Yesterday I spent most of the day really feeling like it was fall. Got up to a fairly steady, normal fall rain, even!
First I went out to the Apple Festival in Venersborg, WA. Venersborg is a very, very small hamlet about 10 miles east of Battle Ground, WA. (When I say small, I mean VERY small. Friend of mine who grew up near there said, "I didn't know Venersborg had a 'festival'. I didn't even know they had a building.") It was settled in the late 19th and early 20th century primarily by a colony of Swedish folks who grew fruit and dried it for shipping around the country. The festival was held at the little one-room schoolhouse where their children went to school until the colony disbanded in the 1930's.
The Venersborg Community Club had over 300 varieties of apples out for tasting, ranging from your normal boring Red and Yellow Delicious, ubiquitious Granny Smiths, locally popular Gala, Fuji, and Honeycrisps all the way to the pink-fleshed Hidden Rose and a very nearly extinct Gideon Sweet. We tasted a few, and my daughter seemed to enjoy it even when she found apples she didn't like and handed her slices to me or her father for consumption. We looked at crabapples, and pictures of various trees, got information about the Venersborg Community Center, and saw a couple of acquaintances I seem to be seeing more and more often. We also took the apples from our front tree to be identified. Turns out they're a sauce apple called a Keswick Codlin. They're not very nice for eating as they're very soft, but they do make really great apple sauce. Plus our chickens like them! Also had a giant apple identified for a friend. Hers were easily spotted as Hanner's Jumbos, largely by being the size of a grapefruit and bright red; they're a mutation of a Red Delicious, so very similar only hugemongous. They were surprised that someone was growing them in a local backyard, as they were from Hood River and only a few orchardists have them. I happen to know that the former owner of my friend's house was an orchardist, and probably brought the tree with him when he moved to the place.
After we left the Apple Festival, I parted ways with the family and went on to a Food Preservation class and demonstration sponsored by Dee Creek Farms. The woman who owned the house had a lovely Garden hive out back of the solarium where the class was held, and I saw at least two Ameraucana chickens roaming around the lawn. Another funny thing, one of the gals who had been helping at the Apple Festival turned out to be at the class, and after chatting with her I found out that she knows Jacqueline Freeman of Friendly Haven Rise Farms, where I've taken several classes, and she also knows a woman who used to be the leader of the 4-H Goat group my best friend belonged to in high school. Small freakin' world, this slow-food CSA chicken-raising beekeeping bean-hugging-dirt-worshipper world!
The Food Preservation class was interesting, and I picked up a few tidbits. Discovered that I wasn't so terribly clever as I thought when I decided to string my still-green beans on a thread and hang them behind the wood stove; apparently that's an accepted method for dealing with dried beans when they don't have a chance to dry outside before they have to be harvested and brought inside due to frost or rain. I must have read about it in Little House on the Prairie or something...
The class also prompted me to come home and start harvesting and preserving the last of everything else in the yard. I have a batch of celery drying in the dehydrator, plus I'll be putting the last of the peppers in vinegar and brine to preserve for later salsa making. I'll post another short post with some tips I gleaned, for your own food preservation!
Showing posts with label fruit. Show all posts
Showing posts with label fruit. Show all posts
Sunday, October 18, 2009
Wednesday, August 19, 2009
The sky is falling!
Seems appropriate...wasn't that an apple falling on Chicken Little's head which set the whole thing off? Two things I have a lot of around here right now: chickens and apples.
The three new chickens are still skittish, but getting settled. The one missing a large patch of her back feathers will launch herself at me when I come into the coop, but not to be mean. No, she wants to sit on whatever bowl of food I've brought out so she can gobble her fair share without any of the others picking on her. The other buff orpington will come out and let me hand feed her and pet her, but she doesn't yet go down and join "my girls". The little game hen, now dubbed Racer X, is speedy, flighty, nervous, and the low girl on the totem pole. I did manage to catch her tonight with little effort, and held her and cooed at her for a while until she calmed down. They'll get there eventually, I'm sure. Meanwhile, one of my original girls has a big owie on the back of her comb, presumably where the other girls were picking on her. Turns out that one likes to sit on my lap and cluck to herself and have her wings scritched. I'm sure my neighbor thinks I'm insane; he used to raise chickens by the hundreds, in a very "factory" mindset, and here I am petting mine.
