October 2nd, 2006 - Apples!
On Thursday, Mom, Dad, Maggie, and I bought apples at Spranger’s orchard outside Appleton. We bought a LOT of apples–a bushel each of Mollies, Firesides, and Spartans. Plus, I selected 20 pounds of seconds to use for apple cider/sauce (when cooked in the steam juicer, I get sauce after the cider drains off). We also picked up a bag each of pears and of plums. Mom and Dad took home half of each (except the seconds). I turned on the basement fridge to store the apples. I’ve never had so many apples in my house! They should keep me in fruit most of the winter. The Mollies don’t keep well, but they are at the beginning of the harvest so should have better luck. They were my favorite taste-wise and I just have to be sure to eat one a day until they are gone! Since I usually take an apple to work, that shouldn’t be hard.
Maggie liked the Mollie–when Gramma fed it to her in the car. She rarely eats apples off her plate at meal time. She also shared an apple with me on the sofa over the weekend. I have to remember this for the future–snacks are fine when they are good for you foods like apples! Who cares if she eats it in the living room instead of at the dining room table?
The apples cost $.60/pound when bought by the bushel (seconds were $.40). I never buy them for that price at the store, and I usually buy apples all year ’round since I like them so much. So, although a large outlay, and probably a $5/mo increase in electricity, it should be worth it. (The basement fridge is probably 20-30 years old so terribly inefficient. But I’m also using it to store, in the freezer, the 25# of oatmeal I bought through the food coop. So it is serving multiple purposes!) Plus, of course, most of the year, the apples found in the store are not local, so even if with electricity costs it’s a little more than what I’d find on sale at the store, it works out for me overall since it’s supporting a local farm.
…Which reminds me that I need to eat the plums I brought for an afternoon snack.
October 16th, 2006 at 9:26 am EDT
[…] * Cleared out the garden. On Saturday, when it was cold and windy, I dug potatoes and carrots, tore out beans and cucumbers, cherry tomatoes, beans, cilantro, squash, and peppers. On Sunday, when it was bright and beautiful, I tore out the corn, front flowers, and tomatoes. The tomatoes wore me out. The roots were very difficult to pull, particularly without full use of my left hand. So afterwards, I took my neighbor up on his offer of picked apples and got a bucketful. Hardle made a dent in his tree! These will be a nice addition to the cider/sauce I make this weekend. Maggie joined me outside when I was finishing with the corn and so I forgot to put away the tomato cages. I had to tie them down earlier after the summer storms sent them leaning. So it’s not as simple as “stack up the cages.” I have to try to take off the ropes so that I can reuse them next year. Maggie and I also cleaned up some sticks and tried to get all the water out of the remaining hose. The dogs were delighted with this as they lapped up the water! * Made chili again. Eric liked this batch, with his own additions to spice it up more. I included a cup of my Cherokee Trail of Tears beans, which were hardly noticable since I had 4 or 5 different kinds. But it was cool to know they came from my garden. This was made with tomatoes that have ripened in the basement! * Dried more cherry tomatoes. I did a batch last weekend, too. They are ripening in large batches that I couldn’t possibly eat at once. Maggie ate about 6 halves, to my great surprise, since she can’t stand fresh tomatoes. Hope she continues this! * Got buttercup squash and Winesap apples at the farmer’s market. The Winesaps are Eric’s favorite apple, not that we need any more apples around here! Also picked up 6 egg rolls; 5 pork for Eric and 1 vegetable for Maggie and me. Again to our surprise, Maggie loved it! She usually is VERY hesitant about new foods. * Hemmed two pairs of pants for Eric. We bought these last spring, but they were too long. As I tried to hem them with my sewing machine, it acted up and needed repairs. So I hemmed a couple pairs by hand. Then the machine came back. Then we got into the “let’s buy a house” affair. So the last two have sat with the hand sewing materials on a shelf in the kitchen ALL SUMMER LONG. It took me less than an hour to finish them up. Why didn’t I do this before? Eric’s delighted since it’s now cold enough to stop wearing shorts! Also fixed a pair of Maggie’s pants that had torn in the crotch. Not sure if she can wear them again, however, as they are pretty lightweight. I forgot about them when the machine was out, so did them by hand in about 15 minutes. It was the perfect chore as I came in from outdoors 20 minutes before her nap was done. * Made pumpkin cookies for a Halloween party. Discovered that I don’t have as much frozen pumpkin as I’d imagined. So I may actually buy some this month for freezing. Maybe…maybe not. I do have a good amount of dried pumpkin still. Not sure if it will last till next October and we do love our pumpkin bread. I really like these cookies as well and they are fairly healthy. […]