GardenFork – Eclectic DIY

Tag: hard cider

Tick Bite, What To Do – GF Radio 357
Eric tells about the tick bite he got over the weekend and what to do about it. He had the classic red dot around the tick bite and then a larger lighter red rash area around the it. What is key is to be able to save the tick. If you grab the tick from the side, rather grabbing the tick from behind, is the best way to remove the tick. Slowly pull the tick away from your skin. The skin will pull up, and it may smart a bit, but pull slowly. The tick will release and you can then save it.

According to Wikipedia, and other sources I have read, here are a few precautions to take to avoid getting a tick bite:
- Wear light colored pants
- Tuck pants into socks
- Spray a DEET bug spray on your clothes
- Put your clothes in a hot dryer after being outside
- Check your body for ticks after being outside
My neighbor Priscilla has Guinea Hens, who are great at eating ticks. Priscilla says she does not have many ticks in her yard because of the Guinea Hens.

We launched our New DIY show on YouTube, Please Subscribe Here. To make it easier for people and clearer for me, all the DIY and how to videos will be posted on our DIY GardenFork Channel, and the cooking food videos will be posted on GardenFork Cooks.

Feedback on our how to cook steak in a pan video, a viewer suggests we put the box fan in the window, but we turn the fan to one can access the controls on the side rather than the bottom of the fan. Smart, thank you.

We talk about how to make hard cider, and Eric bought some liquid cider yeast to make a new batch for this fall.

And don’t forget one of our fall Thanksgiving recipes, Pumpkin Cornbread, and that very cool cast iron skillet with sections

GardenFork is now on Instagram, what fun.
October 13, 2014
Bottling HomeBrew Beer – Home Brewing 101 – GF Video
Learn how to bottle homebrew beer and hard cider in our homebrewing 101 tutorial video. Eric show you that bottling homebrew beer is not hard, all you need are brown bottles and a few pieces of equipment. This same homebrew how to applies to bottling hard cider.

Get your supplies from your local homebrew store, or consider Midwest Supplies, we like these guys:

Make Your Homebrew Easier with this gear
- Jet Bottle Washer: attaches to your faucet, rinses bottles quickly
- Bottle Tree: great way to hold, dry, and move 2 cases of bottles
- Bottle Filler: simple bottle filler makes it all easier
- Siphon Starter: its a pain to get a siphon started without something like this
The most important thing to remember is everything must be CLEAN that comes into contact with your beer or hard cider. You can use a diluted bleach solution, or better yet, a sanitizer. There are several types available from your homebrew supplier.

If you decide to use bleach, 1 tablespoon of laundry bleach per gallon of water works fine. Keep in mind if this gets on your clothes, it will leave white dots and patches. Not good. This is why I use sanitizer. I have ruined several pairs of pants with bleach.

Move your fermenter bucket carefully. There is sediment at the bottom of the bucket, and you don’t want to stir it up. Its best to elevate the bucket above your work surface. Its a pain to bottle beer on the floor. Gently remove the airlock and fermenter lid.

If you get lots of bubbles in your bottling tube, check that you have the right diameter tubing. It really helps to have 2 people doing the beer bottling, as something always spills. If you have to put down the bottle filler tube, place it in a clean bottle, so the tip does not get dirty. Remember, clean is everything with homebrewing.

Have some suggestions? Questions? Let us know below:
February 4, 2014
How To Make Kombucha, Sake, Cider, Beer with Emma Christensen – GF Radio 315

Make kombucha, sake, cider and other fermented liquids on GardenFork Radio. Emma Christensen, author of True Brews: How to Craft Fermented Cider, Beer, Wine, Sake, Soda, Mead, Kefir, and Kombucha at Home, geeks out with Eric about fermentation. The first ‘ah ha’ moment comes when Eric learns from Emma how to make ginger ale and use champagne yeast to add bubbles and a tang of taste along with the ginger. The dried yeast package works fine, btw.

