Making Pillars, New Search Pages

Our pillars are not mass produced like many large candle shops. Like all of our candles they are hand made at our farm from Michigan Beeswax.

Pillars need to cool very slowly over 24 hrs to reduce cracks and shrinkage and we needed a new cooling tank to produce them in. We now use a 55 gallon barrel partially filled with sand and electric heaters installed in it. With this we can gradually control the cooling temperature of the pillars. Our new tank can cool 12 to 15 pillars at one time overnight.

We have revised our Candle Search Pages with more images to help you find thing quicker.

New Items Added, Candle burning notes

We have so many new items to add to our candle shop that we are going to introduce half of them in this newsletter and the rest in our Early Spring Issue.

During the process of making these new candles, we test burn every one to match the best size wick to the candle. We end up having about a dozen different candles burning in our kitchen at the same time. Here are a few notes on wicks.

• Trim the wicks frequently. Square braid cotton wicks used for beeswax create a "flower" on the tops and sometimes they burn better with it trimmed off. Many times I trim the wick with a scissors when it is still burning.
• When relighting the candles the next day, occasionally the wicks become too short and are hard to light. A small cavity can be scraped out around the wick to help get it started properly.
• Pillars normally burn close to the edge of the candle but sometimes may overflow. Always make sure they are in a proper container to catch wax.

Click here for the rest of the tips........

Here are a few of the new Candles:

Click here to go directly to our Winter Vineyard Report.

Lincoln Peak Vineyard, Winecomputer.com, Winter Grape Recipe

Cold Hardy Grapes!
We just received an email from Lincoln Peak Vineyard. If you want to grow grapes in a cold climate this is a site to look at.
www.lincolnpeakvineyard.com

Can you really grow grapes in the North?

"Grape growers in places like New England and the Upper Midwest used to be limited to a few varieties like Concord. Even these grapes didn’t always ripen in our relatively short growing season, and even when they did ripen, they were suitable mostly for jelly and juice. Their “foxy” flavor was nothing that wine drinkers wanted in their glass.

But all that is changing, in large part because of the work of one man, Elmer Swenson of Osceola, Wisconsin. Elmer (as he is universally known among grape growers) is a self-taught grape breeder, a modern-day Luther Burbank, the Johnny Appleseed of the vine. Now near 90, he has spent his lifetime on a small Wisconsin farm crossing the winter-hardy but sour native grapes with the lush-flavored but tender European grapes. After decades of work, and tens of thousands of seedlings, he has succeeded in creating grape varieties that combine the best of both types."

Winter hardy grapevines including: Frontenac, Sabrevois, St Croix, Landot
Noir, Louise Swenson, Prairie Star, Swenson White, La Crescent, Frontenac
Gris, Swenson Red, Somerset Seedless.

Visit their site for more info.

Lincoln Peak Vineyard and Nursery
262 River Rd
New Haven, Vermont 05472
Chris Granstrom
802-388-7368
http://www.lincolnpeakvineyard.com

WineComputer.com is another interesting site for the home winemaker.
Lots of tools and info on winemaking. The site includes Java applets for adjusting potential alcohol, total acidity and use of sulfite, book reviews, a fruit wine composer, forums etc.

This is a continuation of a story that we started in September 2003 - showing how we make wine at our farm.

September 2003 - Many years we are so busy, and the grapes are sold so quickly we tend to take whatever is left for our own wine. This year I decided that I wanted some Baco-Foch red wine so I had some picked before our customers picked them first.   

Fall - 2004    Sandy Paetz, our MSU wine student (just a kid in his 50's), and I were sampling some of the wine and decided that it needed some treatment. The wine was a little high in acid to taste. (I did not really measure it like I should of - but tested it by tasting.) We decided to treat the wine with Calcium Carbonate to reduce the acid and also add some ground oak chips for a little oak flavor.

The Honeybees are resting, Making Creamed Honey

Click here to go directly to our Winter Honey Farm Report.

The honeybees are resting this time of the year.

During the summer the worker bees live ONLY 6 WEEKS due to the heavy workload. This time of the year the bees are on vacation, with no extra work and they will live 3 to 6 months until they start getting busy in spring.

Most of our colonies are wrapped with dark plastic insulation to help them stay warm.

We use this time of the year to prepare our Cinnamon and Apricot Creamed Honey for this year. Our creamed honey is made by "seeding" a 400lb tank of honey with finely granulated crystals of creamed honey. Either ground apricots or cinnamon is also added, blended in and bottled, the mixture will now solidify into a smooth spread that has the consistancy of butter.

Winter 2005 Honey Recipe - Central Valley Brisket
From Honey.com

Our new line of Stained Glass Suncatchers were a hot item over the Holidays.

This grape suncatcher is available for $24.00.
Click here to purchase one.....

We will have additional leaded glass items in the near future, all with a Vineyard, Honey or Candle theme. If you have an idea for one, let us know and we can make it.

Our soap was so popular last month that we completely ran out. We now have ample supplies available.

Along with our Unscented Golden Honey soap and our Honey Almond Oatmeal we have added a Lavendar (with soothing Lavendar essential oils) and Sweet Muscato, a fragrance popular with winemakers.

Candle dipping frames,  ••   Thank you for the order - loves the product,  ••   Votive burning problem,  ••   Served mead at a wedding,  ••   2.5 lb raw honey,  ••   Storing/using raw honey,  ••   Dipping beeswax candles outdoors over a wood fire,  ••   What variety was "Eastern White",  ••   Mead making & wife and I are traveling to Prague

Congratulations!

Winter candle winner: vali_enache@hotmail.###


Will this months w*nner,
vali_enache@hotmail.###

please contact us and send your address so that I can ship your candles.

Our list of previous candle w*nners.

Click below for something silly to end this newsletter with.