Category: Homestead

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A Year on the Homestead – Spring

Spring is always an interesting time around the homestead. You’re never really sure what Nature is going to do from one day to the next; all you really know is that things will be growing before long, and there’s too much to do.

Boreas, guarding the homestead
Boreas, guarding the homestead.

The animals, likewise, are of mixed opinions about the weather. Bacchus and Boreas, our two Great Pyrenees, would generally rather be outside than in–we keep the house “too hot” for them, and they don’t mind the snow. The chickens, on the other hand, aren’t fans.

Chickens at their feeders in the snow
Two chickens braving the elements

This year, we’ve managed to get garlic, onions, and peas in thus far–with luck, they’ve had enough time to settle in, before this nice snowstorm. I’ll be curious to see how the asparagus does. My various hops have sent up shoots, as well. Mostly, they’re still covered by plenty of leaves and grass debris, so they should be fine.

Part of the plan for this year is to have a portion of the side field tilled, so that I can sow various grains–wheat, maybe rye, and of course my barley. We’re also having the “North hillside” tilled up, so we can scatter a variety of pollinator-friendly plants–we’ve got any number of packets of “bee forage mix,” plus lots of sunflower seed, and I’m hoping to try out viper’s bugloss. As we get all of that set up and going, we’ll be updating things here. And with luck, this year the bees will thrive and survive–they’ll be worth a series of posts all their own.

But all of that is yet to come, as we wait for the snow to melt and the weather to warm, however slightly. We wait, and watch the earliest blooms come to life, and watch the various trees and shrubs prepare to burst into green…

Spring Flowers
Flowers blooming in the Spring
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Brewing Status Update, October 2017

I’ve got four types of hops growing, assuming the Sterling survive the winter.  They were looking a little weak, but then, so were the Magnums when they were initially planted, so I’m just sort of waiting.  The Magnums are doing pretty well–I actually got some hops from them.  Not much to write home about, but it’s a harvest.  The Willamette plant is absolutely going gangbusters–I need to dig up that crown and split it, this winter/early spring.  I’ll probably be able to divvy it up into six or eight healthy crowns, without trying very hard.  And the Cascades (all 3 bines) are doing quite well–I didn’t get as much of a harvest as I might have liked, but that’s on me, not on the plants.  Next year, hopefully, will be another story.

I’ve been trying my hand at beekeeping; so far, with much less success than I’d like.  I had two colonies last year; both absconded.  Started over with two this year; one has absconded, but the other appears set to at least go into the winter…  We’ll see how they fare.  These have all been Italian bees, and I think part of the reason for them absconding has been mite pressure, combined (this year) with some pollen-bound comb.  I’ve got an order in for two nucleus hives of Russian bees for next spring; they’re apparently mite-resistant.  If they work out, that’ll be outstanding; if not, I may take a break for a year & come back to the hobby again later.

In SCA terms, well…  The King felt it worthwhile to induct me into the Order of the Laurel two weeks back (!!!).  Reasons cited included my baking, woodworking, and a few assorted other crafts… but primarily my brewing.  Which is what brings us here today…

My goal, when starting the latest bit of research, was (and still is) finding a good semblance of a recipe for the original Einbecker Bier–the ancestor of today’s Bock.  I’ve seen references to it from numerous period sources, describing it variously as subtle, light, and “a paragon among all summer, light, hoppy beers.”  The beer was one of the main drivers for Einbeck joining the Hanseatic League; through the League, the beer was shipped as far as Novgorod, England, Italy, and even Jerusalem. (Reportedly, Hansa Hofs and Kontors even built special warehouses, to hold the casks of Einbecker Bier.)

A moment’s thought should bring a conclusion: the beer was likely big, in every sense.  Strong and hoppy.  The descriptions keep calling it “light;” that’s probably more a color thing than flavor–but experimentation may provide other insights; despite being at this issue for several years, now, I’m still pretty early in the hands-on part of the exercise… Maybe next year.

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Springtime!

Well, things are rolling around to springtime again, so it’s been out to the garden/field for me.  It looks as though my Maris Otter barley has survived the winter; with a few more sunny days, it should pop up fairly quickly.  My hops also appear to have survived, at least mostly: the Cascades and Willamettes are already full of shoots, and there appear to be at least a couple of shoots from the Sterlings and Magnums.  The “retired” Cascades are set to go berserk this year, as well.

