March 18, 20163 min read

The wine season is well and truly here!

“Life is too short to drink bad wine.”

- Anonymous

Wow, didn't the "wine season" catch everyone off guard this year! With a dry Winter in 2015 and hot conditions over the last three months of Summer, Victoria has experienced a record breaking early vintage. And when the grapes are ready, they're ready! There's no delaying the picking, and thus the stages of the wine making process must go on....

Whilst the team at Home Make It welcome the wine season and take absolute delight in sharing their passion and knowledge for making homemade wine, it has occurred simultaneously with this years' "tomato season", so you can only imagine how crazy busy the stores have been. A big thank you to all our customers for their patience and understanding over the last few weeks. On a positive note, we are fully stocked with all the equipment and supplies required for both the tomato and wine seasons, so come in store or purchase ONLINE for all your supplies.

As you are aware, our stores offer a complimentary wine analysis for our customers making homemade wine. Customers are encouraged to bring in samples of their juice/wine at all the critical stages of the wine making process, including crushing, pressing, racking and bottling. Here's some tongue in cheek advice from our resident wine making guru and team member, Steven Lamberto....

~ Store Trading Hours ~

To accommodate the crazy tomato and wine season, we have extended the trading hours as follows;

Saturdays - 9.00am - 3.00pm (March until July)
Sundays - 9.00am - 1.00pm (March & April only)

Please note our store trading hours over the Easter period;

stores will be closed 25th to 28th March 2016
stores will reopen Tuesday 29th March 2016.

~ Melbourne Tomato Festival ~

What a bumper of a tomato season it's been. Lush, ripe tomatoes in an abundance! Our crew have been seeing red, especially on the back of the hugely successful Melbourne Tomato Festival at Edendale Farm a few weeks ago. Here are some highlights from the day.

Images by: Stephen Taranto Photography

If you would like to see more images, you will find them on our FACEBOOK page.

Congratulations to Guy Grossi, his amazing family and the Melbournese Movement for another successful Melbourne Tomato Festival. Edendale Farm in Eltham was a sea of red as the party to celebrate the humble tomato, and what has been dubbed, "National Italian Day" kicked off. The grounds were full of local farmers, markets, artisan food and beverage producers, celebrity chefs, back to back passata making workshops, guest speakers and much, much more. Check out the official Melbourne Tomato Festival Photo Gallery here.

I would like to take the opportunity to welcome all the new subscribers to our newsletter, from the Melbourne Tomato Festival. It was lovely to meet you all and we hope that you enjoy being kept up to date with all the latest news, recipes, events/festivals and products.

I would also like to congratulate the winner of our free raffle at the Melbourne Tomato Festival, Greg Morris. Greg is now that proud owner of a Home Make It Passata Making Kit valued at $85.00. Happy passata making Greg!

~ Craft Day Out ~

We got crafty at the recent Craft Day Out at The Craft & Co in Smith Street, Collingwood. It was a fun day with lots of hands on passata making, a wine appreciation session, distilling and brewing appreciation session and salami and cheese demonstrations. The enthusiasm of the participants was inspiring and I'm sure it will be the first of many more Craft Day Out's! Below are some images from the day...

If you would like to see more images, check out the official pics from The Craft & Co FACEBOOK Page. You can also keep up to date with all the future events, including free Community Days, events and Classes by checking out "What's On", at The Craft & Co.

~ Food & Beverage Workshops ~

Our in store 2016 calendar for food & beverage workshops is action packed! Click on the links for all the course dates, venues and details. Our workshops are hands on, fun and interactive. To participate in one of our great courses, just book your spot ONLINE or call our Clayton or Reservoir stores for assistance.

Courses & workshops for 2016 include:

~ Cade's Brew News ~

Hi Brewers,

It's been a busy time brewing lately, with a few home brew competitions and some exciting upcoming events in the works too.

The increasingly popular Good Beer Week brings out it's official program tomorrow. We have a few exciting things happening during that week of beer lovers nirvana. First of all, we team up with The Merri Mashers Brew Club for an informal street side home brew at the ever popular Carwyn Cellars in Thornbury, also as part of the Darebin Homemade Food & Wine Festival 2016. We then head over to The Craft & Co on Sunday 15th of May for the BREW FC - Beer Champions Unveiled event, featuring the winning stout/porter on tap with it's own custom developed paired menu, tickets for this event on sale now..so get in quick. Then on Saturday the 21st of May we trundle down to the Arbory on the Yarra to make cider with Callum & Nat from Kaiju & Golden Axe cider. Wow, what a big and exciting week indeed!

Along with the lovely red tomatoes we have just seen during the current passata season, it’s also been picking time for the the versatile Humulus Lupulus plant (AKA hops). So to celebrate this exciting time we are taking 10% off our hop ranges in store until the end of March.

I also went up to lovely Kyneton recently for the BEERFEST 2016 home brew competition, run by the Melbourne Brewers Club. We had a cracking day tasting and judging some really well made Porters and Stouts. Good to see what home brewers can whip up at home with some good ingredients and passion for quality beer!

We are teaming up The Craft & Co and Merri Masher Brew Club this weekend to decide the winner of the BREW FC Beer Competition. Club vs Club in a battle of Stouts and Porters, with the winning club to take away a MASSIVE prize (not to mention bragging rights).

Happy Brewing :)

~ New Product Range ~

Due to popular demand, we have recently expanded our range of Italian made Pizzelle/Waffle Makers. We now have a range of electric and manual waffle makers. Learn more about them by viewing our ONLINE store.