As for apples, well, we have a lot. There's a tree in the front yard which is obviously old, and had a few sad apples stuck on it last fall when we were moving. It's dropped a ton so far, filling a big cardboard moving box with soft-fleshed yellow apples with a bit of surface scabbing but no sign of anything major. Once peeled, they are perfectly acceptable apples. I made some into a pie last weekend, and though I objected to them on the basis that they are soft and don't hold up well after baking, they did have a nice flavor. They're destined to be applesauce though.
We have even more apples than that, though, because we went over to our old house and raided the Emerald Spire columnar apple tree in the back yard. (My parents now own the house, so it's not as weird as it sounds.) We planted the tree three or four years ago, and it's a beautifully compact tree less than 4 feet wide but about 12 feet tall. The apples are big and green, and those that hadn't fallen yet were also smooth skinned and relatively free of anything resembling scab or insect damage. I did find a few with a worm parked right at the stem end, but they appeared to be doing nothing beyond sitting there in a little webby bit. After bringing them home, I slated them for apple pies and apple cheesecake, because I know they are wonderfully firm and have a nice tart flavor that holds up well in baking. I still have a few left, but I canned a batch of yummy apple pie filling today!
Apple Pie Filling
* 6 quarts blanched apple slices
* 5 1/2 cups sugar
* 1 1/2 cups Clear Jel (a food starch, available at WilCo Farm Stores and some baking stores)
* 1 Tbls cinnamon
* 1 tsp nutmeg
* 2 1/2 cups cold water
* 5 cups apple juice
* 3/4 cup bottled lemon juice
* Ascorbic acid powder, or commercial anti-darkening powder for fruit
* At least one 6+ quart saucepot, two very large bowls, and a strainer or sieve
* Quart jars and lids
Prepare your jars and lids for canning, leave the sterile jars hot and leave the lids in the hot water from scalding. Fill your water canner and set on to heat.
Wash, peel, and core your apples. (If you do this a lot, let me recommend a hand-crank apple peeler-corer. I've had mine a couple of years now, and I love it. LOVE it.) Cut apples into 1/2 inch wide slices, place in a large bowl with anti-darkening solution of 1 tsp ascorbic acid to 1 gallon of water, or solution made according to the directions on the bottle.
Remove slices from the solution, drain well. Bring a large pot of water to boil on the stove. Blanch fruit by placing 6 cups of slices in the water, then return it to boiling. Boil each batch for 1 minute after it returns to a boil, then remove the fruit from the water, drain well, and place in a large bowl. Cover the bowl to keep warm.
After all fruit is blanched, drain the pot of water. In the large pot, combine sugar, Clear Jel, cinnamon, nutmeg, water, and applesauce. Cook over medium heat, stirring constantly, until the mixture thickens and begins to bubble.
Add the lemon juice, stir in well, and boil one more minute, stirring constantly.
Remove from heat, immediately fold in the hot blanched apple slices. Fill hot jars with the pie filling, leaving 1 inch head space. Remove air bubbles with a non-metal spatula, wipe jar rims, adjust the lids. Process in a water bath canner for 25 minutes (pints and quarts.) Makes 5-7 quarts depending on how much your apples shrink during blanching.
