You just wouldn't believe how good it smells in there right now.
[ID: Several bushels and wire crates of dark red apples in a crowded tool shed]
The apples and the Guardian
Apples in the woodshed, waiting for the cider press.
On the other side of the room, right above my chicken feed bin, it looks like I have a new guardian.
I much appreciate when Very Large spiders sit in conspicuous places if they're planning to live in my barn or woodshed. I can see her and avoid her. Don't much care for moths in the feed. Any spider who lives where I have to look at them gets named 'Charlotte', regardless of gender. It helps me cope. Maybe I'll try to find a better name for this one; I've had an awful lot of Charlottes.
Washed (to remove the sooty bitch blotch) and ever-so-lovely.
[ID: Three apples held in a hand. One is extra big and yellow with a faint red stripy blush, one is a very deep red, and one is small and lighter red.]
ahedderick reblogged
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.
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!
Apple
A little less than 50F/10C here this morning. Ideal conditions for hot apple-cinnamon oatmeal. Good thing I have 536,427 apples.
ahedderick reblogged
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!
ahedderick reblogged
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.
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.
ahedderick reblogged
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.
ahedderick reblogged
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.
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!
Fruits, Nuts, Leaves, Autumn
Watercolor, oil paintings, and colored pencil drawings. As SOON AS I finish my current wip, I am going to treat myself to something autumn-themed.
Not great, right? All of these are still hard. The mildew/fungus/blight/whatever that causes unripe peaches to start rotting is one of my biggest enemies. I HATE that stuff.
There is a little apple tree up at that site; it had only a few apples. They were getting red though, so I took some.
The canning cabinet is nearly full, but I have further storage room in a pantry.
I should pick beans again today.
Little green apples. Looks like a 'poor' pollination year, which is actually good because good pollination sets so many fruit that you need to thin them to prevent the branches from breaking.
[the chorus of] Little Green Apples by Roger Miller
from Tennessee Homesick Blues by Dolly Parton
Also, there are little Seckel pears
However, they never seem to develop well. By fall there will probably only be a handful of wizened, tiny, bug-bitten pears, here.
In conclusion, it turns out more people sing about apples than pears.
Farm Kitchen in fall
Chopped apples, apples cider, chopped cranberries, raisins, 'pumpkin spice' (cinnamon, nutmeg, clove, ginger), just enough sugar, and cornstarch to thicken it.
October!
A very fine month. May I offer you apples, grapes, and pumpkins?
Heh. In 2008 K suffered - as only a frustrated toddler can - ALL SUMMER because she was determined to pick the apples (green! unripe! sour!). It was a great relief to everybody when it was finally time to pick them. Red and sweet, etc. A always enjoyed piking them, but he never got as unnervingly intense about it as she did.
Next summer I want to plant tons of pumpkins, squash, and gourds. Possibly down at home farm, because there haven't been any planted there for at least 5 years, and there won't be any accumulation of squash bugs or vine borers.