Picking Apples From A Tall Tree & Cider Pressing Announcement

We're in the midst of bedding down the garden for winter. Stakes are laying all over the place and Lil has comandeered these 8 foot bamboo poles for playing pole vault, riding them like a witch's broomstick, and fighting imaginary monsters. It's a cheap toy, yet another version of the 'box and a stick', always favorite playthings.

On Sunday, Alex and I were surveying the yard and noticed that some apples on our mature, very tall apple tree were ripe. The ones that fell to the ground on their own were getting eaten by deer or dogs or raccoons, all of whom are less worthy of organic apples than us. We were pondering whether to rent or buy a pole-mounted apple picker when Lil ran towards the garage. She returned with a bamboo pole and started whacking at the apples. The ripe ones fell to the ground where we could pick them up.

Brilliant, my new eight-year-old!

Alex grabbed a pole too and I found a Trug. Twenty minutes of fun hitting and collecting later and we had a bushel of apples. Obviously many bruised when they hit the ground but for making cider, that doesn't matter.

We would love to let you hit an apple with a bamboo pole and see cider pressing in action. We're holding a Cider Pressing Open House at 1224 E Cooke Rd Columbus OH 43224 on Saturday October 26 from 2-5 pm. See you there!

Thirty Two Things

Today I am thirty two years old. Thirty two feels good - I am no longer searching for a purpose like when I turned a thirty, nor feeling like I need to have a birthday week. Today has been a simple lovely day with my family picking apples. Taking a hint from Adam Lehman, I am dreaming about what will happen in my thirty third year. I hope to do these things:

1. Write in my homestead journal again 2. Sew something for myself 3. Visit the Athens Farmers' Market 4. Donate thirty two pieces of clothing 5. Make something with all the wine corks I've collected 6. Ditto with the canning jar rings 7. ...and lids 8. Stop collecting random bits of home goods without an intended project 9. Choose beauty over function more often 10. Refresh my Internet image with head shots that aren't five years old 11. Make sure I'm in family pictures, hat tip Kate 12. Make a piece of furniture 13. Kill an animal for meat 14. Tan a hide 15. Go to the dentist 16. Grow and dye with indigo 17. Publish some of the essays I've written and kept under wraps because I fear they are too preachy 18. Put the controversial essay in my head onto virtual paper 19. Hang a bat house 20. Use the chainsaw 21. Learn to make a proper lemon twist 22. Make soap 23. Frame my Igloo Letterpress poster and Joachim Knill polaroid 24. Buy a new bed - ours is awful but I don't know what kind to buy 25. Give my hens a new coop 26. Build a tree house with Lil and Alex 27. Consider becoming a net-zero energy homestead 28. Consolidate email addresses 29. Find a better way to organize and share photographs 30. Learn and use Photoshop 31. Eat more vegetables, always 32. MOVE (I hope to share some news about this soon!)

New & Improved Baked Apple {Recipe}

My favorite season is here! I love autumn for chilly mornings, the rainbow of changing leaves, and my birthday. I also love apples, the quintessential fall fruit.

Last night, Lil requested baked apples, a 'dessert' so nutritious that I had to indulge. The only apples we had on hand were the Freedom variety from Sippel Farm. These are tasty red apples but the skins are a little tough. I knew if I baked in my traditional way, the skins would become leathery but I had an inkling that a favorite kitchen gadget might help us out.

Apple Peeler Corer Slicer

Enter the apple peeler corer slicer. This gizmo is one I resisted purchasing for years because it has every marking of a unitasker. Indeed it only works well on apples, but it makes quick work of apples for crisp, jam, and sauce. We use it often enough to justify the $20 cost;  City Folk's Farm Shop has an apple peeler corer slicer to borrow.

Lil loves to operate the peeler, as do her friends. Some of them ask for an 'apple slinky' every time they are over. Even the chickens appreciate this tool because they get to eat up all the skins and cores, so nicely cut into beak-sized pieces.

Baked Apple Recipe

Back to last night - Lil peeled, cored, and sliced our apples. I sat them upright in a baking dish and we filled with a little bit of butter, oats, nuts, and sugar. Lil sprinkled with cinnamon. Actually, Lil covered them in cinnamon as she was so enjoying making the spice rain down on the apples that she forgot to stop. Oops.

They baked in a low oven for an hour while we prepared and ate the rest of our dinner. I tipped the rounds into a spiral for service. Our dinner guests agreed that this was an improvement to the typical baked apple, as pleasing to the eye as to the fork.

Baked Apple Makes: 1 serving Time: 1 hour

1 starchy baking apple per person 1/2 teaspoon butter per person (can substitute coconut oil) 2 teaspoons sugar or honey 1 teaspoon rolled oats 1 teaspoon chopped walnuts or raisins (optional) 1/4 teaspoon cinnamon

1. Peel, core, and slice apples. Place with core hole vertical in an oven safe baking dish. 2. Fill core hole with butter, 1 teaspoon sugar, oats, and walnuts or raisins. 3. Sprinkle cinnamon and remaining sugar over the top of the apple. 4. Bake in 300 degree F oven for 40 minutes. Check for doneness by poking at apple. If it does not yield easily, pour 1/2 cup apple cider, hard apple cider, or water into pan and cover with aluminum foil. Bake an additional 20 minutes or until apples are cooked to your desired texture.

Apple Crisp {Ratio Recipe}

Apples are abundant in our house after our trip to Lawrence Orchards. When the oven was on for family dinner roasted potatoes last night, I couldn't help but whip up an apple crisp. I use a simple crumble topping ratio that is adaptable to the ingredients I have on hand and needs of my guests. I can use white flour, white sugar and butter for a traditional crisp. More often I choose oats, whole wheat flour and unrefined sugar for a healthier crunch. Coconut oil or vegetable shortening work when you are out of butter or want to avoid dairy.

