Jamaica is a country with myriad produce; tropical fruits of all shapes and sizes, bountiful vegetable options all year long, and many people with several fruit trees in their own yard. In fact, sometimes there is too much fruit. When a tree is ready to bear, it bears with abandon, dropping fruit by the bucket-full. Everyone is generous with their fruit when this time comes, but sometimes no amount of generosity can use up all of it. This is where the wine comes in.

February is a sort of in between month for fruit in Portland. Mangoes are not yet full in season, apples are on the cusp of bearing in great numbers, sorrel is more expensive and difficult to find now that Christmas season is over. Even with these limited options, two of the ladies involved had an apple tree that was just ready to ripen.

Jamaican Otaheite Apples - they look like pears and taste like flowers.

Taking the extra fruit from the top of the tree where one lady never climbed, and using the excess after the other had picked what she wanted, we came away with about 15lbs of usable apple. With this, we had enough to make about 5 gallons of apple wine – a great first try, especially considering the size of the group (5 people) and the time of year.

Most of the materials involved in making wine in Jamaica are available locally. The only things which need to be shipped over from foreign are Campden tablets and yeast packets for first killing bacteria and then starting the fermentation process. With the local HEART school in Port Antonio now selling these two items, wine making here is very feasible and inexpensive.

The process itself was also simple to follow. This project was started by a PCV in Port Antonio who created an instruction guide for inexperienced (or no experience, like us) wine makers. He also attended the meetings to answer questions and fill out our knowledge a bit.

First, we cut up the apple and blended it with clean water.

Apple blend

Next, we blended sugar into the mix.

After blending the sugar, the must was ready. To kill bacteria, we crushed up and stirred in the Campden tablet. We sealed the bucket and put the bung and airlock on the top to make sure it was air tight.

The next day, we scooped out a bit of the excess pulp on top that threatened to spill over, and added out yeast. A few days after that, we sieved out the juice from the rest of the pulp, and then racked the rest of the liquid into a new bucket. When this was finished, we sealed and airlocked the bucket again.

Sieve for the fruit pulp

Racking the semi-fermented juice

Now, we wait. The bucket will sit, undisturbed in the NHP workshop for a month before we rack it one final time. Then we’ll wait another month or so for the finished product. If it turns out well, this could become a nice income generating activity locally for the community members.