Grow Your Own Magazine

get a Marrow when mature open up one end into a cup, drill three to five holes under the bottom and fill the top frequently with Brown Sugar. let the juice drip into a bowl for a month or until the marrow is empty and Whey Hey 98% alcohol.

Also try this with baking potatos in the same way but this is very very knock out stuff.
Benacre

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http://lowestoftnaturalist-benacre.blogspot.com/

So that's next year's Christmas drink is it? Rhubarb Schnapps been knocked off its number one perch

Is there a recommended marrow to grow for this or could I just leave a courgette to get over large?

I have never grown marrows of any kind before and will be trying courgettes next season - hence the question.

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Happy Gardening,
Shirley

http://www.honeyjukes.co.uk

Hi Shirl, marrows are just overgrown courgettes anyway. Finally got over to the lottie this weekend and found two huge ones - plants had disintegrated but the marrows were still there (and they were originally courgette zucchini.
Daughter made marrow rum (or hooch) a few years ago in the airing cupboard of the flat she shared with 3 others. Unfortunately she forgot to keep an eye on it, the bottom of the marrow collapsed, fell over and took the bowl of hooch with it. Took her ages to get rid of the mess and the smell. I think it's probably a good idea to support the marrow in a net just in case (bit like a jelly bag), but I've heard the resulting brew is good stuff

I tried this last year; even scrounged a net bag from the market to hang the thing in, BUT had nowhere to store it so put it behind the kitchen door in September when I was given the marrow.
Weather was warm, fruitflies swarmed and the whole thing rotted horribly! Managed to get it outside into the compost bin but will never forget the smell. Yuck.
Next year will/may try again when the weather gets colder and the little beasts have died off,

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Regards, Jane
What sane person could live in this world and not be crazy? The creative adult is the child who has survived.
Ursula LeGuin
http://www.etribes.com/madderbat

I have read many wine recipe books and all of the ones I have say, do not bother with Marrow rum. To brew in such open conditions allows for failure. You can use marrow to make wine but it must be carried out under clean and air locked conditions. If any one would like a marrow wine recipe posted please let me know, but please don't waste your produce by filling it with sugar.

"but please don't waste your produce by filling it with sugar"

Why?
Benacre

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http://lowestoftnaturalist-benacre.blogspot.com/

Marrow wine or rum is a myth. If you brew out in the air then it will go off, even if you did manage to start a ferment without adding yeast. You will never get near 98% even if you did get it to work, perhaps 14%. In Germany they make lembic beer with natural air bourne yeast, but it is in a valley in very controlled conditions. Taste different each time as well.

Far safer to use the marrow to make wine with tannin, lemon and sugar but under an air lock.

Im trying this at the moment - start late last summer (its now march).

Filled 3 marrows with brown suger and refitted the tops to try and keep nasties out. Used the wifes tights (new clean ones - not the ones she was wearing ) as nets for them and suspended/quashed them into one of my brew bins. used another set of tights to cover the top and also wrapped cling-film around it, just leaveing the very top, netted part, showing. This was sussesful in stopping the fruit flies getting into the brew-bin, but did mean they congragated in my kitchen instead.

refilled with suger several times and ended up with 2 gallons of sticky sweet syrup. Stuck this in demijons, fitted air locks and left it be.

Few weeks ago we racked all our wine and tested the marrow gloop. Was still very sweet but not as much as it had been. Fermentation is happening but very slowly - i think the mixture is just too sweet for the natural yeast to work properly. So - time to experiment:

I left 1 demijon to get on with it - it is getting there slowly, so i added a little brewers yeast and will check it again in 6 months - i fully expect to wait at least another year for this to be anywhere near drinking quality.

The second demijon i added to a gallon of cold water, doubling the mixture (it really is that sweet that i nearly added more water). I put this into 2 demijons and added brewers yeast - its now bubbling nicely. Will check again in a few months.

I made a marrow rum in my first flatshare...I hadn't reckoned on the whole thing collapsing as it rotted...all down the stair carpet. Certainly smelt 98% proof! I moved out shortly afterwards.

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~ What do I think of Western civilisation? I think it would be a very good idea ~ Gandhi

I've tried the same thing with melons, but it was very sweet in the end.

to brew from marrows you need a few basics.
Cleanliness
sugar
Yeast
If you put these all together you can produce something really nice