Elvis » Mon Sep 11, 2017 8:58 pm wrote:Cool, Robert. If I'm ever back in South Dakota I'll look for it!
A guy I know here makes dandelion wine—from dandelion petals—that's on the sweet side but it fits the 'fruit'. I generally prefer dry reds but I really like it. He also makes blackberry wine, also a bit sweet but again it's very good.
My parents used to make citrus "champagne," a bubbly wine from lemons, limes and oranges (oh, and a few grapes). (The first batch was a disaster but they made corrections and it was surprisingly good (according, anyway, to my 16-year-old palate, which wasn't fond of alcoholic drinks to begin with).
I may try winemaking myself, but what I really want to try is making blue-veined cheeses.
Wow, dandelion wine! I love wine and I'm no snob about it - I am curious about any and all varietals regardless of which fruit or flower is used. I've never tried dandelion, but some of the most unusual wines I've tried were in Utah, of all places. There is a winery in Layton called The Hive which makes many honey meads, as the name suggests. They also make wines from raspberries, cherries, peaches,apricot, pineapple, pear and pomegranate. They had some great blends, but that lemon-lime-orange champagne you describe sounds off the charts!
I'm a big fan of blue-veined cheeses as well; gorgonzola, roquefort, etc. I particularly enjoy eating it with a dry gin martini. But it has to be fresh bleu cheese, when I've tried olives stuffed with bleu cheese, the brine in the olive jar dries out the cheese so it loses the great flavor. Anyway, good luck to you, hope your cheesemaking efforts go well.
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