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.