Tomato Wine?!

[sister]

Wondering if any of you fine people have attempted to try home made tomato wine? This is a recipe I found today on a home brew forum:

4 lbs fresh, ripe red tomatoes
2 lbs granulated sugar
3-1/2 qts water
2 tsp acid blend
1/2 tsp pectic enzyme
1/8 tsp grape tannin
1 tsp yeast nutrient
1 crushed Campden tablet
1 pkg Champagne or Montrachet yeast

Boil water and dissolve sugar. Meanwhile, wash and cut fruit into chunks, discarding any bruised or insect-scarred parts. Pour fruit and any juice from cutting into nylon straining bag in primary. Tie bag and squash the fruit. Pour the boiling water with dissolved sugar over fruit. Cover and allow to cool one hour, then add acid blend, tannin, yeast nutrient, and crushed Campden tablet. Stir, recover and after 12 hours add pectic enzyme. Wait another 12 hours and add yeast. Stir twice a day for 7 days. Remove nylon bag and allow to drip drain, adding drained juice to primary; do not squeeze bag. Siphon liquid off sediments into secondary, top up, and fit airlock. Rack every 60 days until wine clears, then wait two weeks and rack again. Add stabilizer, wait 10 days, sweeten to taste with sugar water, then bottle. Wine will mature in one year and should be served chilled. [Adapted from Terry Garey's The Joy of Home Winemaking]

An old friend used to make tomato wine years ago, sadly he has passed on so I can't ask him about the process. It was very, very tasty! I would love to try making this, if I can get the same results.

[Gaia]

loll !!! http://t1.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcT1i1kEEFOvMoHcheLwGVe9QJ3b6dPxBweznkTISjlRHvao3j7B

You have to try this to beleive it. I have had this recipe for years shared by a friend...And it's excellent ! Thanks for sharing !!!

[blufire]

My Great Granny used to make tomato wine, along with elderberry wine, muscadine wine, blackberry wine and . . . . .quite a bit of Moonshine . . . ;)

She was a true Mountain Wise Woman. She was an herbalist and bee charmer, who people from all over the Appalachians would come to for healing.

I think of the immense amount of wisdom that passed with her at the age of 104 . . . . such a tremendous loss. I used to resent as a little girl when I had to go with her on her foraging trips into the woods. She would direct me how to precisely cut bark from trees so not to harm the tree and how to carefully dig roots to always leave enough for regeneration. Her little house was always full of strange things hanging from the rafters and stored in Mason and jelly jars.

I wish I would have paid more attention.

[John Parslow]

Hello sister

I'll take a case please ...

Best regards to you. JP :cool:

[azure]

Wow I have never heard of tomato wine before. My family used to make dandelion and banana wine though. It has a nice kick to them, too :P

[John Parslow]

Hello all

Back in my home brew days I used to make the following: Elderflower (dry sparkling white), Elderberry (strong dark ruby - headache material), Parsnip (almost whisky overtones - very strong) and my favourite; Loganberry (like pink Champagne - very explosive) ...

All the best to all home wine makers. JP :cool:

[king anthony]

Wondering if any of you fine people have attempted to try home made tomato wine?

Can this be bought in stores?

[blufire]

Something I find fascinating about the people like my Granny is they didn’t have the tablets, packaged yeasts and store bought processed sugar. She made all her wines and brews literally from scratch.

She had knowledge on how to “capture” wild yeasts from the air and carefully maintain “starters”. I remember very clearly a crock that had her vinegar “Mother” in it. No one was allowed to go near the Mother!! It looked like something from a horror movie, in all its frothing. gelatinous mass. From the mother she would cut a small piece to make many different kinds of vinegars, wines and preserving brines. I would venture to guess she had the mother for many, many years.

I remember helping her when we would collect honey from the bees without any protection. She would say. “Now young un’ you show no fear, work slow and steady and the bees won’t bite”. Amazingly she would tell me to “push” love to the bees and thank them “in my heart” for their gift. I was never stung while working the bees with Granny. I remember her humming softly and smiling as we moved around the hives with the bees all around us. She said bees could smell people who were lazy and would chase them for fun and she would always bring up an Uncle who in her words was a “no account” and roll with laughter with memories of her bees chasing him around the yard.

I am proud to say I have my own bees now and my own little “Mother” happily growing and frothing. . . .

[blufire]

Wondering if any of you fine people have attempted to try home made tomato wine?

Can this be bought in stores?


I have never seen tomato wine in stores here in U.S. Many times wines using items like tomatoes is a way to preserve vegetables or fruits that you have an overabundance.

It is common for plants to run in cyclical patterns. Last year here in this latitude and longitude we had a great harvest of wild elderberry. We may not see this abundance again for many years. It is part of working with the cycles of Mother Earth and the ebb and flow of her.

Also I have learned to pay attention when there is an abundance of a certain plant in the wild . . . . many times it is an insight to what you may need medicinally in the near future. Elderberry is an excellent antiviral.