It seems we have some gardeners and craftspeople here on Dreamwidth! Let me briefly change gears from spirituality and talk about booze.
(Alan Watts used to joke about "a scholarly Chinese" who would say, "if you're going to meditate, you should have a couple of martinis first, since it'll speed up your practice by about six months!" But it really is a joke: wine does not help spirituality, in my experience.)
I have lived in upstate New York for most of my life. One of my side projects for the last decade or so has been to make wine from as many native plants as possible and catalogue which of them are worthwhile. I even planted an orchard to this end, but the plants are yet young and I will be moving before they are mature enough to harvest from. Still, I thought I might share what I've learned in case it's useful to anyone else. (Anyway, most of these plants grow all over North America, so perhaps you have them in your area, too!)
If you haven't made wine before, I recommend it, even if you have to buy the ingredients: it can be as easy or as hard, as simple or as complicated as you want, but even at the low end the result is rewarding—the results will be better and cheaper than you can buy at the wine store! The only things to be watch out for is that you will be washing things a lot and that you will be waiting a lot. Oh well, cleanliness is next to godliness, and the best time to plant a tree is twenty years ago.
There is a vast selection of books on winemaking, and I've read dozens of them! Let me save you some trouble and recommend that you buy John Wright's Booze: it's by far the best book on the topic. (The one downside is that it's all in metric units. Get yourself a kitchen scale and a calculator.)
If you've never made wine before, the easiest and best thing to start with is (if you live in the Northeast) maple wine or (if you live anywhere else) mead. They're quick, easy, fool-proof, and simply some of the best wines there are. A good recipe is available in John Gorman's 1992 article from Mead Digest #19.
If you have access to elder trees, by far my favorite wine to make and drink is elderflower champagne. It takes some work, but it's worth it. Just be sure to use heavy-duty bottles: I have made a few grenades!
Below is a table of all the wines made from native or locally grown/foraged plants that I've tried:
| Plant | Verdict | Notes
|
|---|
Maple Syrup
(Acer saccharum) | A | Quick, easy, fool-proof. Like mead, but better. Use dark or very dark syrup. Can also be jacked to make a rum-like beverage.
|
Serviceberry
(Amelanchier × lamarckii) | ? | I planted a small orchard of these. The fruit is good—like a cross between apples and blueberries—but birds adore them above all other fruits and will strip trees bare before they're even ripe. Sadly, I'll move before I get enough to make into wine. I'm told it's fair on it's own, but excellent if mixed 50–50 with rhubarb wine.
|
Pumpkin
(Cucurbita pepo) | D | Fussy and uninspiring.
|
Wild Strawberry
(Fragaria virginiana) | F | Like medicine.
|
Apple
(Malus domestica) | varies | Quality depends on fruit: favor cider apples, wild apples, dessert apples in that order. (It is not worth making cider from dessert apples alone.)
|
Fire Cherry
(Prunus pensylvanica) | F | Unpalatable: too much tannin, even when mixed with European cherries. Makes a good vodka infusion, though: use as a mixer, especially with elderflower liqueur.
|
Wild Plum
(Prunus nigra) | F | Like medicine.
|
Blackberry
(Rubus spp.) | A | Easy and reliable. Like grape wine. (Made in OK, rather than NY.)
|
Elderflower
(Sambucus canadensis) | A | My favorite wine. Labor-intensive but reliable. Like champagne and every bit as good.
|
Elderberry
(Sambucus canadensis) | A | Easy and reliable. Like grape wine.
|
Dandelion
(Taraxacum officinale) | B | Labor-intensive and fussy! Tastes like bottled midsummer. Unique.
|
Highbush Cranberry
(Viburnum trilobum) | F | Stinky socks. I have only attempted with wild specimens; there are cultivars that may be better.
|
Ginger
(Zingiber officinale) | A | Best hot or mulled, curled up in front of a fireplace.
|
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