Author: Carrie

Wine Chronicles: Pineapple Peel Wine

~ Carrie ~ 1 Comment

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Who uses pineapple peels and cores? I do! It’s probably a natural progression from making the delightful fermented beverage, Tepache, to making wine from the peels and cores; after all, wine is also a ferment.

Per the usual, I began by researching: were there already recipes for pineapple peel wine out there that I could use as a starting point? (yes) Did I have all of the ingredients and equipment needed to embark on this project? (yes) Did I still want to make the wine after doing all that research? (clearly, yes) Continue reading “Wine Chronicles: Pineapple Peel Wine” →

Over It: Why We Dumped Instagram

~ Carrie ~ 7 Comments

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Today, we said “goodbye” to Instagram. While we’ve enjoyed (virtually) meeting great people in many countries, we struggled with a fundamental conflict that we cannot, personally, satisfactorily resolve: how to be part of social media without sacrificing the privacy of our personal information to the whims of a company that answers to one master – its shareholders.

Facebook, Inc. is a business (as are the other entities it’s assimilated, including Instagram), and its provision of this platform isn’t driven by altruism: despite the appearance that it’s free, there is a cost to using Instagram. That cost to users is allowing Facebook, Inc. to use users’ personal information for a number of purposes, including those that fall under “research”. That may sound relatively innocuous, but it’s not: for example, how would you feel about not having access to certain features that you know other users do? Without knowing why? On its face, it sounds discriminatory…and practically speaking, it’s just annoying.

Continue reading “Over It: Why We Dumped Instagram” →

Winecraft: Dandelion Wine #1

~ Carrie ~ 1 Comment

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As I look out on the pastures, I see a golden sea of cheery dandelions – and it makes me smile. Back in my unenlightened suburban days, I used to fight them: dig them up by the roots (and – oh, horror! – throw the roots away), apply “weed” killer. No more! We don’t use chemicals here, and we know that the pasture our rabbits and fowl consume is nutritious and unadulterated. It also means that we can freely consume any of the edibles that grow wild on our property, like chicory, plantain, wild violets, and our friends the dandelions.

Continue reading “Winecraft: Dandelion Wine #1” →

Wine Chronicles: Now Making Grapefruit

~ Carrie ~ 2 Comments

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We love grapefruit: the flavor, the fragrance, the nutritional benefits. It’s simply sublime. I make a lot of fresh grapefruit-flavored cultured beverages, like water kefir and kombucha, so when I spotted a recipe in my go-to winemaking book (Raymond Massaccesi’s “Winemaker’s Recipe Handbook”) for fresh grapefruit wine, I knew I’d be making some. And I did. Continue reading “Wine Chronicles: Now Making Grapefruit” →