The three new chickens are still skittish, but getting settled. The one missing a large patch of her back feathers will launch herself at me when I come into the coop, but not to be mean. No, she wants to sit on whatever bowl of food I've brought out so she can gobble her fair share without any of the others picking on her. The other buff orpington will come out and let me hand feed her and pet her, but she doesn't yet go down and join "my girls". The little game hen, now dubbed Racer X, is speedy, flighty, nervous, and the low girl on the totem pole. I did manage to catch her tonight with little effort, and held her and cooed at her for a while until she calmed down. They'll get there eventually, I'm sure. Meanwhile, one of my original girls has a big owie on the back of her comb, presumably where the other girls were picking on her. Turns out that one likes to sit on my lap and cluck to herself and have her wings scritched. I'm sure my neighbor thinks I'm insane; he used to raise chickens by the hundreds, in a very "factory" mindset, and here I am petting mine.
As for apples, well, we have a lot. There's a tree in the front yard which is obviously old, and had a few sad apples stuck on it last fall when we were moving. It's dropped a ton so far, filling a big cardboard moving box with soft-fleshed yellow apples with a bit of surface scabbing but no sign of anything major. Once peeled, they are perfectly acceptable apples. I made some into a pie last weekend, and though I objected to them on the basis that they are soft and don't hold up well after baking, they did have a nice flavor. They're destined to be applesauce though.
We have even more apples than that, though, because we went over to our old house and raided the Emerald Spire columnar apple tree in the back yard. (My parents now own the house, so it's not as weird as it sounds.) We planted the tree three or four years ago, and it's a beautifully compact tree less than 4 feet wide but about 12 feet tall. The apples are big and green, and those that hadn't fallen yet were also smooth skinned and relatively free of anything resembling scab or insect damage. I did find a few with a worm parked right at the stem end, but they appeared to be doing nothing beyond sitting there in a little webby bit. After bringing them home, I slated them for apple pies and apple cheesecake, because I know they are wonderfully firm and have a nice tart flavor that holds up well in baking. I still have a few left, but I canned a batch of yummy apple pie filling today!
Apple Pie Filling
* 6 quarts blanched apple slices
* 5 1/2 cups sugar
* 1 1/2 cups Clear Jel (a food starch, available at WilCo Farm Stores and some baking stores)
* 1 Tbls cinnamon
* 1 tsp nutmeg
* 2 1/2 cups cold water
* 5 cups apple juice
* 3/4 cup bottled lemon juice
* Ascorbic acid powder, or commercial anti-darkening powder for fruit
* At least one 6+ quart saucepot, two very large bowls, and a strainer or sieve
* Quart jars and lids
Prepare your jars and lids for canning, leave the sterile jars hot and leave the lids in the hot water from scalding. Fill your water canner and set on to heat.
Wash, peel, and core your apples. (If you do this a lot, let me recommend a hand-crank apple peeler-corer. I've had mine a couple of years now, and I love it. LOVE it.) Cut apples into 1/2 inch wide slices, place in a large bowl with anti-darkening solution of 1 tsp ascorbic acid to 1 gallon of water, or solution made according to the directions on the bottle.
Remove slices from the solution, drain well. Bring a large pot of water to boil on the stove. Blanch fruit by placing 6 cups of slices in the water, then return it to boiling. Boil each batch for 1 minute after it returns to a boil, then remove the fruit from the water, drain well, and place in a large bowl. Cover the bowl to keep warm.
After all fruit is blanched, drain the pot of water. In the large pot, combine sugar, Clear Jel, cinnamon, nutmeg, water, and applesauce. Cook over medium heat, stirring constantly, until the mixture thickens and begins to bubble.
Add the lemon juice, stir in well, and boil one more minute, stirring constantly.
Remove from heat, immediately fold in the hot blanched apple slices. Fill hot jars with the pie filling, leaving 1 inch head space. Remove air bubbles with a non-metal spatula, wipe jar rims, adjust the lids. Process in a water bath canner for 25 minutes (pints and quarts.) Makes 5-7 quarts depending on how much your apples shrink during blanching.
