Barberry Sauce with Apple

-Grand Union Tea Cook Book 1880s

My mother (both parents, honestly) was a devoted amateur naturalist. Plants, animals, mushrooms - you name it, she knew something about it. She taught me a great deal about edible plants, and also poisonous ones. The vast majority of the things she taught me were correct, and the only real error I have found is that she believed that barberries were poison. Because barberry, pokeberry, and nightshade berries are all very pretty (and locally common), she was highly emphatic to young me about not eating them. It wasn't until rather recently that I learned barberry is edible.

This recipe is pretty interesting to me; the only other barberry recipe I've come across was for wine. Since I don't like wine, and have had ZERO success with fermented food products in general, I never tried that one. This looks more interesting. I can't help but think, though . . that it's going to taste like apples and molasses a lot more than barberry. Is it just a case of trying to make use of a common but unpalatable fruit? Do the barberries function mainly to give it a pretty color? I may try it some time just out of curiosity.

This afternoon, after the schoolwork, everybody scattered to do different activities. I meandered out to the garden to dig the rest of the sweet potatoes. The remaining two hills had a depressing lack of large tubers. I found one medium-sized one, which I managed to cut with the shovel while digging it, and a handful of small ones. I stand by my theory that planting them in loamy, sandy holes at the edge of the asparagus bed was a good idea, but the year was too dry and they were a little outside the range of the sprinkler. I'll try again next year. I put so much sand in there (to make the soil less compact)

I also dug a few unimpressive carrots. One of them has a little purple blotch on it. "Purple carrots" my behind! I cut one of the mystery squash/gourds (ok, @woodelf68, 'squourds') just to check it. It seems too light; I doubt that it has edible innards. One beet, along with its greens. Um, leaves? It seems odd to call them 'greens' when they're. actually the dark color I wanted the dratted carrots to be. Also a couple of shell beans, just to check them.

I have the dehydrator filled with apple slices and humming away.

I have to squelch my urge to peek inside. They won't be done 'til evening! Late! Leave 'em alone!

Dried apple ¡dried apple dried apple!! So delicious. Took 8 hours, and I should be able to get a second round drying before bed tonight.

The dehydrator is pretty old; someone from church had it for ages and didn't use it, so she gave it to me. Thank heavens for handmedowns.

Teepee Cider & BeauVista Orchard Method Albion Cider and Perry. Bottle fermented on lees for at least 3 years. Small organic seasonal orchard produce. Cider apples and perry pear fruit hand crafted into cider and perry at Harvest time.

“A Taste worth More”

#apples #cider #pear #perry #ShropshireSheep #Sheep #Orchard #Seasonal #Harvest #HarvestDriven

Did not know pear 'cider' was a thing! Hmm. Perry. Learn something every day!

Good Lord, Ma'am, you are simply too big for a backyard fruit tree. All of her branches are bent and hanging heavy with apples. I absolutely MUST get some cuttings to root next spring and clone her. I would be devastated if this tree, obviously a 'sport' (mutation) because she sure as hell isn't what I thought I was buying, ever died without having progeny.

Lovely, gloomy, wet day to be picking apples. And getting repeated cold showers.

If you're wondering, that basket is pretty good size, but the fact that some of the apples are HUGE makes it look smaller. I'm going to start making applesauce today, and can some. I'd love to wait 'til a time when K was home, so we could do it together, but I don't think that'll be practical with how difficult her school semester is. My aunt who loves canning projects is currently traveling in Canada; she has dual citizenship and a ton of French Canadian relatives.

So, just me and the apples this morning.

It was pretty surprising to me that this large stockpot of chopped apples cooked down to only a bit less than 8 pints of sauce! Right now it is in the canner. I am ready for some reading time.

Apple pie

There is apple pie with streusel topping in the oven, accompanied by one sweet potato in it's own little baking dish. Because the oven's hot anyway, might as well bake a potato. I need to figure out a green vegetable for dinner, but I know dessert will be awesome.

All the apple trees - and there are too many of them! - have bumper crops this year. I'm going to spend the next month picking, eating, cooking, and drying apples. Bring on the cinnamon, I guess!

Well. A few minutes after I posted this, I heard my stove beeping in the kitchen. It seemed a little too soon for the timer to be going off, and the beeping was . . odd? I trotted to the kitchen to find black smoke trickling from the vent. I tried to turn the oven off, but the display was flashing an error message. The pie, when I opened the oven, was blackened beyond saving. I pulled it out and set it on the stove top, and also the small baking dish with the sweet potato. The baking dish immediately shattered, spraying shards of glass everywhere. The bloody beeping would NOT stop. My husband had to throw the breaker downstairs to shut it down completely.

I did not need anymore appliance challenges.

{sad whimpering noises} the bottom is also black.

Apple pie

There is apple pie with streusel topping in the oven, accompanied by one sweet potato in it's own little baking dish. Because the oven's hot anyway, might as well bake a potato. I need to figure out a green vegetable for dinner, but I know dessert will be awesome.

All the apple trees - and there are too many of them! - have bumper crops this year. I'm going to spend the next month picking, eating, cooking, and drying apples. Bring on the cinnamon, I guess!

Well. A few minutes after I posted this, I heard my stove beeping in the kitchen. It seemed a little too soon for the timer to be going off, and the beeping was . . odd? I trotted to the kitchen to find black smoke trickling from the vent. I tried to turn the oven off, but the display was flashing an error message. The pie, when I opened the oven, was blackened beyond saving. I pulled it out and set it on the stove top, and also the small baking dish with the sweet potato. The baking dish immediately shattered, spraying shards of glass everywhere. The bloody beeping would NOT stop. My husband had to throw the breaker downstairs to shut it down completely.

I did not need anymore appliance challenges.