As a bit of insurance, I ordered one of each type of rhizome this year from Midwest Supplies; they arrived earlier this week, and I got them into the ground yesterday.  The Sterlings and Magnums went to supplement last year’s, and the Cascade and Willamette went into new areas by a fence between my back yard and the “back field”.  I’ll let them climb on the fence, for this year, then put up poles for them in the fall, for next year.

I’ve got to say, also, if you’re going to order rhizomes, go through Midwest.  I’m not affiliated, yada yada; I’m just exceptionally happy with the rhizomes I got this year.  Last year’s, from another source, were kind of wimpy; they looked like they’d been out of the ground for a while, and might not have been viable.  (They’re hops, and tenacious; at least one of each variety survived long enough to put up shoots; I had deer problems…)  The ones this year were sizable, and had at least six or seven shoots  on each rhizome.  (The Magnums had probably a dozen, and the rhizome itself was thicker than my thumb!)  Yes, they’ll be establishing roots, this year, but I’m confident that if I can keep the critters away, they’ll be productive next year.

I also managed to sow my Bere, Hana, and Sprat barley, with another test-planting of volunteer wheat.  It’s year 3 for the Bere, so I’m reasonably confident in it; I hope to double my yield of Hana, this year–I might have gotten 50g from the 5g sown, last year.  This is year 1 for the Sprat; we’ll see how it goes.

I’ve got a few other things going plant-wise, right now, as well… New blackberry plants, in a location hopefully relatively safe from the deer.  I’ve got some hazelnut seedlings in, and hope to be able to “play” with those in a few years.  My apple trees are all budded out nicely, and the cherry trees are looking to follow suit–in a week or two, I expect the orchard area to be awash in white and pink petals.  Plans are afoot to get some beehives; their location is selected, and if things to go plan, I’ll get the bees next spring.  Things are moving along!

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Barley, Round II: One-Month Check In

Okay, the winter barley has been in the ground for about a month now, and it’s time for a check-up.  They’re doing fine; I’d put overall growth at almost a foot.  I gave the growing plants a “haircut” about two weeks ago, clipping them from ~9 inches down to ~4 1/2; my reasoning for this was multifold: a) the deer did it (and more severely!) last year, and it didn’t hurt them a bit; b) I wanted to suppress any excessive tillering before the first frost, to promote having a more established root system; c) something had been sleeping in the tall, lush “grass”, and I wanted to discourage it; and d) some high winds were making things “lay down” a bit more than I liked, and I wanted to minimize whatever damage might occur.

A more experienced farmer might allow point “b” as sensible, and the rest as unnecessary/irrelevant, but there it is–I couldn’t come up with a good reason not to, and had at least 4 reasons for doing it.  Regardless, they bounced right back within about a week.  (For the curious, whatever had been laying down in the barley–possibly a rabbit, squirrel, or chipmunk–stopped.)

The deck on the Undisclosed Location has been completed–well, all the decking is down, anyway.  I’ve still got the pergola to build, as well as steps and possibly a handrail or two.  Additionally, I’m looking at a smaller stoop out of the side-door from the UDL, with a ramp down to the decking, but that will require the removal of a few trees.  I’ve also got to get moving on trash removal–the debris-pile from the various construction we’ve been doing has reached ridiculous proportions.  Still, progress has been made overall.

It is with this in mind that I’m calling for the first Brew Day at the new house: November the 16th, 2013.  I haven’t yet decided exactly what I’ll brew, or any further details than that. I’ll update as I can!

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Barley, Round 2

Halcyon barley, sprouting

Well, the Autumnal Equinox has come and gone, and with it the “four-to-six weeks before first frost” mark for my area.  What does that mean?  Time to sow the winter barley!

As I write this (the 28th of September), the barley has been in the ground for just over a week.  Again, two varieties of winter barley: Maris Otter, and Halcyon.  I put down roughly 200g of each seed, using one of the garden planter-boxes.  I added a thin mulch layer, and have watered every other day for a few minutes (enough to soak the soil); I’ll keep up with that watering regime (less days when it actually rains) until I start seeing reliable predictions for the actual first frost.  (About then, the grain will go ‘dormant’ for the winter.)

