This is a photo of one of the few wild apples trees that have grown on the other side of the line fence in a large meadow. Every other year or so we get lucky and have great crops of apples.
This year is one of those years. The last two years were flops as either we had late frosts or terribly dry weather.
The apples are super tart and of slightly different sizes.
Over the years I've become quite good at making apple sauce, apple butter, and apple jelly from picking these wild things.
Yesterday I picked several apples to see if they would be ready. I chopped some up and dumped them in a sauce pan and the others I dipped in cinnamon and sugar and stuck them in my dehydrator.
I ended up with fresh applesauce and sweet apple chips to take with me hiking for snacks.
See? I can cook!
Since I was doing apples and it was pouring cats and dogs outside on Saturday, I decided to get with the program and dehydrated tomatoes with seasoning along with onions, broccolli and seasonings from the flower gardens.
I packaged everything in small sealed bags that are a bit of each veggie and seasonings for winter use. I'll drop each prepped packet into a stew or soup. I only had 4 tomatoes that needed processing and cooking and canning them was not an option.
I bought a couple of pounds of onions at the farmers market, but we don't use a LOT of onions on a daily basis, so I dehydrated those also.
As I was cutting up the wild tart apples and sorting some for applesauce and the other slices for drying, I kept hearing my grandmother's voice saying things like:
'Waste not, want not.'
The tomato soup mix stuff went into the freezer next to the little packets of nettles and lamb's quarters for winter eating when fresh veggies were not readily available.
It looks like I may get more veggies this coming week! My son and his fiancé are coming to visit and he is bringing some produce from his garden.
I'm looking forward to the visit. However, Megan is a cook and she can whip up delicious meals from thin air I think.
That is intimidating! So do I offer them a take out pizza? Or horrify them with an attempt to make
Meat and Tators?
Decisions, decisions.
Ohhh Apple Butter, haven't made any in decades. So good! The wax seal part is daunting. At the rate our apple trees are growing I may never see fruit. However, someone will enjoy them in the future.
ReplyDeleteYour apple chips sound yummy. I hardly ever use my dehydrator. I went on a kick one year and dried different fruits & veggies. I didn't care for the resulting texture. I should try again. It must work grand for soups. My guys use my dehydrator for jerky. Guess I'm just partial to freezing vs canning or drying.
I had to look up lambs quarters. It's so cool to harvest from the wild. I just don't trust myself. What do you use it for? and are the nettles for tea??
Both nettles and lambs quarters are very much like eating swiss chard. Nettles make good tea also. I also harvest wild parsnip in the spring by digging it up and eating the roots.
DeleteI like apple butter but we don't do the wax seal. I just can it like I do other jellies and jams.
Yes, the apple chips end up as great treats while hiking! I like jerky too as a hiking treat. Very yummy.
I say, do what makes you the most comfortable so you can fully enjoy the visit. My son is a fine dining chef, so I know the feeling! I have a dehydrating feature on my air fryer but I'v e never dehydrated anything in my life. I'm going to give it a try.
ReplyDeleteMy new neighbor has a degree in cooking! I should learn a few tips from her right?
DeleteI love the dehydrator as I can make up small sealed bags with everything I want to dump into a soup or stew in the crock pot and have a veggie soup by the end of a day!
I love how green beans and carrots make funky curls!
I know where there is an Apple tree that was full of blooms this spring...I will have to check it out! I have a dehydrator too and we don't use it like we used to...it makes great jerky:)
ReplyDeleteThat is the one thing I haven't done yet is jerky. I may give it a go this winter for hiking snacks.
DeleteWe ended up having to chop down our apple trees. I canned so much applesauce and apple pie filling over the years. They really weren't "eating" apples, way too tart, but they were great canned with sugar, lol.
ReplyDeleteYes these are super tart which is why I dipped them in sugar and cinnamon for an experiment while drying them. It is like eating chewy apple pie!
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