how-to – Page 13

Hived two packages of bees in 10 minutes today!

May 4, 2010 by Jason Leave a Comment

The post office called me at 6am and said my bees were in. After a rainy, gloomy weekend, I didn’t expect to have them in by now.

I ran down and picked them up and then hit up the weather channel to see what the day was looking like. “Partly cloudy!” Sweet! The sun was blazing down into the yard by 7:15 and I decided to get these babies hived before heading to work.

It worked out perfectly. We will have rain tonight and that would keep them in there a little longer to get used to their new quarters. Everything went off without a hitch and the bees were pretty calm after 5 days of being caged up and shipped. They were dying to get out.

I’m excited and can’t wait to get back in to be sure the queen was accepted and is laying.

More later.

Make apple wine, a beginners guide to winemaking

November 2, 2009 by Jason Leave a Comment

A lot of people ask me questions about wine making and it frustrates me that I can’t give them a specific answer. The reason is because the answers are not always the same.

Example, “how many apples or how much grapes does it take to make wine?” Or, “how much sugar do I add to my wine?” “What all equipment do I need to make wine?“

In this video, I use the leftover apple cider from our cider smash to make 3 gallons of apple/pear wine and at the same time, attempt to answer some of these questions. I also talk a little about acidity in wine, fermenting fruit and how the hydrometer can tell you how much sugar to add to your wine/must.

How I season my cast iron cookware

October 4, 2009 by Jason Leave a Comment

I have all kinds of cast iron that I’ve been needing to clean and re-season. There are a few key pieces that sit on my stove top and I’ve decided that it was time to break out some additional pieces. Particularly, a nice saucepan with a lid and a double dutch oven (for lack of a better term). In all, there were two No. 8 skillets, a No 14 skillet (yeah, the big daddy) two waffle irons, two regular dutch ovens, the double dutch oven, an egg poacher, a cornbread pan, a muffin pan, and a star-shaped muffin pan.

I cook with cast iron daily… and rarely use anything else. Having your cookware properly seasoned and maintained only increases the performance of cast-iron. Here’s how I do it:

Seasoning your cast iron

Clean your cookware real good. It’s OK to use a mild soap as you scrape off any junk. I used a wire brush and scouring pad to get it as clean as possible. A wire brush is good for rust (also a clue that your pan is not properly seasoned.)
Dry everything off real good and then place it in the oven heated to 200F. We’re warming the cast iron up at this time…. completely drying it out and opening the pores per se.
After 10 minutes or so, get your mitt and bring it out.
Take about a teaspoon of 100%, flaxseed oil (organic, or the best you can find) and add to pan. Use a paper towel to distribute all over the pan, inside and out, getting the handle and everything. You can add more if you need, but know that you will be wiping it off as dry as possible before cooking. So, it doesn’t make sense to waste the oil since good flax seed oil is expensive.
Once completely wiped down, put the pan back in the oven, inverted upside down and heat to 500F. Again, it’s important that the oil is wiped off real good and not dripping from the pan. Drippings can harden and create and uneven surface. As it cooks, we invert the pan to avoid pooling of the oil and allow slight dripping. So, you may want to catch them underneath.
Once heated to 500F, set a timer for 1 hour. After an hour, turn off the oven and leave the pan to cool in the oven. This could take up to two hours. Remove the pan, and polish with a cloth.
Repeat this process immediately… adding another teaspoon of oil, wiping off, and starting over. Repeat as many times as you have the energy for. The more times you do it, the better the season will be. It actually evens out the surface and makes a natural hard, non-stick surface. As you cook foods with grease and fats, it adds to the quality of the surface.

Notes worth mentioning

In the past, I have tried all the oils, Crisco vegetable shortening, lard, and even bacon grease. Today, I use flax seed oil as there’s a lot of documented science behind fat polymerization. Think of flaxseed oil as the food-grade equivalent of linseed oil (the ‘drying oil’ that painters use to create a protective layer on their paintings).
Not all flaxseed oil is created equal. Good flaxseed oil needs refrigeration and can go rancid quickly. Any that don’t need refrigeration means it has something added to it to hinder rancidity, and you don’t want that.
If your cast iron comes out sticky, it could be the result of leaving too much oil on before you put it in the oven. Be sure to wipe it down dry. Don’t worry, there is oil left in the pores. This is a process that can’t be rushed, and iterative coats are required. Be sure also that your oven temperature is at 500F and bake for a full hour at that temperature.
Flaxseed oil has one of the lowest smoke points at around 225F. When we heat oil above its smoke point, it releases its free radicals. This is not good during cooking, but really good for seasoning cast iron cookware. Open some windows and turn on the exhaust fans when you’re seasoning.

Cleaning your cast iron

Try not to soak your cast iron in water. Quite honestly, I’ll leave my pan with the grease from the morning’s bacon in it sitting on my stove until the next day. Then, I’ll scrape out the gunk with a metal spatula and reheat using the remaining oil residue. Otherwise, I clean mine right away while the pan is still warm. If I need some scouring action, I throw a little coarse kosher salt into the pan and wipe with a damp cloth to grind up the junk. Then rinse under the faucet.

When done washing, give a quick towel dry and then put it on your stove burner to completely dry it out. Don’t overcook the pan here! A minute or two should do it. Leave it on just long enough to dry it out. That next batch of sausage or bacon can lube it up again.

Spring 2009 Grapevine Cuttings

May 20, 2009 by Jason Leave a Comment

Just a quick note on the spring cuttings. I took cuttings from my own grape vines and had a 100% success rate. By that, I mean… all of them took root and sprung leafs. Heck, most spit out clusters of grapes that I quickly snapped off.

The process

I pruned my grape vines as I usually do. From those, I took at least 30 cuttings from each. I took thicknesses from anywhere between a No. 2 pencil and 3/8″ and old wood of course.
Trim the cuttings to 3-4 buds per cutting, with one bud cut exactly in half at the bottom. It seems the roots callous and spring out like mad from here.
Soak the cuttings in water for an hour or so
Pull each cutting from the water and dip into a basic rooting hormone and then right into a good starter soil about 2″ deep on the bottom of those Rubber Maid plastic garbage cans with a lid. Mine had the translucent white sides that allowed plenty of sun in. I don’t snap the lid on tight, I just sit it on top.
Sprinkle a little water in. This creates a terrarium effect. It’s important not to over-water… just keep the soil moist.
Check them every day because while you are watching the leaves sprout, you also want to watch for mold that can happen in such a closed container.
After the shoots are 1-2″ long, bump or shake the entire container to knock the soil loose and then gently pull them out and plant each in its own pot.

See the pics of the good healthy roots.

Top the new pots up with soil and water them… then stick in a partial sun/shade area and let them get stronger. Questions? Just let me know and have fun!

My names not Cooper, but check me out!

February 24, 2009 by Jason Leave a Comment

I have a good friend named Jay Cooper… whose mother was my 2nd grade teacher in elementary school. And yes, they had coopers in their history. With a name like that, you’d better.

But I’m not sure I had any coopers in my family. To the best of my knowledge, my father would be the one most likely connected to some coopers. I inherited all his winemaking equipment back in 2001 and in it was several tools used by the Cooper, one who makes and refurbished barrels. Look at that band-banger next to the bucket of beeswax. I promptly put it all to work. I’ve been making wine since 2000, and this cool little 5-gallon barrel that he had needed a refurbish. It was taken care of and it has become a sentimental thing to me now. These pics just show the process.