Every Brilliant Thing

Rosa_Damascena

@Nelliegrace - I am so envious! I have a lot of apples (bought on offer) but when I look at them they are just to perfect - and expensive - to turn into a crumble! We had a few harvest-related suggestions prior including #14 (foraging) but am interested in any further tips you have re: storage and the fruits of your labour from the fruits of the trees! From previous posts:

Rosa_Damascena said:

@maman - I believe yours is a hybrid of #5 and #6.

#12 - the joy that pets bring (infinite outlay and ongoing costs - vets bills aren't cheap!)
#13 - freshly laundered sheets (labour to strip, wash, hang, iron and re-make the bed).
# 14 - foraging (free plus a fun activity)

Rosa_Damascena said:

@purpleivy - I love a good plum! Sadly I had to get rid of my President plum tree as it was diseased, not a single fruit was unaffected 

#15 - canning the fruits of summer (expensive outlay but a sunken cost, plus the ongoing costs of materials - but the more its used, the better value it delivers).
#16 - enjoying said preserves on yoghurt or custard (cost of preferred base dessert)
#17 - successful propagation from a mother plant (patience and nurture!)



#42 - enjoying autumn harvest year round (requires a bit of know-how, I'm sure @Nelliegrace can oblige us!)

Wednesday2000

Lovely garden pics and what a lot of apples! I bought cooking apples this week as I had a craving for stewed apples and custard!

Nelliegrace

First, check the garage for mice. My sister lost all of their stored apples to them. I have ordered more mousetraps.

Pick apples carefully to avoid bruising them. I store them in (free) plastic mushroom trays on a few sheets of newspaper, a space between the apples. I shall have to use a few extra boxes cut into trays this year.  Some people wrap apples individually. Most weeks I re-stack them and remove any which need the using up, or have gone too bad even for the hens and have to go in the compost. The hens get a lot of apple peel. The garage is cold, but well insulated against frost, the windows face North. 

My parents had a large freezer and would get us all preparing their apples and apple juice to freeze. They usually had a project for when children and grandchildren visited, collecting thousands of fading daffodil heads for dyeing wool, and  young oak leaves for wine. The teenagers dug a long trench for an electric cable.

DH will ignore apples in the bowl but like children he will eat them daily, without thinking, if I slice one for him. I stew some apples every few days and keep them in the fridge to have on my porridge or with custard, cream or yoghurt. We like apple pastries and puddings. I add apples to salads.  I grate an apple into bara brith. I make some apple jellies, rose hip and apple, hedgerow jelly with elderberry, blackberries and rosehips, and Pam Corbin’s Compost Heap Jelly, https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=-jwQnlKSxQI

We had a good apple year in 24, with very few grubs in the untreated apples. They lasted into May, a bit wrinkled but still tasty. Most of these were used up in wholemeal apple crumbles, cored and sliced but with the peel still on, and as baked apple, cored and stuffed with mincemeat.