Thursday 3 September 2015

Celebrating Apple Time ~~~

Gentle Reader ~~~ it is that time of year when the garden and the hedgerows begin to give up the last of the seasonal bounties ~~~ the fruits that have silently and slowly formed, ripening during the warm Summer days are waiting to be harvested ~~~

Blackberries glisten as black jewels dripping from the bramble vines, wild damsons, bullace, sloes, rose hips, nuts of all sorts, and crab apples fill the hedgerows across The Shire ~~~ humans and animals alike are foraging for their Winter stores ~~~

Blackberries
Sweet Chestnuts




Rosehips full of Vitamin C
 

The apples in the garden are inviting and delicious. One of life's simple, yet sweetest, pleasures is stepping out from my cottage door in the early morning, walking barefoot over the dew kissed grass of the lawn to the apple tree and picking a fresh, perfectly fragrant, rosy red, apple, slightly warmed from the sun that is slowly climbing in the pale blue sky of an early Autumn day ~~~

Rosy Red Apples on the Bough

Yet, all is not well ~~~ I have fierce competition for these deliciously fragrant fruit call out and beckon wasps and crows to sample their delights ~~~

Crows have already nibbled away

making a perfect hole for a wasp to enter

and get his fill of the fragrant fruit

So I had an idea ~~~ I tied some of those net bags, the kind that come with washing powder tablets, over the reddest and most enticing looking apples to deter the marauding crows ~~~


It worked, up to a point ~~~ but there was a shortage of bags, for the bags are few and the apples are many and also very high up ~~~


So, today, although some of the apples are not fully ripe, I started picking them for storage. As you can see, there is a good lot of apples here, and I have about the same amount left to pick again.


Although they are eating apples, they do not store well.  I will take the best for my own fruit bowl and give some away.  The rest I will put up in the freezer or make jelly or wine. I am not a fan of Apple Butter. I will spend the next day or so using my Apple Master. I could not manage the processing of this amount of apples without this brilliant little gadget.  By tomorrow evening, these two baskets will be peeled, cored, sliced and either frozen ready to make into pies during the Winter months ahead, or into apple sauce for the plate.  I can then go and harvest the rest!

As with all foraging, do not eat anything unless you are completely certain what you are eating is safe. If in doubt, don't!

Until next time,
Sincerely yours
Deborah

For those of you who put your guesses down for the what is it? I will give you a few more days in case anyone has missed it, and tell you what it is in my next entry.

16 comments:

  1. What a fabulous harvest of Apples, they do look very nice x

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    1. A little under ripe, but I do think you are supposed to use under ripe fruit in jam and jelly making, apparently it has more pectin than ripe fruit.

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  2. Deb, your photos always make me smile. Your close ups are just lovely. The apples are beautiful--great thinking on the covering with those netted bags! How wonderful to step out your door and pick such bounty. I have one of those apple master gagets and they are great to process large amounts of apples.
    Thank you for bringing a great memory to mind of picking blackberries by the side of the road as a child. My Mama made the best blackberry roll! We are afraid to eat blackberries we see--they seem to like to spray those brambles with herbicides alongside the roads these days. Too much neatness!
    Enjoy your bounty! ♥

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    1. Thank you Martha Ellen, I too, have fond memories of foraging the hedgerows with my grandmother. She is, as you know, the main force behind my gardening escapades. I don't pick anything growing on a roadside these days, so it is off the beaten track for me!

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  3. Amazing harvest of apples!! Many wonderful pies and tarts and jars of applesauce to come!! I love the hedgerows you have there across the Pond full of blackberries and nuts! Jane xoxo Enjoy!!

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    1. Yes, a good variety of things to put up for the winter months ~~~ I wonder how long they will last?

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  4. Such a bountiful harvest in photos...lovely!

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  5. Apples are truly the fruits of autumn, the emblematic ones, that said all fruits and the products of harvest are autumnal. I long for apple picking.

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    1. So many fruits are evocative of Autumn ~ and I didn't even mention sloes for sloe gin!

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  6. What a wonderful apple harvest, Deb! September always makes me think of apples, too. Here it is the tradition for children to bring a shiny, red apple to their teachers. Such a sweet, little act of kindness! Do you have the same tradition in Wales?

    Your Apple Master looks like the perfect gadget! My favorite recipe for sliced apples is Susan's Cranberry Apple Crisp. We also like to bake apples. You are very blessed to have so many organic apples for baking during Autumn and Winter days, Deb! What a wonderful way to kick off your very favorite season! ♡

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    1. Thank you. I've just discovered Tasha Tudor's recipe for Cranberry Apple Crisp too. Now all I need is the cranberries which we will have in December.

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  7. What a lovely post about a wonderful time of year. There do seem to be a lot more wasps in our orchard at the moment - I don't remember there ever being so many.

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    1. Thank you! Yes, there are a lot of wasps, and I wonder if our unseasonably mild winter has something to do with it? So happy to see you join our little group!

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  8. Do you eat the rosehips? Your garden is always so healthy looking and bountiful!

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    1. I haven't yet processed the rose hips but am thinking about it. Oh, it is amazing how well the garden has bobbed along this last year while I have not been able to attend to it as I should. Nature is kind in that way.

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    2. I haven't yet processed the rose hips but am thinking about it. Oh, it is amazing how well the garden has bobbed along this last year while I have not been able to attend to it as I should. Nature is kind in that way.

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