From the Mind of Trevor Stone

Taking advantage of the long weekend, I harvested 8 pounds of rhubarb on Sunday. This evening I started (with Kelly's help) a batch of rhubarb melomel with 3.5 pounds of it. ("Melomel" is just a fancy word for "mead with fruit." Unless the fruit is grapes, in which case it's a "pyment," or apples, in which case it's a "cyser." This concoction is perhaps more appropriately a vegomel.) I boiled the rhubarb in water and half a cup of lemon juice and within an hour the rhubarb had separated into particles the size of oats or so. Then I zested a lemon into the rhubarb, sliced it into eighths, and tossed those in. The rhubarb taste is already nice and smooth; this concoction is going to be fabulous during the Yule-Christmas-New Year gauntlet. I might throw a few more pounds into the secondary to bring some enhanced tartness to the final output.

So as to make maximum use of a clean kitchen and sanitized equipment, we made extra must with the honey and started two 1-gallon batches without any extra ingredients. One (or maybe both) will get violet leaves in the secondary; I'm thinking hawthorn berries for the other, particularly if I harvest more in time this fall.

We've got about 25 lbs left of the Dutch Gold organic Brazilian wildflower honey we got in bulk for the last batch. That's enough for two dry meads; Kelly has plans for a lavender metheglin. ("Metheglin" is, of course, a fancy word for "mead with herbs.")

Also, I think drinking honey is good for my throat :-)