One perk when it comes to growing your food is that you can gather some fruit or vegetables from the garden and turn it into wine. It’s satisfying to share a bottle of wine made from food you have grown. It’s also highly economical!
Sky’s The Limit
You can make wine from just about anything. Some of the varieties that we like to make include Rhubarb, Apple, Birch, Raspberry, Blackberry, Rose Hip, Rose Petal, Carrot, and Parsnip. We’ve also got a few batches of ginger wine started.
Of all the wines that we have made parsnip might be my favorite.
What Does Parsnip Wine Taste Like?
Parsnip wine does not taste anything like parsnips (just in case you were worried)! You should end up with a sweet, dry and very strong wine – with a twist. It’s pleasant to drink, almost too pleasant. Parsnip wine is famous for getting country folk drunk. A single glass of a particularly potent batch can topple even the sturdiest of men. It’s guaranteed to warm you right down to your toes on a cold night!
Helpful Tip
Wait for the first frost before digging up your parsnips. Those stored in the cellar for a month or two are also very good for this recipe.
I’m not going to cover it here, but if you want to learn about measuring the alcohol content of your country wine, you will want to search for “specific gravity” and “how to use a hydrometer. Here is a link to a good article on this subject. I don’t usually bother to measure the specific gravity, I have done it on occasion, and it’s easy to learn.
Scrub and roughly chop parsnips into small chunks. Do not peel, leave the skin on. Boil them in the water until soft but not mushy. Strain the liquid into a sterilized fermenting bucket (food grade pail). Do not squeeze the pulp as this will create a murky wine. Add the sugar and stir until dissolved. Cover with a large dish towel. Allow the mixture (must) to cool and add the pectic enzyme. Leave covered for 24 hours. Aerate by stirring and add the remaining ingredients. Rehydrate the yeast by following the directions on the yeast package. Once the yeast is rehydrated add it to the bucket and give it a quick stir. Cover the fermenting pail with a dish towel and allow to ferment for five days. Aerate (Stir) once per day except for the last day. You want to leave the sediment on the bottom of the pail for the next step. Carefully strain out the solids leaving the sediment in the pail. Siphon into a 1 gallon demi-john, add an airlock and set aside in a cool dark location. Rack off into a fresh demi-john when fermenting (bubbling) appears to have finished (usually two weeks). Add a fresh airlock and store in a cool dark location until the wine has cleared (usually two months). Bottle in sterilized wine bottles and allow to mature for at least one year before drinking.
Ingredients
Instructions
