Maggie Stiefvater

I am learning to imagine the future:

My sycamore tree began life in the gravel at the edge of a parking lot. If trees can feel pain, that is a painful, unlucky death. I carefully dug it up and put it in a pot I made out of a disposable cup.

Hello small one. This world may be cruel, but I will not be.

I decided to take care of it, not expecting it to survive, and when my sycamore tree unfurled one tiny leaf and then another, it chiseled a tiny foothold in my terrified brain, the kind of brain that doesn't remember a world before the atomic bomb and before 9/11.

I googled the lifespans of trees. My neurons had to stretch and expand to accommodate what I learned: My sycamore tree may live five hundred years. It's hard to think something so big. In twenty years, my baby sycamore tree will be three stories tall, and the home of many creatures. In five years, my sycamore tree will be taller than I am. In one year, it will be summer.

There's this concept called sense of foreshortened future where people who have lived through trauma can't conceptualize a future for themselves because deep down they don't expect to survive, When I look forward, all I see is fire and death, melting ice and burning sky. We were raised Evangelical. All we see is Judgment Day, except there is no heaven.

But now there is a tiny gap in the wall, a crack in the door of my cell

and on the other side, I see a tree

There is, in the future, a great old sycamore tree, full of clean winds and the stir of a thousand wings. A hundred years from now. Fifty years from now. There will be forests in that world. There will be a world.

It takes courage, but we have to imagine it.

Most tree species can live in excess of three or four hundred years. I think I'm learning something. I think there are ancient voices saying hello small one, touch the dirt and the leaves, for now you are part of something that cannot die

in 2030 I will be thirty years old and the world will not have ended and there will still be hummingbirds, and we will have photos of the stars more beautiful than we can now imagine.

I planted an Eastern Redcedar; they may live nine hundred years. There will be nine hundred years. The people in that time will remember us. Maybe we will meet the aliens (hi aliens!).

I will blow out the candles on many birthday cakes in a world where there are wolves in dark forests far from home. I am learning to imagine the future. I learned recently that elk were reintroduced to the Appalachian Mountains after over a hundred years of extirpation, and that they are expanding their range.

That tiny crack I can see through now opens a tiny bit more:

Maybe elk will pass through my hometown, maybe there will be a forest where the pasture is on the high hill that I can see from my home

say it, say it, say it: ten years, thirty years, a hundred years from now

I am learning to imagine the future. There is a crack in the wall of this prison, of this machine, of this darkness, and through it, I see a tree.

Well I have woken up. Time to get back into the nonsense, I guess.

Olalla

Maria Vojtovicova

99% rum

I don’t think we talk enough about how, despite the presence of multiple globes, PotC takes place on a flat earth, ice wall included.

A Preview of Spring - I am looking forward to seeing the ferns unfurl their fronds once more.

© riverwindphotography, May 2018

Fairy Glen

mcburneyphotography

A quick introduction to mead making:

Terminology:

Metheglin = Herbed mead

Melomel = mead made with fruit

Carboy = glass container for brewing

Must = yeast sediment that accumulates during brewing

Sodium Metabisulphite = sanitizing powder

green mead = fresh non-aged mead (it’s not literally green)

Rack/Racking = the process of storing and aging finished meads

Equipment/ingredients:

Carboy

Airlock

funnel 

sanitizing agent such as sodium metabisulphite 

(depending on recipe and method) wine/champagne yeast

honey 

non-chlorinated fluoride free water such as spring water or distilled

lemon

fruit/herbs if desired

(optional but recommended) auto-syphon and hose

My basic recipe (for about a gallon):

about 3lbs honey* 

1 gallon spring or distilled water

the juice from half a fresh lemon

about ½ to 2/3 of a 5gram package of blanc wine yeast

*Selecting honey: The kind of honey you use depends on the kind of mead you want, if you use fresh raw honey (i.e. straight from the hive) it will have natural wild yeast in it that can be used in place of added wine yeast. 

Pros of using wild yeast: its free and you could strike gold on flavor.

Cons of using wild yeast: unpredictable flavor, can take longer or even need help to start fermenting process. 

For first time brewers it’s probably a good idea to play it safe and stick with wine yeast, at least until you get the process down and a feel for how things work. You can still use raw honey if you want, just make sure you heat it thoroughly to kill the wild yeast. 

There are other things to keep in mind when choosing honey, the different flowers the bees might collect from effect honey flavor, time of year can also have an effect especially if you’re buying local honey, but there’s no hard or fast rules for choosing honey just go with a flavor you like or even just whatever’s cheap.

Method:

1) sanitize all your equipment especially the carboy

2) If using wine yeast: add all the honey to a large pot and dilute with a bit of your spring/distilled water and heat on low until the honey dissolves and is liquid DO NOT BOIL. (If using wild yeast) mix honey and water but do not heat.

3) pour your honey mixture into the carboy and add the rest of the water making sure to leave at least 6 to 8ins of head space to avoid overflow (the yeast will bubble up a lot in the first week or so of fermenting)

4) add in the yeast and lemon juice and gentle shake the whole thing for about 2 minutes 

5) put the cork and airlock in place, label it with the date, and leave it be, usually bubbling starts within 24hrs but may take longer depending on temperature and yeast.

the length of time needed for fermentation varies by batch, things like temperature, altitude, and sugar content factor into the amount of time needed. It’s important to pay attention to your mead, it will bubble profusely through the airlock early on in fermentation do to the yeast gobbling up sugar and producing gas, this will slow down as the process continues until it stops. Once the fermentation/bubbling stops and the mead looks fairly clear -usually after about a month and a week or so- its ready to be separated from the must.

6) Using an auto-syphon / a small hose and gravity (you can also just pour it very carefully if you have too) separate the clear mead from the must into a clean vessel like a sanitized pot. Note: once again make sure all your equipment/bottles are sanitized  

7) Now you have choices, you should have about a gallon of green mead on your hands it’s technically done and can be enjoyed right away, or you can bottle and rack it for a 1 - 4 months more to achieve a superior tasting aged mead, it’s up to you.

If you are storing your mead in latch-top bottles its best to only fill them up to about where the neck of the bottle meets the wide part, leaving a few inches of headspace in the neck.

Tips/notes:

whether or not you decide to use wine yeast or wild yeast use local farm fresh honey for the best flavor (it also supports your local farmers)

if you decide to rack and age your mead make damn well sure its completely done fermenting, if its not it may continue in the bottle and built up pressure until the bottle explodes.

mead is best drank within about a year of making it but can last up to at least 2 years

if you are planning on making batches one after another make sure to label your bottles so you don’t mix up old and new mead or different flavors

experiment with different types of honey and water to honey ratios to achieve different flavors/alcohol levels

I intentionally left out adding any kinds of fruits or herbs because this is just a basic recipe and depending on what you use there can be different processes, it’s best to do your own research.

There so many different methods and recipes for mead making, if anyone wants to add impute or recipes please do!

@pinetreesandhoneybees @cat-a-holic