They will rebuild the ruined cities and live in them. They will plant vineyards and drink their wine; they will make gardens and eat their fruit.
'Cause a Man's gotta work when a Man's gotta work. 50 bales of local grass hay. They were averaging between 50 and 55 LBs, which is about what Seppi weighs. His job was dragging the bales down from the stack and across the floor of the trailer so I could pick them up and carry… Continue reading Man Work Monday… on a Friday
Re-checked the Cider on Saturday, day 13 since casting the yeast. I would read that as 1.002. Which means that fermentation is occurring, but I am not sure if it is the right sort. The cider has an unpleasant, sour, musty aroma, and there was hardly any bubbling in the airlock. Didn't have a thermometer… Continue reading Hard Cider 2026: Update
Last year after cider fest we had some issues with our (attempted) hard cider turning green. One possible cause of this, according to our cider book is that the malic acid in the fresh juice can leach iron out of the cast iron crushing components which can turn green if oxidized. So this year when… Continue reading Hard Cider 2026: Primary fermentation
Well, folks. It came, it went. It was a whirlwind of pressing, canning, laughing, talking, joking, eating, drinking, and all the other things that go along with CiderFest. We outdid last year's count, with a grand total of 129 gallons (6 fermenting for hard cider, the rest canned) divvied out between almost 20 households. Started… Continue reading CiderFest 2026
Howdy folks! Boy it has been a minute! Welcome back, Three Hearts Farm! How have you been these last 2 1/2 weeks? My goodness has it really been that long? Yes it has. We thought Cascadia had arisen and slid y'all off into the Pacific Ocean. No, it hasn't but thanks for the healthy perspective.… Continue reading Boy, Let Me Tell You!
December 1, 2025. This was a bit later than I wanted it to be. The cider was set down in primary fermentation on 11/17 and it smelled about perfect last Friday, but on Saturday we were too busy building the fence to attend to it then. By Sunday afternoon it was starting to develop some… Continue reading Hard Cider: Batch 2, Rack 1.
Just another normal Monday at the house/farm/homeschool. Bread is in the oven. The dibbuns made the two smaller ones. Critters are doing their school. Let's check on our science experiment... So, there was a bit of a complication with the last batch of hard cider. After we transferred it to secondary fermentation, a day later… Continue reading Hard Cider, batch two
Yesterday was day 17 of the hard cider experiment. According to the "Brew Book." Which is gleen, in fact, not brue, but it works. I have been keeping meticulous notes in an old school note book. On the way back south after a National Guard day (long story) I stopped by our local home brew… Continue reading Hardening the Cider: Secondary Fermentation.
What do you do when life hands you 100 gallons of cider? You make hard cider, of course. When I told the kids I was making hard cider they asked how you harden cider. So the process is now known as "hardening." The first step is cleaning and sterilizing our equipment. If we have learned… Continue reading Hardening the Cider
