I’ve made my own wine for years, and as I had a huge pumpkin left over from my visit to Newick in the pumpkin season, I decided to make it into wine.
Making your own wine is easy and works out very cheap per bottle.
If you’ve never done it before, but you’d like to start, there’s an excellent book which has never been out of print and you can find it on Amazon. It’s called First Steps in Winemaking, by CJJ Berry.
You can make many different variations of this recipe, but you’ll learn this as you progress;
INGREDIENTS.
All additives are readily available online.
I doubled this recipe as my pumpkin was so big.
5 lbs pumpkin flesh, chopped small
1 lb raisins. I used about 1/2 lb sultanas as I didn’t have any raisins
3 1/2 lbs sugar
1 tsp pectic enzyme
1/2 oz citric acid. You can use lemon juice instead
I tsp yeast mixed with 1 tsp sugar & a couple of tsps warm water.
1 tsp yeast nutrient
1 crushed Campden tablet
1 gallon water, in total
Set the water on to boil.
Start the yeast activating.
Cut the pumpkin into segments. Pull out all the seeds and stringy bits. Then run a knife around inside the skin and cut out all the pumpkin flesh. Chop the flesh into small pieces.
Tip the flesh into a large spotlessly clean bucket. Add the sugar & all the ingredients except the yeast.
Add the boiling water. Stir to dissolve the sugar.
When it reaches a warm temperature, add the yeast, rinsing out the cup in the liquid.
Cover well with a lid or clingfilm.
Stir daily for 5 days.
Strain into gallon jars and fit an airlock.
Leave it to clear, which will take about 3 months.
After a month or when necessary, strain off from the sediment, top up with a tsp of sugar and water. Leave until clear and then bottle it.
Leave it for a couple more months to mature, although it’s drinkable now.
After I’d racked the wine into gallon jars, the pumpkin left was delicious. It had taken on a fruity flavour, almost like apricot.
I gave a plastic boxful to my neighbour and we both made Pumpkin Teabread. the recipes were a great success.
My neighbour gave slices to her neighbours and of course nobody could guess what it was, although they absolutely loved it!
You can adapt almost any Teabread recipe for this.
If, like me, you’re not a big fan of Pumpkin, Pie, you might enjoy this instead.
PUMPKIN LOAF
1lb pumpkin flesh
4 1/2 ozs butter or marge
6ozs sugar
2 eggs, beaten
8ozs plain flour
1 1/2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
1tsp ground mixed spice
Grease a 2lb loaf tin.
Chop the pumpkin into large pieces, wrap in buttered foil & cook in an oven 22C.
Of course, my soaked pumpkin pieces didn’t need baking.
Cream the butter & sugar together. Add the eggs gradually.
Stir in the pumpkin, then fold in the flour & other ingredients.
Don’t overmix the pumpkjn. Leave it in small pieces to get the fruity flavour.
You can mix everything in a mixer if you prefer.
Bake in a preheated oven 160C/325F/Gas Mark 3 for about 1 1/4- 1 1/2 hours.
Test that it’s cooked right through.
Leave to cool.
Like all teabreads, it gets better every day & keeps for about a week.
