Here’s to the man who drinks water pure and goes to bed quite sober.
Here’s to the man who drinks water pure and goes to bed quite sober.
He falls as the leaves do fall, falls as the leaves do fall, falls as the leaves do fall.
He’ll die before October. –Traditional English drinking song
A deep sense of peace settles over our place each autumn once the last of the apples and grapes are picked, crushed, and pressed and bubbling away in the garage. Making wine or cider requires a lot of labor for a few hours, but the work is pleasant and sociable, and amazingly productive when you consider how long it would take to can or dry all that fruit. With fermentation as with pregnancy, anticipating the outcome lends a quiet excitement to life. The first taste is a celebration, for the product of each pressing is unique and nearly always good, if not great. Like a new lamb, a kitten, or a baby child.
So I always like having scientists confirm that drinking alcoholic beverages is good for us. Carolyn Aldwin and her colleagues at Oregon State University have recently done just that, in reporting results of their eighteen-year study of stress and mortality in middle-aged and older men. The moderate drinkers, the scientists found, lived substantially longer than the teetotalers. What the drinkers drank—wine? beer? cocktails?—apparently wasn’t reported. Maybe the alcohol alone extended their lives, by frequently anesthetizing them against life’s little torments. Maybe the teetotalers shortened their lives by contracting or even skipping the calming ritual involved with having a drink—the sitting at table, the sharing of food, the conversation with friends or family. In any case, says Carolyn Aldwin, “Perhaps trying to keep your major stress events to a minimum, being married, and having a glass of wine every night is the secret to a long life.”
For men, at least. Other studies have found that women are best off without marriage, and that even moderate drinking may increase the risk of female breast cancer. But I trust the wisdom of our ancestors: A little wine or hard cider each day will do you more good than harm. And taking the time to make that wine or cider yourself can only make life sweeter, if not longer.
I totally agree Linda! A glass of wine at the table at night and some good food and good conversation – that is what it is all about….
Sobering advice!
Please write a book about your cider and winemaking! I am making hard cider, too. Haven’t made wine yet.
I might do that, if my husband is willing to serve as co-author. At our place, he’s the one in charge of fermentation of the alcoholic sort.
I hope he will….keep us posted!
cheers! Your books on pickles and preserves are head and shoulders above all others that I’ve consulted and they are very highly regarded in this household. I think that a book on alcoholic beverages (featuring fermentations as well as alcoholic preserves and infusions using commercial spirits) would be a dream come true. I’m forever searching for information about old fruit preserving methods like rumtopf and cherry bounce and there really aren’t a lot of solid sources.
Thanks for your kind words, Kim. I’ll think about your idea.