Can the real Spring weather please show up, please show up, please show up!

Another busy week! Unfortunately there have been several losses within the families of my work community over the past week and I want to pass my condolences on to the families of those who have left us.

Between the bad weather, evening meetings and funerals, I have been kept jumping. In the meantime, my garden has continued to grow. The seedlings have shot up and the pepper plants are looking quite fantastic!

SO PRETTY!

While last week it finally looked like we had put the cold weather behind us, the weather this week has been pretty dreadful. Cold, rainy and windy, we even had snow on Wednesday afternoon and at one point on my way to Brantford, I thought I was driving in a full on blizzard. While I am exceedingly unimpressed with mother nature and her fickle ways (and the fact that our federal government is doing nothing to combat the climate change causing this weather), there was a little bit of good weather and all in all I was able to accomplish a few things both in and outside of the house.

* I finally cracked open the bottle of apple cider I have had fermenting in my bathroom. To say that it tasted like vinegar is an injustice to vinegar. I was able to buy a few carboys from a fellow brewer this past week and I am going to be restarting my brewing adventures over the upcoming weeks!*

When I wasn't busy this week, I transplanted pretty much all of my tomato plants. I have some extra pots, though, so perhaps I need to grow some more!

Ready for plants!

Planted!

Jenga!

Yesterday when it was warm I did some cleaning, both inside and outside of the house, and took my plants outside for a few hours while it was sunny, and then worked on cleaning up the back yard and my garden area. Last year I bought a greenhouse to store my plants in and I brought it back out again this year. It was super handy to put trays of plants on and the plastic covering keeps my little guys nice and warm while they still get the pleasure of basking in the sun all day.

The Greenhouse!

Peppers of the sun!

A little sunbathing al fresco!

Last year I grew all my plants in buckets and I plan on doing pretty much the same thing this year, although I am still planning on putting in a raised bed. Below is a picture of where all the growing is going to happen. Off the back of the patio where the buckets are in the grass is where I intend to put my raised bed. For the record, I owe a debt of gratitude to my girlfriend, who allowed me to take over her patio last year for my garden.

This is where the growing happens!

At this point, while I am trying to get something done every day, I am waiting for that warm weather that I know is slowly but surely coming. T-shirt and sandal season is just around the corner and me and my plants can't wait!

Everyday I'm Bubbling!

While most of my blog will focus on my garden, I have several other projects going on around my house that I plan to blog about as well. One of the projects I am really excited about is making home brew hard cider. I received a Brooklyn Brew Shop hard cider kit as a gift from Hungry in the Hammer in the new year, and on February 22nd I decided to give it a whirl.

The whole kit and kaboodle!

 My kit came with pretty much everything I would need to make three batches of hard apple cider. It included a one gallon glass fermenting jug, an airlock, hose, a glass racking cane, a filter for the racking cane, plastic hose, yeast and sanitizer. The only things I need to provide are the apple cider, a funnel, a bowl and bottles to pour the fermented cider into.

The fermenter, racking cane, airlock and hose. 

The setup before I start making cider!

 Perhaps the most important part of making cider, or any alcohol for that matter, is making sure that everything is sanitized. If anything is contaminated it can ruin the whole process and make your cider taste like vinegar instead of delicious apples. Be sure to sanitize everything. If you are unsure, sanitize it again.

Sanitizer and a bowl of water.

 My kit suggested I fill a bowl with water, mix the sanitizer and then rinse everything in the sanitizer before letting it air dry.

Sanitizing the funnel! SANITIZE EVERYTHING!

Everything sanitized and ready to brew!

 Once you have everything sanitized and air dried you have to fill your fermenter with apple cider. Put your funnel in the fermenter and pour away.

Bennetts Apple Cider! Nothing but the best for my Brew!

 Once you have the fermenter full, you need to add the yeast. My kit came with champagne yeast and you pour the whole package into your fermenter. Once your yeast has been added to the cider, you need to shake the mixture in order to oxygenate the apple cider and activate the yeast.

YEAST!

Yeast and Cider. Shaken not stirred!

Once you have your cider and yeast mixed, you need to set up your cider to start fermenting. My kit directed me to sanitize the plastic tube, fill the bowl with a new batch of sanitizer and then push one end of the tube into the hole on top of the fermenter with the other end being left in the bowl of sanitizer. The purpose of this is to let carbon dioxide escape while making sure that the apple cider doesn't get contaminated. My setup looked like this. 

Let the fermenting begin!

At this point I left my cider sitting for three days letting gas escape while the yeast began to eat the sugars in the cider. After three days. I removed the hose from the cap. I sanitized, and then resanitized the airlock that came with the kit and placed the airlock into the hole I that had previously held the plastic tube. 

AIRLOCK!

The waiting game. 

Once you have your airlock in place it pretty much becomes a waiting game, which is where I am at right now. The kit advises you to wait for two weeks or until the bubbling stops inside the fermenter. While it has been two weeks as of yesterday, my home brew is still bubbling so here I wait. Hopefully it will be ready shortly but if it makes my cider more delicious in the end, I feel it will be more than worth waiting a few extra days before bottling.