One perk when it comes to growing your own food is that you can gather some of those fruits, vegetables and even flowers from the garden and turn it into wine. It’s satisfying to share a bottle of home grown country wine. Not all vegetables make a nice wine but carrots & parsnips are both wonderful.

Of all the wines that we have made Carrot is the prettiest. It's a beautiful clear amber colour.

What Does Carrot Wine Taste Like?

This recipe makes a semi-dry white wine with a twist. It really does not taste like carrot. One word of warning: Root vegetable wines do tend to turn out stronger than fruit wines.

Helpful Tip

Wait for the first frost before digging up your carrots or keep them in the fridge for a few days. This tends to sweeten them just nicely. You can also use a bag of store bought carrots but be sure to taste them to make sure they are flavourful.

Ingredients

This recipe makes 5 bottles of wine

• 3lb Carrots (scrubbed and chopped - NOT peeled)
• 2 lb Sugar
• 2 Lemons (juice and zest)
• 1 Orange
• 1 Mug strong black tea (you can substitute with 1 cup chopped raisins)
• 1 tsp Pectic enzyme
• 1 Sachet of white wine yeast
• 1 tsp Yeast Nutrient
• 4.5 Litres of purified water

Supplies

• Fermenting pail (food grade bucket)
• Large Tea towels
• Long handled spoon
• siphon tube
• Food strainer
• 1 Gallon demi-john (glass jug with narrow opening)
• Airlock
• 5 Wine bottles/corks

Directions

• Scrub and roughly chop carrots into small chunks. Leave the skin on. Boil them in the water until softened. Do not over boil them, if they are mushy your wine will be cloudy.

• Strain the liquid into a sterilized fermenting bucket. Don't squeeze the pulp. This will create a cloudy wine. Add the sugar and stir. Cover with a large dish towel and let cool. Once cooled, add the pectic enzyme.

• Leave covered for 24 hours. Aerate by stirring vigorously. Add the remaining ingredients except for the yeast.

• Rehydrate the yeast by following the directions on the yeast package. Once the yeast is rehydrated add it to the bucket and give it a quick stir.

• Cover the fermenting pail with a dish towel and allow to ferment for five days. Aerate by stirring once per day except for the last day. You want to leave the sediment on the bottom of the pail so be careful not to disturb the pail on the last day.

• Carefully strain out the solids leaving the sediment in the bottom. Siphon into a 1 gallon demi-john, add an airlock and set aside in a cool dark location.

• Rack off into a fresh demi-john when fermenting (bubbling) appears to have finished: about two weeks. Add a fresh airlock and store in a cool dark location until the wine has cleared: About two months.

• Bottle in sterilized wine bottles and allow to mature for at least six months before drinking (if you can wait that long). The wine really does change and improve in flavour with time.

If you would like to make Parsnip Wine, you can find my recipe here.

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