Chronicles of the Long Shot Farm

Kegging Wine

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This month we are kegging wine! While traditional sparkling wine is refermented in the bottle, engineering and technology have allowed us to go beyond. The process is essentially the same as beer, but at a slightly higher psi. After pouring the wine into a clean keg, one attaches an “in” hose for CO2 and an “out” house for wine. The C02 comes from a tank that feeds to a pressure regulator. From there it goes to a manifold that splits into as many tanks as you can keep cold. The wine needs to sit at pressure for 2 to 3 weeks at close to freezing temperatures to fully absorb the future bubbles.  We experimented last summer for ourselves, and became convinced that bubbly should be a recurring feature in the tasting room.

Dear Deer

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Dear Deer,

You are so majestic, graceful, and sometimes tasty, but your insatiable appetite for delicate grape vine flesh leaves me heartbroken.  Year after year we tend our field, prune our grapes, shower them with care and love and still they don’t all grow.  The perimeter of our vineyards, exposed to your vicious, nibbling, mouth, is trimmed to sad bushy plants, never reaching their potential.  But no more!  This year we thwart your malevolent habits with tree tubes.

Clad in workwear, mallet in hand, we heroically pounded hundreds of 4 foot stakes into the ground and attached the tubes to the stakes, protecting the young and tender vines. These young knights, protected in armor, will someday reach the top of the trellis and produce a worthy harvest, despite your constant assault.  Beware wandering deer, your feasting days are numbered.

Best wishes, until we meet this fall…

 

Posted by Anja Weyant

Introducing Corot Noir 2019

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It was a dark and cold night, the kind that only late winter rain can bring. I needed a new case, something to get me out of my office and back onto the streets, something to move the blood in my veins. As I pounded the pavement looking for trouble, I found my case, down at the local watering hole, “The Long Shot.” Always had an affinity for the name, reminded me of my line of work. Her name was Corot, Corot Noir, and she came with an intense and attractive berry and cherry aroma. I had to keep my head straight for this one, and not let that fine bodied red get the better of me. She had a dry aspect that told you beneath her charms was a deep tannic structure that could dominate the evening. One sip and I knew that I wouldn’t just be gaining a case, but a partner.

Pairs with rich and savory foods like ribs, burgers, lamb, potatoes, Roquefort, gouda, chocolate, black cherries and someone tall, dark and handsome.

Posted by Anja Weyant

Ode to the Blackberry Patch

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There is a natural order to things. A progression that life, land, nay, even civilation itself must traverse. Things are born, they grow, then they must pass away. Such is the world we have.

And like all things of this world, our beloved patch of blackberry also went through the inevitable development: wrestled back from the wild, converted into productive farm land, thus yielding bountiful berries. But then the disease set in, and drought, and floods. We fought with ingenuity, with science. We fought with sweat and toil. We pruned and picked. But alas, it succombed to the fate of all our land: from beautiful rows of delicious brambles, to a parking lot.

We loved you blackberry patch. We will miss you. You taught us much, and now we park our trucks on you. But beneath the gravel, we also buried a piece of our hearts.

Posted by Duff Neill and Anja Weyant

Polymer Clay Doll Food

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This year Jeff had the BRILLIANT idea of ordering polymer clay to occupy his many grandchildren (and daughters and wife as well).  Our goal was to create food for the 18in dolls that were the stars of Christmas.  Tina was inspired by someone who created a tiny deviled egg on Pinterest.  The clay arrived in many colors and with a variety of basic tools.  The experience ended up being fun for everyone.   The food was not too complicated because it was made with simple shapes and the scale is 1:3. We went through several pounds of clay and the dolls were thrilled.

Felicity could not believe her luck! At the Merriman General Store she found modern treats like Oreos, candy canes, and S’mores. Just in time for the holidays too! Possibly they were not sold out because other patrons, in 1774, did not know the true joy to be found in an Oreo.

Our Bitty baby is quite the entrepreneur.  She decided – at quite a young age – to open her own bakery, full of macaroons of every color, candies, white chocolate truffles, petit fours, and cupcakes.

Caroline enjoyed a hearty breakfast of monstrous bacon, a small egg, and an even smaller orange (kumquat?) before joining her father out on the skiff.  To think such unique proportions of food were to be found in 1812.

Tina made all the dresses in the above pictures as well, in case you were wondering!

Posted by Anja Weyant