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Another brew day has passed, and the Thanksgiving holiday has come and gone. Things have been quietly busy around the homestead, as the weather has finally turned towards winter.
Brew Day
The brew went fairly seamlessly. I decided, at almost the last minute, to ditch my planned brews for the rest of the year, and instead of doing a Helles Lager this month, I brewed an all-grain version of the English Pale.
The change to the recipe from the extract version involved little more than swapping out the malt extract for eight pounds of Maris Otter malt. The net effect was, as I anticipated, to lighten the color slightly, and (I anticipate) to give an extra fullness to the batch when it’s done.
Now, rather than doing a Samichlaus clone in December, I’m considering brewing up a Kolsch-style lager. If pressed, I’d have to say that a well-done Kolsch is my favorite beer style; if I get it done now, along with maybe another batch in January or February, I’ll have a good start on summer drinking.
Thanksgiving
My wife did her usual astounding job whipping up a feast for us this year. I was pleased at the number of things that came from the homestead, this time around. Not only things grown ourselves (every onion that went into something was from our garden), but things that most folks would buy, that we made from scratch.
Among the snacks while waiting for things to finish baking, we had the smoked cheese from a few weeks back. That went over quite well–it’s always fun to introduce a cheese-lover to a smoked version of their favorite cheese.
Another thing that I threw together was a small batch, about a pound, of gravlax–cured salmon. Normally, the salmon is cured in salt and sugar between layers of fresh dill; lacking that, I used powdered dill from the spice cabinet. Otherwise, it went quite well. (I also got to use a new knife that I picked up, just for doing cured meats–a nice sashimi knife, with a single bevel; after a little practice, I should be able to get those nice paper-thin slices of bresaola…)
For the meal itself, I baked a batch of sourdough, which I’ll have to go into in another post. And we finished off the sauerkraut that had been fermenting on the counter, both as a straight dish, and fried with some shredded apple and a little caraway. And my wife added some of the homemade bacon off-cuts to the roasted brussels sprouts, which really bumped them up a notch.
Homestead
Otherwise, things on the homestead are slowing down for the winter. We’ve had our first snowfall, followed by a few temperature swings, and finally some icy rain. The chicken coop has been almost completely buttoned down for the winter, with the doors closed, insulation put in the eaves, and heat lamps warming the roosting bars. Still, with the cold and the clouds, their production is down from over twenty eggs a day to three or four.
The bees have been hunkered down in their hives for a bit over a month. I’m pleased just in the fact that they’re still there (this is something of a record for me). When last I checked, about two weeks ago, they were still slowly working the candy blocks they had. I’ll pick a warm-ish day in a couple of weeks, pop the tops, and give them more, if they need it.
The garden has gone dormant, as it should. I’m hopeful that the asparagus crowns did well enough this year to survive the winter, and start producing in the spring. And the garlic, which didn’t produce anything to speak of over the summer (as expected), sprang back to life as September rolled through, and it appears to be going into the winter with a vengeance–come spring, we should have a decent harvest there, I hope!
Lastly, I placed an order for two more apple trees: a Black Oxford, and a Golden Russet. I’m trying to decide where to place them; the problem is an excess of good places for them. I’m thinking across the field, near the tilled area for grains; I’ve got a few months to consider the problem, though.
Etsy and My Shop
If you carefully read the “about me” page, you’ll have noticed mention of a shop on Etsy. It’s called the Holmgard Trading Company, and I’ve had it up for over three years; I started with some wooden cups and bowls, adding them as I got time to make new ones. I have, lately, been branching out a bit–particularly since the shop is “climate controlled,” and very cold at present–and adding things I could work on while inside, being warm near the stove.
While I’ll keep the Etsy shop up (it’s certainly good for publicity, and it’s pulling its weight in sales), I’m in the process of getting an independent site set up for Holmgard Trading. The plan is for it to have a wider array of goods, plus better pictures, and some stories about the things. Stay tuned for further updates!