Lovin’ these cool, crisp, mountain mornings. Ah, fall is in the air. Once the kiddos are on the bus, I shall get cracking on another batch of apples. Crockpot applesauce today and then apple pie filling in a jar later today. Then school work, housecleaning, work, and whatever else needs to be done around here (never a lack of that!). I don’t have any classes today at UNCA so that’s a nice little break.
On Sunday, we headed out to Edneyville to pick apples at our favorite apple pickin’ place, Justus Orchards. We just love the setting, the atmosphere and the warm welcome we always receive from the owners.
Although hail damage was evident from the severe thunderstorm we had the week before, there were more than enough beautiful apples to be picked. And pick we did; three bushels full of those glorious, sweet orbs. We always pick a large variety, as I like to mix the different types together in my asundry apple concoctions. Adds more flavor, in my opinion.
And so, the apple madness has begun at our dining room table and in our kitchen. For the past three days, and probably for the next four days, apples have been being peeled, sliced and canned, in one form or another. We have done, at this writing, two batches of crockpot apple butter, two batches of stove top applesauce, a batch of ‘apple pie filling in a jar’, and right now, there is a batch of applesauce slow cooking in the crockpot. And, we’ve only worked through half of the apples. Oh, but I tell you, the smell of apples simmering away, mixed with cinnamon and nutmeg; there’s not much that can top that heavenly, autumal aroma!
Joe and I were just sitting on the front porch, in our respective rocking chairs, discussing our lack of storage for all these jars. With all the apples being put up, as well as all the jars of peaches, pickles and grape juice we’ve done over the summer, we need more space. So, Joe is going to build a special canning shelf for the corner of the dining room. Yippee!
This past weekend our old grapevine kept us quite busy. We picked concord grapes all morning and then spent the afternoon canning 49 quarts of grape juice. We’ve found that is the quickest, easiest way to put them up for later use in making jelly. The recipe we use is so simple:
Sterilize your quart jars. Clean your grapes, leave skins on. Add 1 cup grapes and 1/2 cup sugar to each quart jar. Then fill with boiling water. Put lids on jars and swish around the sugar mixes into the water. Process in hot water bath for 10 minutes. Remove jars from water bath and cool. Store in cool place. Absolutely wonderful!
This coming weekend, we’ll be working on apples.
Grape harvest
What a glorious morning to wake up to! Gentle breeze, clear blue skies. Almost feels like fall, especially with the wind blowing the leaves off the weeping cherry trees in our yard. But, surely it cannot be that close to fall. Right?
TJ and I went out to the back garden earlier and did some weeding. We also picked a basket of green beans, some cucumbers, some red onions and a ton of basil. Getting ready to go in the kitchen and freeze that basil for the winter months.
Well, it’s pickling time around here. Over the past 2 1/2 days, we’ve put up 14 quarts of bread and butter pickles and 10 quarts of dill pickles. That used up one case of cucumbers. Still have one more case to go, so we’ll double our pickle stash. Tomorrow afternoon the kids and I will work on crockpot peach butter with the beautiful free-stone SC peaches we bought over the weekend. Ooooh, yummy. Our grapes are looking very promising on the vines so that will keep us busy in August, as will all our tomatoes, beans and squash. Of course, September is apple picking time! I just love the satisfying sound of that ‘pop’ as the jars seal on our freshly canned goodies.
It’s such a great feeling to know where are canned goods came from, how they were prepared, how few preservatives they contain. And the jars are so pretty lining the shelves in our pantry and our cabinets! Yeah, this is life as I dreamed it.
Fantastically! Thanks to the end of the drought here in western North Carolina, our gardens are flourishing. A sight to behold. We have a large potato patch out by the road and just planted some bush beans out there, also. (Working on the companion gardening.) In our large back garden, we have several varieties of leaf lettuce which we’ve been enjoying in our salads along with the arugala. Tonight we picked our first swiss chard and beet greens and had those for dinner. Ever so tasty. We also have several more rows of green beans out there. The yellow crookneck squash, cucumbers, zucchini and watermelon plants are all up and looking healthy. Planted over 30 tomato plants, mostly Romas, so we can do sauces, salsas, etc. They are interspersed with a number of varieties of pepper plants, again the companion gardening. We have herbs in various places around the yard and in pots on the front porch. We just ordered some hops rhizomes the other day and are going to give that a try. Joe enjoys homebrewing, so we’d be tickled if we grow our own hops for that purpose.
It’s just always such a thrill to watch the plants come up, to be able to walk out the back door and pick our favorite vegetables for dinner. And then in the fall, to watch the pantry and shelves become lined with the fruits (vegetables) of our labors to be enjoyed through the winter months. There’s nothing quite like growing your own.
readying the garden
I’m heading out to M&M Freezer Locker in Hendersonville this morning to pick up a side of local beef to put in the freezer for the winter. 221 pounds of beef: steaks, stew meat, roasts, ribs, ground beef and more. All neat wrapped and labeled in the amounts we requested for just $2.46/pound for all of it! Can’t beat it. I love stocking the freezer and being able to get local meat is such a bonus. Of course, we’ve also been canning and freezing vegetables and grapes from our gardens and local apples that we picked. We’ll carve our pumpkins that we got last weekend this Saturday and make roasted & salted pumpkin seeds. Those, however, will not last long around here! The kids and I have started baking for our Christmas party and we’re putting those goodies in the freezer, too. The chill in the air and the falling leaves are reminders that the cold months are coming and it’s time to ready our pantry.
Two weekends ago, we took the kids to Justus Orchards in Hendersonville for our annual apple pickin’ excursion. As the children loaded their baskets with ripe, juicy apples, we discussed the attributes of each mouth-watering variety; a mini taste lesson during the fun of twisting and turning those orbs off the branches. It was a gorgeous day in the mountains, nice breeze, not too hot, and great times spent together as we made our harvest. We came home with right around 140 pounds of local apples!
Our house is still being filled with the aromas of that harvest as pies and crisps bake in the oven, as apple butter , pie filling and applesauce simmers on the stove or in the crockpot, as we put up the apples we picked this year. Makes you want to wrap everyone up in one big quilt, lay back, tell stories and breathe in the smells of apples, cinnamon and cloves as they blend perfectly into those delectable treats for our palates. Our pantry shelves are looking colorful with the fruits and labor of from that trip, canned South Carolina free-stone peaches, tomatoes from our garden and grapes from our vine. Winter will be here and our stores are being laid up. A comforting feeling in our home.
Our Gang