{"id":190,"date":"2012-02-01T21:05:00","date_gmt":"2012-02-02T03:05:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/journeythroughtheobsidiandream.wordpress.com\/2012\/02\/01\/imbolc-2012-insert-clever-title-here-also-blackberry-mead"},"modified":"2012-02-01T21:05:00","modified_gmt":"2012-02-02T03:05:00","slug":"imbolc-2012-insert-clever-title-here-also-blackberry-mead","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/journeythroughtheobsidiandream.com\/index.php\/2012\/02\/01\/imbolc-2012-insert-clever-title-here-also-blackberry-mead\/","title":{"rendered":"Imbolc 2012 (Insert Clever Title Here)–Also Blackberry Mead"},"content":{"rendered":"

Imbolc\u2014the Witches\u2019 Sabbat where we huddle together in our cold, cramped apartments, relight our sacred fires, pray for the sun to come back soon<\/em> and quietly acknowledge how glad we are that we\u2019re not actually bound to the agricultural cycle anymore.\u00a0 (Except for those of who are actually suffering from food shortage, but that\u2019s a post for a social justice blog.)\u00a0 Wait.\u00a0 What\u2019s that you say?\u00a0 What the fuck?\u00a0 It was fifty-fucking-four degrees Fahrenheit outside today.\u00a0 How do you celebrate the desperate hope for the return of Spring when it feels like Beltaine outside?<\/p>\n

Well, if you\u2019re me, you duck off into the woods and celebrate like it is<\/em> Beltaine.\u00a0 Because why not?\u00a0 Hooray, hooray!\u00a0 Who needs to wait for the First of May?<\/p>\n

Monday, I bottled my Imbolc mead, made from Pasiphae\u2019s beautiful home-grown blackberries.\u00a0 She gave me so many that, by the time I was done, I had somehow ended up with two gallons of mead.\u00a0 I kept one and left the other with Aradia.\u00a0 It turned out beautifully, and I can\u2019t wait to share it with everyone at the local meat-up tomorrow.<\/p>\n

Unfortunately, I can\u2019t really share the recipe: it was too seat-of-my pants.\u00a0 With the fruit-to-honey ratio I ended up with, it might be more accurately described as \u201cblackberry wine\u201d.\u00a0 Also, I seem to have lost my notes.\u00a0 If I were going to do it over again, this is how I would do it:<\/p>\n

4 lbs honey<\/p>\n

1 gallon ziplock of blackberries (with another waiting in the freezer)<\/p>\n

Lavlin 1118 Champaign yeast<\/p>\n

Yeast nutrient, pectic enzyme, &C.<\/p>\n

Start by sanitizing the must using Campden tablets or the equivalent in your primary fermentation bucket, then add the yeast.\u00a0 Because of the fruit, you\u2019ll want to let this one sit longer than usual.<\/p>\n

When you\u2019re ready to rack, break out the second bag of blackberries, let them thaw, and throw them into your secondary fermenter (if you\u2019re lucky, that\u2019s a 2-gallon carboy; if you\u2019re me, that\u2019s dividing them between two 1-gallon jugs), and rack the mead onto them.\u00a0 Again, leave them in there a little longer than usual.\u00a0 Repeat as many times as you have blackberries.<\/p>\n

Bottle in time for the festivities.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Imbolc\u2014the Witches\u2019 Sabbat where we huddle together in our cold, cramped apartments, relight our sacred fires, pray for the sun to come back soon and quietly acknowledge how glad we are that we\u2019re not actually bound to the agricultural cycle anymore.\u00a0 (Except for those of who are actually suffering from food shortage, but that\u2019s a … Read More<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[1],"tags":[122,155,209,225,238],"class_list":["post-190","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-imbolc","tag-mead","tag-praxis","tag-sabbats","tag-seasons"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p8kUcm-34","jetpack-related-posts":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/journeythroughtheobsidiandream.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/190","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/journeythroughtheobsidiandream.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/journeythroughtheobsidiandream.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/journeythroughtheobsidiandream.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/journeythroughtheobsidiandream.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=190"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/journeythroughtheobsidiandream.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/190\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/journeythroughtheobsidiandream.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=190"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/journeythroughtheobsidiandream.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=190"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/journeythroughtheobsidiandream.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=190"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}