Apples! Apples! Apples!

One of the most exciting things to happen on the farm this year was that we ordered our orchard. We have planned to plant one for several years but spent a lot of time researching the varieties. We knew we wanted heirloom plants and that we liked the fruit in all forms so we spent the last 5 years looking up sellers that could offer these. In the process we discovered a LOT about apples. We finally ordered 14 trees in August.

          Knowing that different varieties are good for different purposes, I made a spread sheet to record whether an apple was good for baking, eating out of hand, pies, juice, or sauce. I think we got a good mix. We loved the names and histories of the apples. Discovering that some apples came from England, France, or Russia made for some interesting reading and musings. And mulling over names like Hog Sweet, Smoke-house, and Horse Apple (Yes, that’s a real name!) had us laughing with delight.

          Here at our house, we can applesauce and apple pie filling. I also can about a dozen wide-mouth quart jars of baked apples. To do this, I choose 24 smallish Golden Delicious apples and wash them well. I then core them and place them in the jars. When the children were little, I would fill the centers with cinnamon “red-hots” to season and add a little color for fun, but now I just cover them with a medium syrup and process in a pressure canner for 15 minutes on 10 lbs. of pressure. It doesn’t take long after supper to warm them in the microwave for a sweet dessert, or a toasty after-school snack. This is just the right thing on a crispy cold fall or winter day.

          In canning apple–pie filling, I have an old-fashioned apple peeler (which can also be used on potatoes) on the Granny Smith and Winesap apples. It has been well worth the money I paid. It can, in one easy step, peel, core, and slice the fruit. I generally remove the slicer attachment because we like our slices thicker in pie. Then using my apple slicer, we slice the apple into 8 pieces. I fill the wide-mouth quart jar ¾ full of apples, and then cover with the pie-filling mixture and again process in a pressure canner at 10 lbs. for 10 minutes. The chickens LOVE the apple peel “spaghetti” strips!

          Lastly we use a mixture of apples for our applesauce, starting with a bushel of Golden Delicious. I wash them all, and slice them into quarters. Then I pressure can them for about 10 minutes in my pressure canner. I can then run them through my big strainer, which takes out the seeds and peelings leaving only the meat of the apple. Pour into pint jars and process in the pressure canner for 10 minutes at 10 lbs. of pressure. I can also use this method to make my apple butter which I then cook down with spices in my crock-pot before canning.

          By the way, for those who don’t like to use commercial pectin for your jams and jellies, now is the time to save the peelings from your apples to freeze for next summer’s fruits.

Another nice thing to do with the leftovers is to make some apple pulp pomanders. Take the waste products and run through the food processor until smooth.  Drain until there is no liquid running. Mix some spices like cloves, cinnamon, ginger, and nutmeg with some orris root powder and knead into the apple mixture. Roll the apple and spice mixture into balls about 1 ½ to 2 inches in diameter. Roll the balls in powdered orris root mixed with cinnamon and cloves. Spread them out where they can dry or place in the oven on a VERY low heat. Cut squares of fabric to cover the apple balls and tie with ribbon. These are lovely to hang from hangers in the closet and tuck into drawers.

These are gifts that children can make easily. Most children love kneading goopy stuff with their hands, rolling the balls, rolling them in spices, and cutting the fabric and ribbons. There are jobs for every age and skill level. It is my belief that the earlier children (and adults for that matter.) learn to make gifts, the more they are able appreciate handmade items. I remember a Christmas where children in one family present asked the cost of every child’s gift. In addition to being rude in the extreme, it made everyone uncomfortable. Our children made gifts for their grandparents, aunts, and uncles for years. They also learned to shop within their budget. To this day they are thrifty with their money and talents.

Our daughter and her husband shop in thrift shops all year long where they purchase baskets for pennies. They watch for sales on candy bars and buy them in bulk. They then make up baskets with their home canned and baked goods, throwing in the candy bars as extras. Everyone who receives them is astounded by the wealth of the contents which may include other little treasures and books found at discount prices as well.

You can always use the pomace to kill any garden growth - like those invasive weeds – that you don’t want.

          Finally I leave you with a question: Can you name 6 ways to preserve apples? (Eating is NOT preserving - it is consuming.)

