It was very good. Here’s the notes I entered into my brewing log last night:
"Still keeping very well, not many bottles left. A bit fizzy just out of the bottle but the head settles quickly to a pleasant level. Colour is dark red in the main cider, with a light-pink foamy head. Taste is pleasant cherry but there is a bit of a tart aftertaste. I think most people would not be bothered by mildly-tart aftertaste, and I have had many commercial hard apple ciders that are much more acid than my cherry cider, but I note it for completeness plus the fact that I’m not a fan of acidity. The taste is a very nice strength level so I would not want to dilute the juice with more water to lower the acidity, nor would I want the taste any stronger by increasing the juice to water ratio.
One thing to consider though is to try making a cider the same as this, but using all Juliet cherry juice as it has the lowest level of acidity. Or Juliet and Cupid juice, as Cupid has only marginally more acid than Juliet. This current cherry cider was made with a mix of Carmine Jewel, Romeo and Juliet juices, but I didn’t record the specific amounts of each type of juice.
All in all, a very successful cherry cider, and about 6% alcohol by volume."
Hi everyone. Looking forward to planting 1 or 2 romance cherries this spring (likely Juliet) – for fruit but also as an ornamental. I have a thing for fall colour so I’m wondering if I can expect any nice fall colour on these? I saw a northstar cherry in the nursery last fall that had nice bright orange leaves, and I’ve read that evans cherry turns nice colours - but it’s hard to find info about this for the romance series cherries and I haven’t seen any pictures of the fall foliage. Any help is appreciated, thanks!
I put in a few blueberries over the last several years (patriot, chippewa and blueray) - slow to get going but you’re right they all have intense red fall colour. Just hoping the Juliet will give me a bit of orange!
I like trying to use ornamental trees when possible. Like I have two different variegated elderberries, and a contorted quince, and want to add others like Autumn Brilliance serviceberry. Blueberries are very cool too, but I tend to grow for flavor not color. Some of the newer ones look fantastic but fruit quality is unknown. I do have Pink Popcorn and the berries are almost white. A very pretty plant when in fruit. the berries are a little chewy but decent flavor. Many think because a fruit is white it doesn’t have antioxidants, that would be a mistake, they most certainly do!
Besides mentioned in the promos for Pink Popcorn, white antioxidants are well documented like the ones in egg whites
yes you need the colors, but many non color compounds are also antioxidants.
Colored fruit has more for sure, but obtaining as many kinds as possible seems like a good idea to me. I consume Magnolia vine berries and it is believed that some of the unique compounds only found in this berry are beneficial. They have not been tested at this point.
They have aromatic compounds like Ginger, Black currants, All spice, Clove etc.
The call it the five flavor berry. Salty, sweet, sour, pungent (spicy), and bitter.
Also known as Schisandra.
You can’t eat the berries raw. They are mealy and much like eating cranberries raw, not a good idea. Although processed cranberry is divine. I make a tea and add mint. Excellent flavor like that, love it. A very unique taste, nothing to compare to, if you mixed cranberry and ginger, maybe sorta like that. I make tea from fresh or dried berries. I make fresh when I first harvest, but usually dry them. I boil them for 5 minutes, crush the berries and strain out.
I prefer to strain out the berries. I tried it as a powder and it is too strong and gritty. Maybe the powder in tea bags would be good.
I have only made tea, but why not? Mine took 2-3 years to fruit. I get about 500 berries. In the fall of 2017 we had an early fall freeze down to 21F, and it damaged the plant, I didn’t get any berries last summer, and half the plant died. It looks to have recovered, but it never looked good all year. Hopefully it is OK. I still have berries from 2017. So I’m good. A shame as 2017 was a bumper crop. Now I’m certainly set back a year or two. I bet it will fruit next year. I expect 1/3 to 1/2 the yield of 2017.
I lost 3 seedling peach trees, 3 mulberry trees that were young, 2 fig trees and damaged about 30 other fig trees. Yeah I know, I have way too many figs! The in ground stone fruit trees were fine, no effect, same with potted and in ground blueberries, honeyberries, and currants. No damage at all, tough puppies!
So where does one find a magnolia vine? What zone is it rated? Do SWDs or birds bother it? Can it take shade? Is it invasive? I am curious about it. I have ample space, but not sufficient energy to care for more fruits. Could one just plant some seeds?
I just googled it. Sounds like quite the miracle drug by an outfit that sells the powder. I wonder how a spoonful of berries would go in a blueberry or strawberry milkshake? You are only supposed to take a little each day. You could probably extend your life another 20 or 30 years with just one bush! Well, I am still curious to taste it. They are supposedly zone 4 and like some shade.
Schizandra is very prized in Chinese medicine. Because it has the five flavors, it benefits the five organ systems named in TCM. Each organ system supposedly has a particular taste or flavor that it corresponds to. The heart - bitter; liver - sour; spleen (pancreas) - sweet; kidneys - salt; and lungs - acrid or spicy.
A very interesting berry, found this article on it, but there are others out there.
I’m not sure where you can get it? i will check my resources. You must buy the cultivar Eastern Prince, otherwise you need a male, and a female plant. It’s the only cultivar with perfect flowers. It is not invasive, Eastern Prince does not seem to sucker much, but I have heard the male and females do. It has a rather tough skin, no SWD problems. It likes some shade and it is a vine so needs some kind of support. I grow mine on a chain link fence.
Yes, but even Eastern Prince will only produce males and females, so not true from seed as far as perfect flowers.
I bet well!
yeah you beat me to it. I had to stop and make dinner for the wife. ER nurse, Comes home at 8:15. She does 12 hours shifts, not sure how?
I was thinking of ordering some hazelnut trees from them, but still looking around as prices are steep, 35 bucks a tree and I need three of them. If I do order, I can pick up the vine for you. Though I have not decided yet. I am buying three trees. I think i did order it from OGW as I have ordered stuff from them in the past. I will look around too as I’m looking for the hazelnuts I want.
Burntridge has it too! Their hazelnuts are 10 bucks cheaper, and they have the three I want! I see I did mark them to look at already duh!
