Tropical Daze

[dangerdave]

Sounds like your new hobby should be bottling, Tom!

 

[Pumpkinman]

Lmao! I believe that you are correct!

 

[Billberry]

I'm sorry if I'm being a pain in your posterior Tom but when do you add the oak in this recipe? At the beginning or after fermentation? And when should I pull it out? I've never used oak before and I don't want to screw this batch up.
Thanks,
Bill

 

[jamesngalveston]

Guess i have to go to store now dangit...I will start one this weekend...
THanks tom..

 

[Pumpkinman]

LOL! My work is finished here...LMFAO!!!

 

[jamesngalveston]

never asked, but do you grow pumpkins are something....like the pumpkin king, are a pumpkin chunker....
work is done, LOL is right.

 

[btom2004]

LOL! My work is finished here...LMFAO!!!

Not just yet I. also wanted to known when to oak ?
You did add it to the primary , if so how long?

 

[wineforfun]

I think you can oak either way. One batch of DB I did, I oaked after I had cleared and backsweetened. I added some oak cubes into the carboy and let them sit for 4-6 weeks.

 

[Pumpkinman]

James, I grow giant pumpkins competitively, my biggest being 1401.5 lbs.
You can add oak either during fermentation or during the aging process, I find that if you add it during fermentation, the oak is smoother, "married" with the wine, I prefer this, but adding it later wont hurt it.

 

[jamesngalveston]

are you kidding...1401.5 lb pumpkin..holy shhhhhhttt....that weighs more then my jet skis.
man i would love to see some pics of those things, if you ever get a chance, please post some....
drop me an email when you can..i lost yours.

 

[Tess]

This sounds really good too. Man there is just not enough time in the day or enough carboy in the world Tom, Im sure u gotta have a photo or two of this pumpkin.

 

[jamesngalveston]

no,,,dont show tess..she will be dreaming of pumpkin pies to decorate with.....and I like reading her comments here....

 

[Pumpkinman]

.
.
.
.Here is a pic of the 1401.5 lb fruit
.
.
..

 

[Tess]

Wow!! You could move into that thing Tom, your younger then I thought. I just pictured you a lot older!

 

[Pumpkinman]

lol, do I sound like an old grouchy man?!...LMAO!! well, I am, at 46, soon to be 47 yrs old.

 

[jamesngalveston]

dang tom...I almost do not know what to say... that thing is huge....
what the heck you do, just wake up one morning and say to your self, I am going to grow big *** pumpkins...LOL
is that one going to be in the pumpkin contest.....

 

[Pumpkinman]

James...LMFAO!!!! well it almost went like that..lol..I'll try to make a very long story short:
I was contacted yrs ago to design a website for the NY Giant Pumpkin Growers Assoc. but before I spent time and money on it, my wife and I wanted to make sure that it wasn't a joke...I mean who grows giant pumpkins?
We traveled a few hrs to Cooperstown NY to meet these guys and saw dozens of huge pumpkins, we stayed to see the weigh off and saw how much fun these guys, very normal people, were having. Right there I decided that I wanted to try my hand at it.

I went home and proceeded to cart in several dump truck loads of manure and till the entire backyard...LMAO....my wife was pissed to say the least....he he

Fast forward a few yrs, and we are starting to do really well, and one evening I get a call from Australia...the person on the other end told me that they were from PBS looking to film a documentary for the "In the Pursuit of Excellence" series ....I though it was my buddies playing a joke on me, so I said..."sure come on over"...

About 3 weeks later, we get a very official call from PBS confirming that their film crew would be spending a few days at our place filming, and they gave me a few names to call (fellow growers) to confirm that it wasn't a joke....

So here I am weeding and trying to make my patch/garden of 3000 sq ft look pristine at the end of the season, almost October, most anything green had died due to cold weather and age, it wasn't fun...lol

At 8 am several trucks roll in and proceed to take over my back yard, for two days, I had to shot, re-shoot, and shoot the same damn shots over and over and over....
They actually followed a bunch of us to the weigh off and filmed me weighing my first 1000 lber, all in all it was a cool experience.

To date, the show has been seen all over the world, I still get the occasional email from someone across the globe...lol
I am told that you can find it on YouTube, it is called Lords Of The Gourds.

That is about as truncated as I can make a story about my other hobby that I started 10 yrs ago.

Tom

 

[WI_Wino]

How do you transport and weigh a > 1000 lb pumpkin? Forklift and truck scale?

 

[Tess]

LMAO "Are you growing Pot"? Loved it. Hey Tom, ever made pumpkin wine? Was it any good?

[ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kynO36yA3y8"]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kynO36yA3y8[/ame]

 

[jamesngalveston]

Funny how things like hobbies evolve....I fished, and when I say fished I mean like fished all over the world type...I have fished in 15 countries and about every state in the US. Why....because I could and I love it.
I still try to make at least one out of country fishing trip a year. But at 60 Im starting too slow down a bit...Sometimes its very rugged and remote places i go too.
Any how, i love reading the story....and I wish you all the luck in the world...
I think you deserve it..