I heard it through the grapevine!

From Messina Hof

We had a busy weekend! My sister came into town to visit and it was a blast!

We woke up bright and early on Saturday and went to Messina Hof to pick and stomp grapes. After signing in we were "briefed" on how to properly pick a grape clusters and keep all ten of our fingers. Then they told us a little about how long Messina Hof had been in Bryan and some general history about wine making.

We headed out into the vineyard while they had wonderful music playing... it sounded Italian to me. We quickly divided up and different pairs walked down the row to begin harvest. Steven was on one side and my sister and I on the other. They encouraged us to taste the grapes, and let me tell you... they were SWEET! Everyone has been really worried about the drought, and while it may be bad for the corn/barley (so sorry beer drinkers), it has made the grapes sweeter!

The variety that is grown in our area is called Black Spanish (Lenoir). It is a very tight cluster and is used to make dessert wines. I was really surprised how such little grapes could have so many seeds in them. After all they were wine grapes... not table grapes. We got to taste last year's harvest and it was AMAZING!!! It is called Papa Paulo Port. Even though it is expensive, we will probably purchase a bottle of the 2009 wine when it comes out.... after all we helped bring in the grapes.

Stopping was fun... and messy... but still fun. They don't stomp all of their wine... just a small amount when they do tours or special events. They showed us how they process it and prepare it for the "cellar" (which is above ground because, after all, we are in Texas). The "cellar" area is more like a dark well air conditioned room. If you view my pictures (slide show below) you will see a fork lift dumping grapes into a large vat-type-thing. Basically the machine pulls off the grapes and discards the seeds and stems. The juice and skins are pushed through a pipe and into the cellar room.

After the tour we tasted three wines. The first one was the Texas Hold 'Em White wine (sorry no picture). It was smooth and sweet. It is classified as a dry white wine, but it wasn't that dry... I would call it one step above dessert. We all enjoyed it so we purchased a bottle for dinner. We made grilled chicken and was fabulous again. It's a good inexpensive wine.

The next one we tasted was the Texas Hold 'Em Red wine. This one is a blend and I didn't care for it too much. I have yet to find a blended red wine that I like. I enjoy Merlot & Cabernet, but when people blend reds my taste buds get confused.

The last was the Port from the previous season. I HIGHLY recommend this wine. Steven didn't care for it, but I liked it. It was very smooth at first... like chocolate and cherries (I know, it sounds crazy, but it really tasted like that), and then it turns slightly dry... kind of a reminder that you are drinking wine... not chocolate. I liked it. A girl in front of us told us that she pours it over ice cream. I'm not sure about that, but it is a good wine.

They explained how to properly taste wine and Steven really enjoyed that. We will probably go back for another tasting. I think it a great idea because there is nothing worse than trying out a new bottle of wine and no one in the house liking it. The tours and tastings are $5 and a good date on Saturday.

Here are all the pictures in a slide show... Enjoy!

My Baby Shower Adventures!

One of my friends is having a baby shower and I am making the cake. The shower is next weekend. But, we have some family coming to visit, so I wanted to time myself to see how long I would be away from them. The practice cake is going to some very happy co-workers of mine.

All that being said, I can't show you how CUTE this one is. I will post next week when I make the real one and when I have some pictures of the glowing mother!

However, I realized that I haven't posted any pictures of my cakes. I am very proud of my cakes. Usually they turn out WAY better than I expect. God gets all the credit!

This was my first one. I really just wanted to play with fondant. I got the idea from this website.

Here is a close up of the tub and a picture of the expecting couple. Ryan and Lindsey have been friends of our for around four years now. I met them when they were engaged... three years later they were expecting Caleb. Now they live somewhere else... sad day. I'm sure whenever we see them we will pick up where we left off.

Click to Enlarge

The next cake I did was for a "classic Winnie the Pooh" theme. This cake was for a baby girl so I wanted to play up the piglet part. I looked all over town for "classic Winnie the Pooh" toys... however, I was unsuccessful. So I resorted to good ol' fondant. Pooh looks a little off, but I think they turn out good. It was fun to experiment.

