Blackberry Wine

Despite the very dry season, we are still enjoying lots of blackberries, and with enough jelly and syrup to last several years down in my canning storage area, it is time to turn to Blackberry Wine. Okay, Max, I can hear you now. “There goes Erma and another one of her booze recipes.” So, I use a lot of alcohol in my cooking. Isn’t that better than all those artificial, unpronounceable chemicals that are in most processed foods? Have you read, or tried to read and pronounce, the ingredients in the stuff that is on the grocery shelves?

Last night we had Mexican and I made the mistake of reading what was in the flour tortillas. Flour tortillas are flour and water. Right? Not these. There must have been at least 15 chemicals, no doubt to add shelf life to the tortillas.

Well, to get back to my “excessive” use of alcohol in cooking. I figure that bourbon, brandy, and wine are more “natural” and healthy than chemicals. Yes, I know that there is a lot of chemical wines coming on the market, but we have been making our own wine for years.

The making of high caliber wines does involve a lot of work and time, but for everyday consumption, you can make a tolerable table wine with not a lot of skill or effort. After all, Europeans have been doing this for thousands of years. Think the old Greeks and Romans had high tech wine making facilities? Hardly.

Blackberry wine has to be about the easiest and most fool proof of the wines. While we were at Monticello the guide showed us Jefferson’s grape arbors and told us that he was a failure at growing fine wine grapes. None the less, he made some fruit wines that he consumed along with the imported French, Portuguese, and Italian wines that were probably for special occasions.

We still use a recipe that came out of a 150 year old cookbook, and, I am sure, that you would find the same instructions in records from the Medieval Period. Nowadays, we buy some yeasts from a home wine supplier, and add to the goop, so that we end up with wine, sherry, and champagne. Some batches are better than others, but isn’t it the same for the vineyards? With this recipe, you have the satisfaction of knowing your wine is “all natural, with no artificial flavors or additives” as the old ad goes.

This works with any kind of juicy fruits. With blackberry however, you end up with a beautiful crimson color.

Blackberry Wine:

Wash and pick over the blackberries. To each measure of mashed berries, use the same amount of cold water. Put into a stone jar and let stand three days; strain through a coarse cloth. To every gallon of juice add three pounds of white sugar, stir well; pour back into stone jar, let stand three days more, then strain again. Put into a stone jar, cover with thick cloth, let stand in a cool place three months and then bottle.

Is anything easier, Max?

Cornmeal Mush

Well, Max, we had a wonderful trip to Jamestown, Yorktown, Williamsburg, and Monticello in Virginia. These places make history come alive! Naturally I was checking out the kitchens and looking for new old cookbooks, or old new cookbooks, to add to my collection.

When you see the primitive conditions under which women cooked in the early years, you really appreciate all our modern conveniences. Much as you and I love to cook, I don’t think either of us would like spending our entire day preparing meals. Especially on an open hearth.

They told us at Jamestown that most cooking was over an open fire outside, or indoors on a hearth whose chimney was made of sticks and mud. At Jamestown, fish seemed to be the main food, but that during a Starvation Time they resorted to rats, horses and even their cats. That kind of puzzled me with the broad James River right next to the fort. Were there no fish for a time? Or was it that they did not know how to fish?

I am sure that one food that entered the Jamestown diet early on was Cornmeal Mush. It was easy to cook and corn was usually plentiful. The only hard thing would have been grinding the corn into meal. Only I think they pounded the corn in the early years with tree trunks and stumps. Once stoves were invented, women would start the Mush in the evening, set it back on the cooler part of the stove, and it would be ready the next morning.

If the family was lucky, there would be butter to melt over the Mush, or some sort of sweetener like honey or molasses. Leftover Mush could be cooled and patted or cut into slices and then fried for a real treat. Confession, I have never been able to fry Mush and get the golden crust my grandmother did. I love Fried Mush!

Cornmeal Mush:

2 teaspoons salt
4 cups boiling water
1 cup cornmeal

In a double boiler add the salt to boiling water, and then slowly add the cornmeal while stirring constantly. Cover and steam over simmering water from 1 to 3 hours.