Emma suggests a first timer starts out making soda. All you need is an empty recycled soda bottle and a juice of your choice. You can make your own juice if you want. With little work you can make DIY soda. neat.

Eric and Emma talk about how to make cider, – we have a few how to make hard cider videos here – and Emma lets us in on some tips on the best way to make hard cider. Eric wants to know whether one should try the wild yeast method or continue to sulfite the cider before pitching the yeast. Emma lets us in a a new flavor term called ‘ barnyard flavor’ as she experiment with sour yeasts. We learn that lower temperatures are best for hard cider fermentation and that some ciders can have high alcohol content, depending on the sugar content of the apples.

For experimenting with wild yeast hard cider, Emma suggests to try a one gallon fermenter, which is a brilliant suggestion. This way you don’t waste 5 gallons of cider on an experiment. Emma suggests using a 2 gallon jug or carboy for the initial 1 gallon fermentation, and then you can transfer it to a 1 gallon jug for a second fermentation and storage.

Its Easy To Make Kombucha

We move into how to make kombucha, which is a strong tea with a scoby added to it. Emma likes to brew kobucha herself so you can control how it tastes. If you like a sweeter kombucha, you ferment it less, and you can add ginger or fruits like pears. Cultures for Health is one place to buy a starter scoby.

You can read more of Emma’s Posts on her blog, follow her on Twitter, or read her posts on TheKitchn .

Buy True Brews Book On Indie Bound Here
Buy True Brews Book On Amazon Here

October 21, 2013
DIY Cider Press Video – GF Video

Homemade cider press built by my neighbors Gene and Priscilla. A hydraulic cider press that uses found materials from a log splitter and a tree chipper, Gene built this from parts he had. Use this video and the photos here as a basis for your own cider press plans. This is really cool to use, and it would be a blast to build as well.

Build your own cider press

You can do this! It will take some time, but its do-able. Its helpful to have some metal skills or ask a neighbor who does to help. You’ll want a bunch of people around anyway to help with the cider press, its a lot of work to process all the apples, apple mash, and bottle the cider.

This cider press uses a chipper, much like those that are in electric wood chippers, to mash up the apples. I love the use of a traffic cone to direct the apple mash in the right place. The racks that hold the mash are custom built, be sure the racks have slots to allow the cider to drip out. The cloth is muslin.

The apples are first washed in a mild bleach solution and then rinsed in two buckets of water. A 5 gallon bucket with holes drilled in it works well for this. Any bruises or blemishes are cut out of the apples.

After the apples are pressed, the cider is filtered and pumped through a UV sterilizer. UV light kills bad bugs in the cider, its a simple way, i think to have good cider and not have to pasteurize it to sell. Your local rules might not allow this, so check first.

You can freeze cider to be able to enjoy it all year. Leave enough space in the containers for some expansion as the cider freezes.

We’ve made hard cider from Priscilla’s press, you can check out our how to make hard cider videos here

October 16, 2013
Making Hard Cider, Brewing Beer, Making Soap GF Radio

How to make hard cider, how to brew beer, and how to make your own soap are the topics on GF Radio. Ben joins eric to talk about hard cider and how homemade hard cider is made, and what not to do when making hard cider. what yeast should you use when making hard cider? wild yeast or a cultured yeast? eric used a champagne yeast the last time he made hard cider, you can see his how to make hard cider video here.

Beer Brewing comes next, both Ben and Eric homebrew beer; Ben talks about making up your own beer brewing recipes, brewing beer from grain instead of from malt extracts, and how to brew beer in a studio apartment in brooklyn. Eric prefers recipes for malt exract brewing, there is less to mess up that way. making lager beer, or lagering, is a goal for Eric. Making a lager beer is harder, you have to control the temperature more better, from what we understand.

Next up is making your own soap and deoderant. Ben is now making dishwasher soap, shampoo, deoderant, and dish soap for his family. its not hard, he learned from a class at work, but you can learn online. we’ll have to make a video about how to make soap soon, it sounds like even Eric can make soap.

August 22, 2012