When Summer brings its overabundance of berries and wild herbs, more than you can smatter on your face, what is one to do?
Make wine.
Spend the day in this sunny homestead, where we’ll be picking wineberries, black raspberries, and blackberries from the labyrinth of brambles that overflows from beneath lazy old apple trees and around every bend of the garden.
Once we’ve picked our fill we’ll retire into the kitchen to make a batch of Summer berry wine. You’ll learn the simple basics, best methods, and common pitfalls of alcohol fermentation and small batch wine-making to create what is variously called a country wine, folk wine, sugar wine, or worty wine, from our wild berries and any desired herbs. The basic methods learned in this beginner’s workshop can easily be applied to nearly any of the ingredients you might like to try at home, whether flowers, fruits & berries, barks, spices, or even medicinal herbs, and most of the materials you already have in your kitchen.
While we wait for our berry juice to cool we’ll also explore the wild plants nearby for inspiration for future wines.
And if you’re lucky, the instructor might even crack open a bottle or two of some of her 2015 hootch.
**Please bring a clean, empty glass wine bottle or glass jar (any shape, up to 32 ounces) with a screw on lid, to take home your newly fermenting wine to stash until drinking day.
*Registration is limited to 10 people.
Workshop Date: July 10, 12:30pm- 5:30pm Cost: $45
Location: Old Wolf Farm, Freeland MD
Instructor: Victoria Greba
**Notice of cancellation must be given 48-hrs in advance of any of our workshops or events in order to request a refund. Cancellations are subject to a $5 restocking fee. **
About the Location:
Old Wolf Farm in Freeland, MD, is the small homestead of Jes and Matt, and their children Penny and Cordy. They are graced with 15 aging apple trees planted by Mr. Wolf years ago that still offer them a bountiful harvest (and then some!) each Fall. They grow vegetable gardens and compost piles, harvest wild and domesticated berries, and enjoy the company of their chickens and ducks running around the yard. They can, freeze, dry, ferment, store, and enjoy as many vegetables, fruits, and herbs as they can from their harvests. They’ve learned so much trying to implement permaculture practices over the past 6+ years and have all the more to continue to learn about their sustainability. They’re always trying to find ways to live more in-tune with the land.