Since the seed was planted in the garden area (near the house), as opposed to out in the field (‘far’ from the house), I’ve been able to keep an eye on them.  That, and having an electric fence I can put up have made it less likely to suffer from deer predation (as happened last year).  Watching the seed chit, then sprout, then grow, has been fascinating!

Here’s what we’ve got, a week into things:

That’s the Halcyon on the left, and the Maris Otter below, on the right.  (Yes, there’s a bit past the PVC pipe where it’ll be hard to distinguish between them; since Halcyon is a descendant of Maris Otter, and since they’re ultimately going to be malted together, I’m not terribly worried about it–I may, in fact, simply mix the two together next year.)

That looks roughly like 100% germination, or quite near enough.  If I get as good a harvest next year as I did this, I should end up with about 17lbs of each.  (Call it 15lbs, to account for inefficiencies in harvesting, etc.)  Not only would that get me set up to be “malt-sustainable” after one more harvest, it gives me more time to acquire the equipment I’ll need for the larger-scale growing.

My hops didn’t fare as well, this year: my “retired” Cascades are fine, but the Willamette was the only variety of “new” stuff that did well enough to give me hope for next year…  The Magnum may have survived, but the “new” Cascade and the Sterling both thoroughly croaked.  I’ll replace them next spring. They’ll have better access to sunlight, as I’ve got a number of trees to take down; I’ll also be better able to “baby” them along.  (Not to mention getting them in the ground earlier than I could, this year.)

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Almost seems backward

Summer around the homestead is a busy place–there’s a yard, garden, and impending orchard to manage, as well as fields and fences to tend to.  Wood has to be cut & split for the winter.  Not to mention the repairs on the house–new siding and windows; plus a lot of interior work (the entire house re-plumbed!).

So what seems backward?  Well, the whole cycle of barley.  The winter barley gets planted in a bit over a month, give or take–late September to early October, or what would be “harvest time” for most normal crops.  Then it’s harvested in late Spring/early Summer (June or so), about the time lots of other things are just starting to grow…

I’ve been “threshing and winnowing” my harvest from last year, with an eye towards exactly what my usable yields are, and how much tilling I’ll have to do in a week or two.  I use the terms “threshing” and “winnowing” guardedly; while technically, they’re accurate for what I’m doing, they also somewhat overstate the enormity of the project, or lack thereof.  The threshing is being done by hand, literally–I’m just grabbing handfuls of grain ears, and “grinding” them between my fingers.  Most of the grains fall from the stems; the awns make a horrible mess, and a lot of the work is done.  (This is a process best performed outside.)  Once I’ve gone through it pretty thoroughly, I take a bit more time and pick off any stubborn grains from the stems (I’m sure there’s a technical term, but it escapes me at the moment).  Then I spend a bit more time hand-grinding the grains, just to break up the remaining awns & chaff.  Afterwards, I either wait for a breezy day, or plug in a fan, then it’s picking up the grains by handfuls, dropping them back into the container.  The breeze (or fan) blows away the light “chaff”, letting the heavier seeds drop back into the bucket.  It’s one of those things that I know makes perfect sense, intellectually, but it still amuses me to no end that it works as well as it does.

Next year, after I’ve had a bigger harvest (knock wood), I’ll have to step up my game a bit; I’ll probably actually get buckets for the grains (not the smallish plastic boxes I’ve got now), and the process will undoubtedly take more time.  Still, that’s a concern for next year.  For this year, I’ve got lots of other things to keep me busy.

First, there’s the hops.  I’ve got to find some time, probably this weekend, to harvest the Cascades from my “retired” bines (the only ones that produced–go figure).  The new bines weren’t expected to put any out, granted; I’m going to have to replace the Sterling, at least, as they seem to have died over the Summer.  (I’ll see, come Springtime, whether any of the others have made it–they’re okay, thus far, but Winter may do them in.)

I’m doing what woodworking I can, given that I don’t have any power tools to speak of, nor time to really use them. (Okay, I’ve got the tools, but I need to get to work on the Undisclosed Location before I have a place to put them–and it still needs electricity, etc…)  I’ve been doing some whittling, and I’ve found some images of a really nice carved chair that I’d like to take a stab at recreating/modifying.  I’ve also been toying with the idea of having a bit of fun with the carvings–maybe do a couple of pieces as inlays.  The fun lies in selecting the woods to use–some more-or-less ‘exotic’ woods will fluoresce under blacklight, which raises the possibility of some interesting “special effects.”