Full Swing

I just wanted to take a few minutes to share what is going here on Tighe a Logaine Farm. “Tighe a Logaine” is Gaelic for “the House in the Bowl” and that indeed is how our little farm is situated. With mountains on all sides the house nestles down low between 2 streams and is generally sheltered from strong winds and other intrusions. We’ve been hard at work canning and generally preparing for the next season. Still I love to stop and admire all that my windows have to view. Let me also share a couple quick updates that have happened since the computer crashed.

We did a little logging on the mountain but one tree fell wild and wiped out a large portion of our tomato section and all but one of our acorn squash vines. What a sacrifice! We were heart-sick, but still happy to have the logging since it opened up to the sunlight nearly 33 percent more garden space.

We heard about a garden method used at Mount Vernon and instituted it for our fall garden. Our son-in-law dug a trench about a foot deep, ­­­16 inches wide and 20 ft. long. He and my husband then filled the long hole with chicken manure and followed that by mounding back on top the dirt we took out. We then planted a part of our fall garden on the top. As the chicken manure composts, it keeps the dirt (and baby plants!) warm throughout the cold season. We also put some plants in the beds that were finished for the summer season, and now our baby cabbages, broccoli, Brussels sprouts, kale, and kohlrabi. These have twice the growth on them that the others do.  

George and Martha Washington were able to have fresh vegetables all winter long because of this. Later in the spring we will harvest the last of our vegetables and dig up the wonderful earth which will be the gift below the surface. We will be able to enrich the existing raised beds with it. We will then put fresh chicken manure in the hole and cover with more dirt. Into this we will plant our seedlings and once again the composting process will keep our little baby plants warm until the weather warms up too.

Another addition this fall has been Dusty – our new rooster. With the internet problems I’ve not been able to research but he has a rose comb, a dirty white neck ruff (hence the name!), and lovely iridescent green tail feathers. When he was introduced to the flock he seemed a bit intimidated be the numbers but within a couple of days he discovered his special purpose and manfully did his duty and egg production is in full swing! We have 34 hens and we are averaging 30 eggs a day. He is truly the “cock of the walk”.

In addition to canning, a lot of time is invested in harvesting our herbs this fall. The chickens love weeding time and wait hungrily at the gate for us to throw handfuls of salad greens to them. My basil bed did especially well this year so I am dehydrating lots of leaves which fill my house with an earthy smell that is very satisfying! The oregano is next and then a bit of mint for winter flavorings and some jellies as well. This year I had 8 varieties of mint and walking through the garden is an olfactory delight. Lastly I will harvest some of my rosemary to season chicken and vegetables this winter as well.

Children are great workers in these 2 arenas. Even if they are too young to know weed from vegetable, they are not too young to make multiple trips back and forth hauling handfuls of weeds to the coop or compost bin. And once you point out which leaves you want to harvest in the herb beds, they will systematically strip every one. They can also wash leaves, and arrange leaves on the dehydrator tray or cookie sheet. Once the leaves are dehydrated, they can put them in containers whole, or take turns crushing them. Be sure to praise the work not just that day but later in winter when you add “their” oregano and basil to the spaghetti sauce. A tea ball containing chocolate mint swirled through their hot chocolate increases their delight when they can really taste what their hands have done.

For those of you who had asked what we were canning, here is a run-down: From the tomatoes we’ve canned sloppy joe mix, salsa, spaghetti sauce, and spiced tomato juice. We got a little bit of grapes off our new vines, and will get more from our old vines so we expect to can some grape juice. We’ve canned strawberry jam and strawberry balsamic jelly, blackberry jam, sweet pepper relish, “little spicies” which are pickled jalapeno peppers, some spicy mustard, and some meats. We have vegetable scraps in the freezer that I’ve saved to make chicken, beef, and vegetable broth. I also still have to make our soup mix which is mixed vegetables to which I add meats and/or broth and juice. In this way I have a lot of variety. I can take a quart of the vege mix and add canned chicken and some chicken broth for a chicken soup, or add to it some canned beef and beef broth for vegetable beef soup. Sometimes I add it to our spiced tomato juice for some rich vegetable soup, or I can pour the mix into a pie shell for a pot pie with either beef or chicken!

What have you done this year? I love hearing other peoples recipes or tips!