Sassafrass Wine? Whoever heard of such a thing! Sassafrass tea, yes. Sassafrass as a flavoring for root beers, sure. But sassafrass wine?
Well, yes, Matilda. And it is good stuff (or at least I like it :). Last spring I dug a lot of sassy roots. I love the tea, and found the recipe for the wine over at Jack Weller's amazing wine-making page. I won't bother to copy the recipe over here; just click on the link and you'll come to the recipe.
Wine-making isn't difficult to do, although getting a really fine wine takes time and some effort and good ingredients. I made about 10 gallons of different kinds of wine last spring/summer. Now that it is January, it was time to taste and enjoy at least some of them. When I first tasted my sassafrass wine (probably a month or two into the process) it didn't taste very good. With these 7 months later, though, it has mellowed into a really tasty wine (once you get over the surprise of a wine tasting like sassafrass). I've been enjoying a glass every once in a while. I also made wines from nettles, strawberries, blueberries, raisins, dandelion flowers, peaches, and a few others I can't remember at the moment. All of them using the recipes at Jack Keller's page. And some of them turned out better than others.
Jack Keller has some recipes for wines made out of the strangest things. He's also a forager and enjoys making wines from wild plants and herbs. Here's a few of those I thought rather odd, but definitely fun to make. Wines from turnips, ginger root, eggplant, jalapenos, corn, chicory, leeks, even garlic wine. It's a very interesting page overall. Check out his list of requested recipes. What a hoot! And yes, the sassafrass wine is very tasty. Wish I could share a glass with all of you!
Onwards,
HM