Another interest that I hope to delve into is metalworking–particularly coppersmithing (and probably silversmithing, eventually).  I’d like to try my hand at raising a bowl or two, and maybe some cups, as well as possibly doing some chasing and/or repousse, then there’s enameling…  The copper got me to thinking, though (always a bad sign)…  (To Be Continued)

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Harvest time

Well, some of it, anyway. The winter barleys–Maris Otter and Halcyon–are completely harvested. I got most of it last weekend, but left a few stalks to finish “curing”/drying; they were retrieved yesterday. I’ll probably harvest the Bere barley this weekend, while the Hana probably needs another week or two. Overall, from sowing the first seed, it’s been about nine months; by the time it’s done, it’ll probably be ten months overall, for all the varieties. My yield looks pretty good: starting from 5 grams of seed per variety, I’ve got at least several ounces of each: Maris Otter (the only one I’ve done any real processing on) came to a little over 10 ounces, prior to threshing/winnowing (maybe 9 ounces, when all is said and done). With that sort of yield, assuming similar results the next few years, I could get about 28 pounds per variety next year–enough to “play” with malting some, and replanting for sustainability.

Actually, at a that rate of increase, only 8 pounds and a bit (total!) is probably enough to plant and be sustainable, figuring roughly 20 pounds needed per batch (10 gallons), and no more than 20 batches per year (legal limit), that’s 400 pounds; add back in the 8 pounds to re-seed, and it’s pretty close. If I just re-plant everything, then from the 9 ounces this year, I’ll get 28 pounds in 2014, then 1400 pounds in 2015… And that’s per variety; I don’t have enough field to pull that off.  Barley has an “optimal” seeding rate of about 85 pounds/acre; sticking to a manageable amount, about 1/4 acre, and planting ~5 pounds of each variety is much more reasonable…

The hops are, of course, another issue entirely. Their harvest season doesn’t usually start until August, as the days start getting a little shorter. My “retired” Cascades have a number of burrs and some early cones; their root system was significantly larger, of course, than the new rhizomes. So far, there’s not much to report with them–the bines were savaged by groundhogs a couple of weeks back, but are rebounding. I’ve set up cages to protect them; I wasn’t anticipating a harvest from them this year, anyway–they need to get established. Next year, however, I’m hoping will be productive. We’ll call it a few ounces this year, and (optimistically) about a pound next year; time will tell.

In other news, I’ve got about 1/3 of the decking on the deck of my future BierGarten (“Dante,” the deck on the Undisclosed Location).  I expect to have it done before the end of July; general clean-up and debris removal will probably be going on at the same time. I’m debating right now whether to get a separate power line/meter run, or just to extend the electrical service from the house (it has a 100A panel and a 200A panel-don’t ask why, because I don’t know). I’m planning (hopefully) on taking down the chimney in August/September, and making roof repairs around the same time. I’ve also got to patch the holes in the walls; once all that’s done, I can start storing some of my equipment out there. Still quite a bit to go before it’s even 50% usable, though.

In the meantime, the main house is getting a new outside over the next week–exciting, but also an unholy mess of preparations and the like. And we’re taking the next step in “dismantling” the utility room this evening, the better to re-build it (better and stronger) over the summer…  What fun!

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Grainy goodness!

It’s amazing, the difference a week will make.  Yes, ladies and gentlemen, we have grain!  It’s a long way from ready for harvest, but it’s getting there…  This is the Halcyon; the Maris Otter is probably another five or six days behind it.  The Bere is growing rapidly, but is still probably about a month and a half away (at a guess); the Hana is right behind that.

Grain showing through on some Halcyon barley

Here are my “retired” Cascades, climbing up their tree, with tons of Alehoof all around:

Cascade hops, Alehoof, and Mint.

Ah, spring…

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Who’s Got Herbs?

Teaching went well last weekend.  The class was smaller than I might have liked, but that was largely a factor of the size of the event.  I’ve submitted proposals to teach the classes at University in a month; we’ll see how that goes.

One of the topics of my classes is medicinal beer.  It would appear that at least the Germans were adding medicinal herbs to their beers, using them to transport whatever healing qualities the herbs were thought to carry.  I don’t recall ever having heard of this actively being done in period–although I may have seen a reference to it somewhere, probably about the Saxons.  Still, it stands to reason; they were using wine for the same purpose, and cordials (hard alcohol) were meant as medicine, not for their taste.

