Winding Down & Stirring Up

So the ciderhouse has now been thoroughly cleaned and put to bed for another year. With the press partially dismantled, there's now quite a bit more room in there to move about and fret over the fermenters and fermentation. A man needs a bit of space to fret properly you see! I'll be fretting all the way through the Winter, topping up, checking the progress of fermentation, before eventually racking off and blending most of the ciders and perrys early in the new year.

Sunday has been a day of rest, but even so I decided to set myself three challenging but achievable goals: 1. Cook a Rabbit in Mustard & Cider, 2. Make the Christmas Pudding (because it's Stir Up Sunday and I must), 3. Spend the whole day in my Dressing Gown. I'm pleased to report that all three goals have been effortlessly achieved, this despite having to regularly retrieve Molly (our current Houdini-Hen) from her adventures in the dangerous 'world outside the garden'. How she keeps getting out is a Cock-a-Doodle mystery, security couldn't be tighter here at Stalag Apfelwein. Perhaps we need to up the raisin and porridge rations...

The Rabbit casserole is the first stage on the road to a batch of Boozy Bunny Pasties. When Karen 'The-Pastry-Queen' returns from her own adventures in Cheltenham, I'll bore you with the details of these wild crimped delicacies... Meanwhile, the Christmas Pudding was 'Stirred-Up' to the same delicious recipe as last year, and merely awaits the addition of some top quality Calvados, liberally applied over the coming weeks. It's already benefited from a good slosh of Rockingham Forest Cider, as indeed have I, because I'm worth it...