I set the little guys in a basket full of grass! I made the characters before the shower and stored them at the bottom of my fridge. Then I assembled the cake about an hour before the shower started. I should have gave myself about an hour and a half... I put the finished cake on the table right as the mother walk through the door!

Here is a better picture of the characters. I really like the way piglet turned out. And of course the beautiful mother! Leslie and Brandon are a wonderful couple. They have a sweet heart for kiddos and I'm so happy they are having one... actually... any day now!

Lesson Learned!

We harvested our corn on Sunday night. I was actually pretty nervous about it. You see, I have read alot this summer about small homesteads and family kitchen gardening and I read something that made me question the quality of our first corn crop.

When we planted the corn it came up just fine and looked like it was doing wonderfully. We noticed some purple streaks in the stocks... and we simply assumed that it was because we planted Indian corn. Well, then I read in a book that if the leaves are discolored than it means that you don't have enough nitrogen in the soil. And of course, corn is CRAZY about nitrogen. In one of my book it classified it as a "cleaner" plant... as in it strips the soil of almost all nitrogen. That is why you see it planted after legumes (which put nitrogen into soil... "builders"). They also say that if you fertilize for corn, then you don't have to worry about the rest of your vegetables.

I was just growing the corn as decoration so I wasn't too worried. Plus I saved some seeds so that we could try again in case something happened. In our area we can plant corn again starting on Wednesday. So now we are rethinking our fertilization schedule. I wish we could do it all organic, but I think we will work up to it... like when we have our own place and I have more time to plan out our gardens. Nevertheless, we will try again.... so look forward to a better corn harvest.

Corn is interesting. With all of my other vegetables, I can see the progress. It has really been a faith challenging concept for me. So often in life I want to know exactly how things work and what all the plans are. Sometimes God doesn't want us to know what's His plans are until then very end... when you rip back the shucks to reveal His Glory underneath.

Our Forth of July weekend was such a blast! Any closer to perfect and it would have been heaven! We love the homeplace. We are surrounded by people that love the Lord and love to talk and laugh with each other. The laid back pace of farm is such a wonderful break from our busy day to day life.

This post will be a ton of pictures, so I apologize if it takes a long time to load.

This is a picture of the homeplace. I think this is where "Home, Sweet, Home" originated.

Steven, his Parents and I arrived on Wednesday. Christine and Manly (the new boyfriend) arrive on Thursday. They have to work. We had waited all day for them and we were trying to think of things to do to scare Manly. However, we ended up taking a funny picture instead.... oh well. (the date is completely inaccurate... I fixed it on my camera after I took a ton of pictures)

The next couple of pictures are from the top of the wheat bin. We love climbing up there. Steven showed me what ten acres looks like. This was very helpful because he always talks about buying 10 acres of land one day... now I know how much land that is. (by the way... the picture shows way more than 10 acres!)

On top of the world!... or farm!

Some family pics....

Rachel... growing up fast!

Steven and I with Papa.

The most beautiful Nana in the WORLD!!!

They let me help with morning chores. I was really excited because they were bottle feeding a calf. It was a first for me and I was really excited. And of course it's hard to keep me away from horses...

On Friday we drove to the ranch. It's about 30 minutes away from the farm.

I LOVE THIS NEXT PICTURE

I thought Steven was the tallest man alive! I was wrong. Manly made him look short... it was really crazy to behold.

More pics from the ranch

We found some wild gourds and a day lily... kinda unexpected.

These girls are so beautiful!

The boys were teaching us how to skip rocks...

Back at the farm... playing with the girls...

The morning of the Forth it rained... but that baby calf still wanted to be fed.

Nana made some pies... they tasted great!

The rain stopped and we made it to the parade.

Then we came home and had a tasty lunch...

And prepared ice cream for the evening.

showed Manly the river... it was muddy so we didn't walk all the way down... but he did!

We had watermelon rinds so I suggested that we feed them to the horses... Tick (gray horse) LOVED them...

The we saddled up Dixie (brown horse) and all took turns.

At dinner the family broke into song! Just another day on the farm. I'm so blessed!

Finally we headed outside for a show!

Watching the show... what a great weekend!