Friday, April 17, 2009
Plants that Give Back
Since moving to my new house, I've been intent upon getting a new pair of columnar apple trees. I had two in my old, smaller suburban backyard, and they were wonderful. The Emerald Spire grew to about 10 feet tall and less than 3 feet wide, and had apples bunched on it so tightly they looked more like giant grapes. The Northstar was shorter at about 7 feet tall, and it didn't have as many apples on it, but it was so unobtrusive and small you might never even realize it was a full fledged apple tree unless you looked closely!
We have enough room in our new yard for full size apple trees, but I'm a big fan of "less is more", since it means I can plant more variety if I keep the individual plants small. And they were so easy to care for and productive I wanted to repeat the process.
Went looking for some of them at the local nursery, didn't find any. One of the workers there pointed us northward to another nursery, so today we trekked off in the rain and the wind to visit both Bird's English Garden nursery and Tsugawa's. The former was a complete bust; most of their stock was in very sad shape, and they had little stock to begin with. The only staff in sight was a non-communicative young man doing something with a backhoe. The latter nursery, however, was a total win! If you happen to be in Northwest Oregon or Southwest Washington, I highly recommend Tsugawa's, right off the freeway in Woodland, WA. Helpful, friendly staff, healthy and interesting plants, great little store inside, lots of water plants and a wide selection of bonsais to boot!
We ended up with three varieties* of columnar apples, two dwarf cherries, a self-pollinating peach, a four-way almond, a quince, two hazelnuts, five blueberry bushes, two honeyberry bushes, and a bright pink "Valley Valentine" Pieris japonicus. We needed a forklift to get it all back to the truck, drove all the back roads home to avoid doing 70 on the freeway, and now we just have to get it all in the ground!
* For anyone new to growing apples, cherries, blueberries, or many other varieties of fruit, there's a reason I purchased in multiples: many fruit trees and berry bushes need a different variety to provide pollination. If you purchase only one apple tree, for instance, your apple yield will be poor or non-existant. Blueberries are well-known for this requirement. There are varieties that are self-pollinating, and there are trees with multiple varieties grafted to a single rootstock that will self-pollinate. If you don't know if your tree or shrub needs a pollinator, look it up on the Internet, or ask your nursery staff.
We have enough room in our new yard for full size apple trees, but I'm a big fan of "less is more", since it means I can plant more variety if I keep the individual plants small. And they were so easy to care for and productive I wanted to repeat the process.
Went looking for some of them at the local nursery, didn't find any. One of the workers there pointed us northward to another nursery, so today we trekked off in the rain and the wind to visit both Bird's English Garden nursery and Tsugawa's. The former was a complete bust; most of their stock was in very sad shape, and they had little stock to begin with. The only staff in sight was a non-communicative young man doing something with a backhoe. The latter nursery, however, was a total win! If you happen to be in Northwest Oregon or Southwest Washington, I highly recommend Tsugawa's, right off the freeway in Woodland, WA. Helpful, friendly staff, healthy and interesting plants, great little store inside, lots of water plants and a wide selection of bonsais to boot!
We ended up with three varieties* of columnar apples, two dwarf cherries, a self-pollinating peach, a four-way almond, a quince, two hazelnuts, five blueberry bushes, two honeyberry bushes, and a bright pink "Valley Valentine" Pieris japonicus. We needed a forklift to get it all back to the truck, drove all the back roads home to avoid doing 70 on the freeway, and now we just have to get it all in the ground!
* For anyone new to growing apples, cherries, blueberries, or many other varieties of fruit, there's a reason I purchased in multiples: many fruit trees and berry bushes need a different variety to provide pollination. If you purchase only one apple tree, for instance, your apple yield will be poor or non-existant. Blueberries are well-known for this requirement. There are varieties that are self-pollinating, and there are trees with multiple varieties grafted to a single rootstock that will self-pollinate. If you don't know if your tree or shrub needs a pollinator, look it up on the Internet, or ask your nursery staff.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)