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2013,06,01, Saturday
この時季は天気や気温の変化が気になります。甘夏の収穫・出荷が済むとほっと一息、少しのんびりした気分がなお一層、うきうきした気持ちにさせるみたい。
どこかへ出かけようというわけではありません。梅の収穫を迎えるのです。花の時期から春先まで、気象状況もよかったため、出来はまずまずといったところ。今年も梅しごとを迎えられそうです。  特に青梅は品質の変化が早いので、加工は段取りよく取り掛からねばなりません。我が家で利用するのは、出荷できないキズ物や規格外のものですが、込めた愛情は美品と同じ。何とか生かし切りたいものです。 毎年飲みきってしまっていたのですが、かんまん部屋へのお客さまにも好評だった梅酒を、今年は大幅に量を増やして漬け込むことにしました。定番の梅ジュースは僕の夏場の仕事を支えてくれます。梅肉エキスは最近では（う）も（す）もお気に入りで、ちょっと体調を崩したときにも重宝するので、毎年たくさん作ります。手はふやけてしわしわ、青梅の果汁が爪の間にしみ込んで痛いのを我慢しながら、「来年はこんなにやらなくてもいいよな」と毎年思うのに、梅が目の前にあると、つい気合が入ってやり切ってしまいます。カリカリ梅にも取り組んでみました。梅肉エキスが煮詰まったのは未明のころ、（わ）は大変お疲れさまでした。     今年は嬉しいお便りがひとつ。友人夫婦の初子が誕生し、「誕生記念に梅酒を作りたい、渾身の一本を成人祝いに開けるんだ！」なんてメールが届きました。うちの梅を使いたいなんて、そりゃなんてありがたいことでしょう。発送して間もなく、記念写真が送られてきました。  この子の誕生を、心よりお喜び申し上げます。おめでとう！ ありがとう！ （ゆ） Working on plums -unripe plums In this season, I'm quite sensitive about the changes of weather and temperature. Moreover, after finishing the cultivation and selling of Amanatsu, I'm a bit relaxed. I even feel a kind of excitement not because I've got some plans of traveling, but because the season for Japanese plum starts. It has been a good weather for plums since the flowers were in bloom, so they are in good condition. Now it's time to enjoy working on plums. After picking, we need to be especially organized and prepared to deal with unripe green plums because the quality changes rapidly. We use non-standard plums for our own consumption, but I've taken care of them with as great care as the standard ones that we sell. So, we try to utilize all of them anyways. This year, we decided to prepare Umeshu (plum wine) much more than last year. Usually, Umeshu bottles get empty quite fast because our guests love to drink a lot whenever they stay with us. So why not prepare more? Plum juice can't be forgotten too, which saves me after the hard work during summer. Plum extract is our reliable health food, and now Umeo and Sukla also love to take it everyday. Plum extract really works when you upset your health as well, so we make it quite a lot every year. During the preparation of the extract, our skin gets wrinkly, and the juice from unripe plum makes the cuticles of our nails painful. Baring those pains, I always think that we don't need to do this much next year, but whenever I see a lot of plums in front of us, I can't help working on all of them! Plum extract really takes time, so it was done till after midnight. Wakana really worked hard! We got one happy news this year. A friend of ours had a baby, and they emailed me saying "we'd love to make Umeshu to commemorate our son's birth, so please send unripe plums. We are going to open the bottle when he becomes 20 years old!" How cool that they want to use our plums for the special bottle. Soon after sending plums, they sent us a picture of their Umeshu. We are really happy for their child's birth. Congratulations! Yuki |
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