Summer Wild Edibles and Wild Brew! Woohoo!

After a break to accommodate real life and my addictions to pick-your-own farms and canning, I finally made it back to one of Tim MacWelch's (@timmacwelch) wild edibles classes and a wild brewing class. This time I dragged my daughter along as well. (Okay, getting a 22-year-old to a brewing class didn't require much dragging.)

Dried Sassafras Leaves

Of the edibles classes so far, the summer class was one of the best and I have to credit the blackberries. I love summer fruits and I'd have been perfectly happy if all we did was park in front of the blackberry bramble to graze.

It was a large class, but we were still able to cover a lot of ground. I know. I have the step count on my pedometer to prove it. I learned a few new plants and was able to identify a few that changed their appearance for summer.

I also got to bring home some sassafras from the Wild Brew class and I dried the leaves and will go into some stew or gumbo this fall. The roots will most likely end up in a soda or an ale. I haven't decided yet.

The ale brewing
over the campfire.

Mallory adding
the spice bush
to the ale.

Wild brewing was a blast and not just because Tim brought samples.  We started off the morning with a maple wine toast to the day, then jumped into brewing basics and beer brewing. It took some discussion, but the group finally decided on a Spice Bush Amber Ale. The students set off to find the spice bush from the previous day's class. Thankfully, we had a ringer who knew the property. A friend of Tim's was there to chaperon or I'd have been lost for sure. (I can get lost in my own small condo!) Mallory got to add the spice bush and pitch the yeast for the ale.

Moving on to the wine, we knew we'd be doing blackberries and all of us (except Tim - he's a sly one) braved the blackberry brambles, ticks, and sun to acquire our three pounds of wine in waiting. This wine will be amazing considering the blood, sweat, and tears we all shed for it.

Blackberry Spice Bush Mead
in the making.

Tim's hibiscus flower mead  rounded out our afternoon break and set the mood for the final project - mead!

The flavorings for the mead were a source of great discussion. We considered a great many things, even wild carrot, but finally settled on blackberry and spice bush. We had enough leftover from bottling that we all got a taste of the unfermented juice. It tasted fantastic. It is going to be a fantastic mead.

Mallory had enough fun in the class, she's all set to start brewing at home too. She's scouted out the local brewing store and priced out the basic supplies on Amazon already. She's got a steady supply of bottles courtesy of her also 22-year-old friends.

The class was also great fodder for things you don't normally hear in conversation:

• "Kiddo, please get the blackberry branch off my butt."
• "Burn that sum'bitch. Burn him. Burn him." (about a tick found on someone's pants)
• "A tick will turn a die-hard pacifist into cold-blooded killer."
• "This stick smells like french fries." (About the oak stick we stirred the ale with.)

Ale, Wine, Mead