This time of year one thing happens that has absolutely no relation to holidays: late berries (cranberries, lingonberries, rowan) spent enough time in frozen state to develop flavor worth of melomels. A gift for self in several years, something to be safely forgotten until bottling and then again.
Of course, I’ve kept those in freezer, as I don’t want to fight all the birds for rowans (note: they still had plenty, I’m not greedy) and I’m not that good at digging frozen forest floor for the rest.
Oh, got carried away and missed another question. I’m actually throwing all good quality stuff in melomels, there are no favorites really. Other than Vaccinium uliginosum (English words for berries are terribly misleading, used interchangeably for pretty much all berries of same color - so these are usually called “blueberries”, but that’s not what is called “blueberries” in USA, for example) berries that result in something that shames wine made of grapes - so much cheaper, literally grows in most unfarmable places, melomel tastes similarly but better, and no pretense about “grape locality” and “northern slope” - just good stuff, every time.
Cranberries and lingonberries are kind of staple berries here, rowan is less known but also abundant and tastes great. Other hidden treasures I’ve found include hawthorn, ribes, and (very unexpectedly) hippophae. Now it’s time for imported citrus fruits (skins are best part for melomel) but I’m all out of started base mead (and almost out of space).
Thank you, I really appreciate this. Dang those sound delicious. I am going to have to look around for a beekeeper and get started.