How To: Make Bilberry Wine

I live in the lovely countryside of West Yorkshire, and 'round these parts we have tons of bilberry bushes. Now, for those of you who don't know what a bilberry is, it's a bit like a blueberry but smaller and tastes a little less sweet, but still delicious.

Normally, our family goes bilberry picking together on the weekend of my mums birthday, which falls in early July. However, because the weather has been so ridiculous this year the bilberries are only just coming out now, in late August. So, off I went to get me some bilberries.

Usually we make either bilberry jam, or a few bilberry crumbles. This year I thought I'd give bilberry wine a go...

I make my own wine regularly, but I have realised that I have only ever blogged about it once, which was a while ago, so I thought I'd do some wine recipe sharing again :)

Equipment:

Fermentation Bucket (with lid) Demijohn with Cork and Airlock Wine Bottles

**All equipment MUST be sterilized before you start the process, I cannot stress this enough**

Ingredients:
3 lbs. Bilberries/Blueberries (if you can't find a bilberry bush)
4 1/2 Cups Sugar
1 Teaspoon Pectic Enzymes
1 Campden Tablet
1 Packet Wine Yeast
1 Teaspoon Potassium Sorbate

1. First things first: clean and disinfect ALL your tools AND your wine making area.
2. Clean and crush the bilberries.
3. Fill up the fermentation bucket up with your bilberries and water (up to the one gallon mark).
4. Add sugar and yeast.
5. Stick the lid on it.
6. Stir every 24 hours for a week.
7. Siphon (or "rack") the wine from the bucket to the demijohn and seal with the airlock.
8. Once the airlock has stopped reacting, add Potassium Sorbate to your wine.
9. Allow wine to settle for at least 3 days.
10. Bottle it.

30 days is the minimum time you should allow for the process. If you wait longer, your wine will taste better. My advice is once you bottle the wine, let it sit for between 6 months to a year.

It's so easy. Honestly. If I can do it, anyone can.

How To: Make Lovely Presents for Lovely Friends

I don't know about you lot, but April/May time is always busy for me.... Everyone I know seems to be either having a birthday, having a baby, or moving house. I don't know what it is about this time of year, but everyone just seems to be loving it! Of course it also means gifts all round, & when it's all in one go it can get pretty expensive. But never fear! I have a lovely answer to this problem. Who doesn't like receiving plants that they can make use of?

I recently started a new pot of chili peppers, and the pot is getting a bit crowded now, so I decided to split these seedling up into smaller pots.

Now, I don't REALLY need more than one chili plant in the house, so I'm giving them away for presents this month!

I hate waste, & love a cheeky bit of recycling, so I have used tin cans for this project. I found that cans with ring pull tops were best for this, because it meant the edge wasn't so sharp, so no cuts (I used cat food tins in this case. Washed, obviously).

Next, use a nail & hammer to pierce at least 5 small holes in the base of the cans (please be careful children!), so that when watered the plants can drain & not drown.

Then fill the tins with compost & pop in the seedling.

Last, to make it look presentable as a gift, tie a bow around the middle. I used material scraps to give that rustic look, & you can't go wrong with recycling!

Lets hope my lovely friends like their lovely gifts, & I hope you enjoyed this project!