Some of the herbal additions seem reasonable and logical–they’re pretty standard herbal medicine, even today: Balm for stress reduction; Eyebright for eye ailments.  Fennel for coughs.  Ginger to settle the stomach.  Some others seemed odd, but I can go with it: oak leaves as a diuretic. Juniper against poison.  Still others were downright odd, if not dangerous: Salvia for the teeth (?); Pennyroyal as a decongestant (!).

Other “indirect” remedies include washing one’s face with wheat beer (good for the skin); beer warmed with oil and/or butter in the morning, as a laxative; table beer (very low alcohol) boiled with fresh hops to ease a toothache.

There were a couple of things I’d like to try, just to see–not for their medicinal purposes, but because the idea sounds tasty.  Rosemary beer.  Cumin.  Anise…

In other areas, while “making the rounds” of stuff growing around the farm, I found an interesting little gem:

Ground Ivy, Creeping Charlie, Alehoof

That would be a plant known as Ground Ivy, or Creeping Charlie.  Back in the Medieval period, however, it was commonly known as “Alehoof,” and was used by the Saxons as part of a typical gruit.  I’ve got piles of it; quite a bit is growing around the “retired” Cascades, appropriately enough…  Some experimentation will definitely be in order, just as soon as I can get brewing again!

And while I’m thinking about it, my barley:

Barley, Bere, Hana, Halcyon, Maris Otter

That’s the Maris Otter on the right, and the Halcyon on the left.  The Bere and Hana are hidden behind these…

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Some observations on barley

The biggest problem with growing barley, I’m finding, is observing the progress. On the one hand, brewing is a hobby for the patient–it’s all “hurry up and wait,” after all. On the other hand, watching barley grow is rather like–well, not to put too fine a point on it, it’s like watching grass grow.  (Makes sense, really, since that’s exactly what it is…) At least with the hops you can see progress on a daily basis.

So, everything has germinated. The Maris Otter and Halcyon are nearing the tops of their “cages”. The Hana and Bere are a ways behind that. I’m disappointed with the germination rate I got from the Hana in the field–of the 30-40 seeds, I’ve got maybe ten sprouts. (All of the Hana in the planter came up–it’s likely a soil issue, rather than a seed issue.)  The Bere is happy both in the field and the planter, with its second set of leaves up and the third set looking not far behind.

In the meantime, with less than two weeks to go before their introduction, I’m feverishly going over, revising, and correcting my class notes for the Medieval German Beer classes.  There are three, tentatively titled: “Period German Brewing Practices,” “Medicinal German Beers,” and “A Period German Pub Crawl.”  Thus far, the corrections are primarily fixing typos, and making sure my facts line up.  Of the three, I’m happiest with the Pub Crawl; it’s entirely possible that in the future I’ll fold the Period Practices bit into that one for a “mega-class”.  I’m hoping to have some medicinal herb people in the Medicinal Beers class, and to make it more of a discussion group.

Part of the fun for the Pub Crawl was looking at the various local beer names–“brands,” if you will.  A friend of mine was commenting on the wide variety of beer names available at the local liquor superstore, and the humor value in many of them… Well, our ancestors were no different in that regard: Butterfly, Toad, Choir Finch, Mosquito Mustard, and Raving Man are among the less vulgar names.  Some of them describe the feeling, or aftereffect, of the beer: Body-blow, Rip-Head, Blow-the-Man-Down.  The Lubeck offering of “Israel” was so named because of its strength: “People strive with it as Jacob wrestled with the Angel.”  (“Israel” is from the Hebrew for “wrestles with God”.)

Surprisingly, only a few of the beers were familiar to me, in terms of historical offerings: Gose, Israel, Broihane, Alt Klaus, Joben, and Mumme. Of those, I have only ever tasted commercial Gose.  (Mumme has become non-alcoholic, while Broihane morphed into a Pilsner, apparently.  I have practically no information whatsoever on Alt Klaus or Joben.)  Bock was not mentioned as such, although it was present if you know where to look–it derived from the name of its town of origin, Einbeck.  Indeed, it was searching for information on period “Einbeckisch Bier” that led me to the sources for my classes.

I’ll try to update again, either as “teaching-day” approaches, or soon after… And, I promise, pictures of barley (and hops!) will be forthcoming before long.