Wine Labels
My father has taken up wine making and beer making and cider making in the last couple of years as another way to put up the excess fruit that they get every year. They freeze and can a lot of it too and they manage to live almost entirely off the fruits of their garden through the winter months almost as much as the summer months. This year my father received a treasured family heirloom: the cider press that belonged to his grandfather. He remembers this cider press being parked in a dairy barn and all of the family coming and many of the neighbors too, to press their apples into cider. He continues the tradition by collaborating on the beverage making process with several young neighbors. My favorites out of his home made beverages are the perry (a pear cider), the apricot wine, and a plum beer - he also made an awesome Merlot from grapes he picked at a local farm. Both he and my mother have given away fruits of their garden and harvest labor ever since I can remember. It was this that made my dad decide he needs a label. So we have embarked on a father-daughter search for the image we want to use most for his label and then I will help him format it so he can put his name on it, the name of the particular beverage, and the year. I'm rather fond of the picture below which is a modified image of the beloved cider press. What do you think?
My father has taken up wine making and beer making and cider making in the last couple of years as another way to put up the excess fruit that they get every year. They freeze and can a lot of it too and they manage to live almost entirely off the fruits of their garden through the winter months almost as much as the summer months. This year my father received a treasured family heirloom: the cider press that belonged to his grandfather. He remembers this cider press being parked in a dairy barn and all of the family coming and many of the neighbors too, to press their apples into cider. He continues the tradition by collaborating on the beverage making process with several young neighbors. My favorites out of his home made beverages are the perry (a pear cider), the apricot wine, and a plum beer - he also made an awesome Merlot from grapes he picked at a local farm. Both he and my mother have given away fruits of their garden and harvest labor ever since I can remember. It was this that made my dad decide he needs a label. So we have embarked on a father-daughter search for the image we want to use most for his label and then I will help him format it so he can put his name on it, the name of the particular beverage, and the year. I'm rather fond of the picture below which is a modified image of the beloved cider press. What do you think?
I like it, but does it have room on it for the words?
ReplyDeletemmm....wine. beer. cider. all of it. yes.
ReplyDeleteIt's a little difficult to distinguish, but many labels are that way.
ReplyDeleteThe plum beer sounds amazing! The image is interesting- would the text be in black, white or color? If black/white a delicate font might get lost easily.
ReplyDeletei like it. but back to the wine. does your dad ship? can you ask?
ReplyDeletewow! that's a beautiful cider press, and i love the photo. there's a lot you could do with the image, but i like it just the way it is. especially how the graininess makes you think of its history
ReplyDeleteYou continue to reveal interesting things about your life.Would love to compare yourcider with the one I get in Normandie!
ReplyDeleteYou can find blank labels ready for printing in your laser or inkjet printer at the link below:
ReplyDeletehttp://www.onlinelabels.com/wine-bottle-labels.htm
I sure like the cider press photo, but the one of the roof peak is good too!
ReplyDeleteLove it!
ReplyDeleteAny chance of sharing the plum beer recipe? We have a tree that gives us more gorgeous yellow plums than we know what to do with - and of course they all ripen within a week. We give away bags and bags of fruit every year, even after filling the freezer and making more jam and plum cakes than we can eat! Experiments with our dehydrator were not overly successful.
Got anything for figs too?
it all sounds wonderful.. what great adventures to have with your family.
ReplyDeleteOh, that's a great image! I'm a total visual whore for a good wine label, too.
ReplyDeleteNot that I really know what the term "visual whore" means. I just like the sound of it.
That is so wonderful to still have the old cider press. Your parents live just as I hope to when we retire. We do brew our own beer now, but sadly our constant moving keeps us from having any fruit of our own.
ReplyDeletelove it. and cider is one of my favorite things, ever, to make it yourself...oh, fantastic!
ReplyDeletewell, for the actual label I thought I'd put the image in the middle with a outline and then the words around it.
ReplyDeletejen, well he does, to friends ... I'm not sure if he ships to mine yet but I could ask!
matte, that's what I love about it too ... the visual history.
hypoglycemiagirl, well, we'll have to make a comparison date sommetime :)
froghair, I am inordiantely fond of that roofpeak photo but I think I may get out voted. That's the old potatoe shed cum greenhouse.
cae, I don't know the exact recipe, we follow one...but it involves sugar & water & yeast. Strange that your dehydrator didn't work, what kind do you use?
mary alice, indeed. They are retired and love it.
The dehydrator works just fine with our figs and pears, but our gorgeous sweet yellow plums turn out mouth-puckeringly sour for some reason. They're basically inedible. I've experimented with different drying times, blanching vs. not, cutting into different size pieces, just breaking the skin, not cutting at all etc. (I drove hubby crazy by only changing one variable at a time and insisting on using controls). I guess they're just the wrong kind of plums.
ReplyDeleteThe jam is awesome though. I just had some on my oatmeal - yum.