HARVEST. The very word gives a warming glow, the thought of gathering in the food grown in sun kissed fields. Harvesting is the process of gathering a crop from the fields. But we harvest too in our gardens.
The gathering of the food was of such importance that many societies and religions have a feast or festival and a blessing.
The word "Harvest" comes from the Old English word hærfest, meaning the crop gathering season. The word has come to mean the entire process of gathering the product.
This year, I have been given a mountain of apples, far more than I could possibly use. I found an old farmhouse recipe book which was full of ideas.
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Comments
I made some delicious Apple and Marrow chutney last Autumn. I love doing preserves.
Thank you. I firmly believe that we should eat what is seasonal.
We are going to be doing the cordials soon ready for winter.
Having a network for using apples is worthwhile. I have three apple trees and several homes ,each of which wants apples: my own, two of my children's houses , and some for Veronica. There should be no waste there.
Lovely article, I have a few apple trees, I do visit the local apple farms in the fall and ALWAYS buy way to many apples, this will come in handy then.
Does he need two trees. It depends upon the apple tree variety. Normally there are so many apple trees around that there is enough free floating pollen, though Bramleys are more difficult as they are triploid, which means that they need a complex pollination from three sources. You must also realize that dessert apples fall into five pollination groups and baking apples fall into three. Each group can only be pollinated by its own members or members of the one besides it.
If it is a young tree in its first year, tell him to strip the fruit early and take nothing from it, for that way the tree develops roots better without having to use up energy in fruiting.
Does David know what variety the tree is? If he does, I can look it up for him; and remember, Andrew [my son] worked for many years in a fruit tree nursery and was well trained, so David can always ask his advice. Andrew knows more about fruit tree varieties than I do, it is his specialism. He has taken on the role of managing my [our] allotment fruit trees, that is after his success advising on the planting of a community orchard on the allotment site.
The apple sauce has a lovely buttery texture and I use it with pork or even on scones .
There is plenty to do with apples and the glorious food that is about us. I am very keen on preserving ad my two daughters in law have started preserving too.
My youngest son has now got an apple tree and I am wondering if he needs two to make them produce fruit. Can you let him know please ?
When you have apple trees you need to monitor them daily during fruiting, as you can use the windfalls or the June drop, when the trees shed surplus fruit. An old recipe in England was for windfall pie, when the fallen apples were picked and baked. As the apples are not very sugary at this stage you need to add some sweetener.
Thank you . I am a great believer in foraging for food and eating what is seasonally available to us.
The crumble is a massive British favourite and every household probably has their own way of making it. Any fruit can be used or it can be a savoury crumble put on a vegetable stew and without sugar in the crumble topping of course. We had some young German neighbours once and I used to make them a crumble. They loved it.
I am now on the last of my Marrow and Apple and chutney which has seen us trough the winter. Marrow tastes like a huge courgette ( or Zucchini in USA ) It can be used with many other flavours.
Castor sugar ...hmm I don't know what you call it in USA . I buy it and use it in my baking. It is very, very finely ground sugar so makes for a smoother blending and texture in the food. I shall try to discover for you what Americans call caster sugar if I can.
Veronica, Great recipes, particularly the crumble and the sauce! What do caster sugar and marrow taste like? Is the sugar something you make or buy or both?