Patience is needed to make wine
By Sheila Donnelly/Austin Daily Herald

I had really wanted to get to a Sunday gathering at the Austin Public Library. But instead, I stayed home, because I had an apple tree that needed tending to. I picked six bushels of apples with my son, Timmy, and my friend Heidi and her daughter, Mariah.

The apples we picked are a variety that is light green with a red blush. The tree was loaded, though the apples were all small in size. We pressed the apples with an apple press that had a motor on it so we didn't have to crank away using our own muscle power. We made around eight gallons of juice.

I am processing and pasteurizing a couple gallons of the juice. When I drink it this winter, I will think back to this weekend in the orchard on the last days of summer. The rest of the juice, Heidi took home and we will be making it into apple wine. We made elder flower wine earlier this summer and it looks beautiful. It is the color of sunshine. We are waiting patiently until January when we can taste our elder flower wine for the first time.

This summer is the first time I have made wine. My sister, Kate used to make lots of wine when she lived in England. She lives in Minneapolis now and has been pursuing other interests but she hopes to start making wine again. Her favorite wine to make was elder flower wine and she even made elder flower champagne. I have made gallons of juice over the years, but now that most of my children are older, I am expanding my horizons with making wine. I will still make juice for my younger son and my grandson, but I am really enjoying making grown-up drinks like wine.

When my older kids were young, I used to gather apples from trees that grew on fence lines and neglected orchards. They were the ones that my neighbors didn't want to pick. My neighbor John and I would pick apples together, tasting them to determine which apples when pressed together would make the most flavorful juice. One of our favorite apples to press for juice was Whitney Crab. These apples are ripe the beginning of August and rot quickly, so you have to pick them right away. Another juice that was a favorite was apple-pear. One of my neighbors had an incredible pear tree that was always heavy with fruit and made a mild juice when pressed with a tart tasting apple.

I am always so amazed by how well things grow in this part of the world. We are so blessed with being so bountiful. Our short growing season is coming to an end with the first day of fall being today. I am dreaming of next season and going inner with my thoughts as the days become colder and I have to spend more time indoors.