  Appreciating the property and imagining possibilities.

Reading good books.  Here is one that caught my attention.  The Regenerative Grower’s Guide to Garden Amendments.  Using Locally Sourced Materials to Make Mineral and Biological Extracts and Ferments.  By Nigel Palmer.

I listened to a podcast on Acres USA’s Tractor Time and heard an interview with the author. This book had an intriguing title, for a wine maker who tries to figure how to ferment everything. We are making BioComplete Compost using mostly farm inputs: grass, leaves, kitchen scraps, woodchips, and our own grape pomace and pomace from other local wineries.  I usually have a lot of experiments going at once and I was eager to learn more!

I had been making lacto-fermented vegetables like cabbage into sauerkraut in the spring and summer like these pickled jalapeno peppers. I rescued them from my garden last month just before the hard freeze, grinding them into a salsa so we could eat them all winter.

These are made with salt and water and are anerobic.  Which means not exposed to air.  In the picture, the jalapeno peppers are kept underwater with a Pickle Pebble. I read how Nigel would make a ferment with tomatoes from his garden by adding brown sugar and settling and aging it. Afterward, he sprayed the diluted ferment, which can also be called “wine” on his tomato plants during the following growing season.  That was an intriguing idea! I looked around and still had tomatoes from my garden ripening in my kitchen so, in December, I started a ferment with my tomatoes.

One doesn’t need a lot since the theory behind this has a lot to do with the homeopathic practice of diluting to a 1000x.  Wow, a little quart jar of ferment could last a long time, or cover a large garden, when only a tablespoon is added to a gallon of water.  I am excited to research if wine made from my grapes can also be added to my biological compost sprays.  Sometimes I feel like Dorothy from the Wizard of Oz, in that I had the magic slipper to get me back to Kansas all along and I didn’t even know it!

Thirdly, winter is a good time for me to reflect on all the projects that were successful and how I owe all of that to the Providential Hand of God.  Even reflecting on the challenges this past year, leads me to realize that God’s Hand is in those events too.  And when I accept and embrace them cheerfully and try to learn what God is teaching me, my character should look more like Jesus every year.  Not there yet, but never giving up.  Here’s hoping, you the reader, can get some ideas of how to spend your winter months.  Let me know, I would be interested.  Always learning!