I spice unsweetened apples (a variety of types works best) with freshly ground nutmeg, cinnamon, and cloves. You could use pears or plums if you have them and change up the spices to your taste. The topping is intentionally un-spiced because I like to let the fruit flavors shine through the crisp.

For the pictured pie pan of eight medium sized sliced apples, I used one cup flour and oats as my measure. For a 13x9 inch pan, I would use twice that amount.

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Apple Crisp Ratio Recipe

1 part flour, oats, or a mix 1/2 part sugar (white, brown, or turbinado) 1/2 tsp salt per cup flour 1/3 part solid fat (butter, coconut oil, or vegetable shortening)

1. Stir together flour, sweetener, and salt in a mixing bowl.

2. Cut fat into mix until no distinct pieces remain.

3. Spread evenly over a pan of sliced and spiced baking fruit.

4. Bake at 350 degrees for 30-45 minutes or until fruit is soft and topping browned.

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  Added to Simple Lives Thursday.

Lawrence Orchards {Pick Your Own Farm Profile}

I was devastated when I found out that Windy Hill Farm, home of Charlie's apples, has no fruit this year. Other sustainable eaters in Columbus were sad apples too.

Thanks to tips from two blog readers, I found the next best thing to Charlie's at Lawrence Orchards in Marion Ohio.

Lawrence grows over 20 varieties of apples. They provide wagons, bags, maps, and descriptions at their farm market to help you find your favorites.

The picking is not particularly easy because the trees are a bit overgrown. Apples are plentiful and there are nicely mowed lanes between each row. Between Alex, Lil, and myself, we were able to fill six half bushel bags in about an hour.

The staff person I asked confirmed that the owner sprays as little as possible and avoids chemical applications near harvest time.

The condition of the apples confirmed that they are not subject to many pesticides. Fans of Charlie's will recognize the harmless black webs and brown raised bumps as the signs of insects that have moved on. I liken these surface spots to beauty marks - they make the fruit interesting and no less delicious.

U-pick half bushel bags are a steal at only $9 each. A large pre-picked selection is available in the store for twice the price but smaller quantities if you need it.

Lawrence Orchards makes unpasteurized cider, cider vinegar, and homemade apple butter for sale in their farm store. A selection of seasonal decor and treats including homegrown pumpkins are available.

Local Waldo honey is raised on the farm. Visitors can enjoy an observation hive in the farm store and purchase the honey and pollen products.

The farm includes just the right amount of agri-tainment with a corn bin, small hay bale maze, pony and goats for petting, and photo opportunities. They advertise an Applefest annually with additional activities such as live music, face painting, and a recipe contest.

The Lawrence Orchards website is updated weekly with the picking varieties. Their facebook page is active as well.

Today we scoured cameo trees for the last of those  sweet and crisp eating apples and picked ida red, enterprize, and golden delicious for cider. I'll be back for gold rush, the best all-around keeping variety, in a few weeks.

If you go:

• The orchard is open Monday - Saturday from 9 am - 6 pm.
• Expect a one hour drive from central Columbus.
• Start in the store where you will be given bags and a map of what's available.
• Know that they accept cash, credit, or checks.
• Consider bringing lunch and picnicking at nearby Delaware State Park - there are only snack foods available in the store.

Lawrence Orchards 2634 Smeltzer Rd. Marion, Ohio 43302 740-389-3019 apple@lawrenceorchards.com

Sad Apples

They say it was too cold or windy to warm the little bees' wings.

Or the apple flowers blossomed just before a storm and their white petals marbled the ground before they could attract pollinators.

Perhaps it was Colony Collapse, A frightening name for the frightening idea that we humans or weather or something mysterious is killing the bees on which we depend.

The only certainty is that apples are few this year.

Then last night the news came that Steve Jobs, curator of a technology company named after the simple fruit, died.

Jobs did not stop living in the face of cancer, or economic difficulty, or poor seasons, but his body still succumbed to the inevitable.

Those of us who love apples and Apples are sad.

We will grieve for a time. Then we will think with the creativity of Jobs. We will find ways to grow new fruit, to protect species known and unknown, to communicate and connect.

It is the way of the apple.

Pictured is the last of the apples I picked at Charlie's last season. It is ugly but I will cut into it and savor the gold rush. With no planning, this post is the first I have composed entirely on an apple product, our ipad.

Miracle of Doing Nothing: Making Cider Vinegar

Sometimes it's better to just do nothing at all. That's what I did when a dinner guest commented, "Ew! Gross!"

And when my daughter sneered, "Mama! It's different!"

Friends and family members, including Alex, regarded the open jar of smelly cider with raised eyebrows and pinched noses. I maintained that I was following the vinegar recipe: pour fresh raw apple cider in a jar, cover with an air permeable top, and set it aside for months.

Wouldn't you know, when I pushed the 'mother' aside with a spoon on Sunday, the underlying clear tan liquid smelled and tasted exactly like cider vinegar! What an amazingly simple homesteading success!

Science says that natural yeast in our home pressed cider converted the sugars to alcohol. Natural bacteria then fermented the alcohol to acetic acid, or vinegar.

To store and use the vinegar, I removed the mother and strained out the flocculate, i.e. yeast poopies. I poured the vinegar into a vintage blue Ball jar and it's ready for salad dressing, mayonnaise, soups, and sauces.

Sometimes doing nothing turns into something amazing.

Added to Simple Lives Thursday 27.

Wordless Wednesday: Ohio Apple Tattoo

I mentioned a few times that I love Ohio apples.  My sentiments are now indelibly inked on my shoulder, courtesy of Julie Edwards Whittaker, now tattooing at High Street Tattoo.