Apples

So its fall!

At least that's what my calendar is telling me.

I suppose if I were to sit and think on it...

It feels like fall too.

The air is cooler.

(Not so stifling and heavy)

The geese are honking their goodbyes.

The nights are beautiful!

(no bugs)

Not to mention, my calendar says its fall today...officially.

When its fall we pick apples.

Certainly not the first time.

Definitely not the last time.

We have picked apples at local farms too!

What makes this year a little different is that our favorite trees are heavy with fruit.

My sister in law has several GREAT apple trees.

The past few years have been hard on them.

Serious winters, porcupine damage, deer thieves...

These trees hardly stand a chance!

And yet this year they are spectacular!

(and luckily for us, they are right around the corner)

We drove up one evening to grab the apples before the deer at them all.

Owen was pretty annoyed that there was only one picking tool to be had...

So I made him the official apple picking photographer.

At 8 years old...he's not to bad!

Apple picking action!

I remembered the cloth in the picking tool this time...

No I didn't bring rum to pick apples...although...

We also scored a cabbage too!

(Located in the nearby veggie garden))

And in case you are wondering...

Here is a handy post that describes what we do with all of those apples.

And if you are interested...

I have posts on Apple and Havarti Quiche

As well as Parsnip Apple and Brie here.

Both are well worth trying!!!

I promise! 

Home Made Granola Recipe (plus a skinny secret)

Winter is great for getting the baking bug.

As opposed to the other bugs you can catch in the winter.

Of course there are only so many loaves and muffins you can make.

So I present to you:

GRANOLA!

Here is the yummy recipe that I made basically using up all of the

items I bought to make a baked brie with dried fruit and nuts over the holidays.

Recipe

I found this recipe on Yummly.com

You do have to register...it is free.

Then you have to click on a link to the original poster's blog.

Its kinda troublesome...all those extra steps...but trust me, its worth it.

This granola features dates, sweetened coconut, dried cranberries, pecans, walnuts and honey.

FYI.  I omitted the wheat germ and the sunflower seeds.

I didn't have any wheat germ on hand and the sunflower seeds I had were not shelled.

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Now here is my trick!

I've always been told that granola is "too high in fats".

So I start with a cubed apple...then sprinkle granola on top.

Add milk and you have a delicious and satisfying skinny treat.

You're welcome.

PS.  By the time you are drinking the milk from the bottom of the bowl...it's sweet cinnamon milk!!!!

BONUS:  Your house smells wonderful when its baking!

What is your favorite winter smell?

SPECIAL NOTE TO MY READERS:

This post is my 200th blog post since starting this blog in 2010.

I wanted to thank each and every one of you who reads it.

I appreciate you every day.

You drive me to create interesting content and 

life in the woods stories that leave an impression.

Stay with me folks...the ride is about to get a lot more fun!

What to do with all those Apples...

One bright and sunny Thanksgiving weekend day...

We picked a 10lb bag of apples.

It didn't really take us long...I probably could have picked the whole bag myself in 15 mins.

Seriously...not a difficult task...until you go to store these things!

I know you can store apples in a cool dark place for a few months into the winter.

I just hate the thought of one bad apple in the middle of the bag...rotting away...

So I went straight to keeping as much of the bag as I could with minimal waste or spoilage!

While I've made applesauce before...I've never jarred it for future use.

This was an awesome feat for me!

It usually smells so good when its boiling down...we eat it right away.

3 jars of applesauce now live in our food storage area.

While one can live without applesauce...it is a nice sweet addition to any pork dish.

Owen even likes dipping his potato latkes in applesauce!

Plus no preservatives or weirdness when you make your own...

Another first for me was the apple chip.

Slice thinly and sprinkle with cinnamon, nutmeg and sugar.

Like the tomatoes,  I tried both the dehydrator and the oven method.

Both worked well...but the apples took over 14 hrs in the dehydrator.

I must have sliced these apples way too thick...so I finished them off in the oven the next day.

Owen seemed to really like them at first!

Then that trailed off....must have gotten a few cinnamon heavy chips...

Frozen!

Ok...anyone with a little person these days knows that movie...

These are peeled and sliced apples in a freezer bag...

perfectly portioned so that all I have to do is pour them 

evenly into a baking dish and add crisp topping.

WAAAAAAY TO EASY....

Dangerously easy...

As nothing gets truly wasted at this house...I present to you...the chicken treat!

Once I had peeled, cored and chopped my fingers sticky...I took out the bowl to the girls.

They loved this sweet treat!

What do you do with your apple harvest?

Apple Picking and other Fall things...

Over Thanksgiving (second weekend in October here in Canada)

we spent the weekend with my mother and her man in Brighton.

Brighton is a fantastic place to be in the fall!

Historically, it's major industry was APPLES!

They have an Applefest celebration in September.

They block off the streets to showcase everything to do with apples.

Naturally, we thought this was the place to go apple picking!

Turns out it was a perfect day to pick apples and

Everyone else had the same idea too!

I love the shapes and colours of fall...every size, shape and colour of squash...

Get them now, for they store really well in a cool room most of the winter!

No hydro required.

The funky blue one is a Blue Hubbard squash...I'm seriously tempted to grow these things!

Of course the pick-your-own farms have the usual silliness for family entertainment...

I do love a good apple pun!

(get it...MACintosh apples...)

We love Macs because they are good for just about anything!

Pies, crisps, freezing, baking or just eating plain.

Cricklewood Farm also offered pick your own pumpkins!!!

But better still...they had PICK YOUR OWN FALL RASPBERRIES!

I had no idea such a thing existed...

So, of course we set out to pick one very large pint!

Super sweet...those cool nights does a berry good.

The last time I was at Cricklewood Farm with Owen, was an equally great weather day.

We did the enormous corn maze which changes every year.

The farm was NOT this busy though...but the staff handled it beautifully.

What a great place to stop and spend an afternoon!!!

Also, a guy showed up driving THIS...I was dying to steal it!

I highly recommend this place if you are even close to the area of Trenton or Brighton Ontario.

Stay tuned on a post dedicated to everything we did with 10lbs of apples!!!

5 Days of Work Food - Challenge COMPLETE!

5 days have come and gone...that went fast!

So here is a quick recap on the meals I brought with me to work:

DAY 1:

Creamy Pasta with spinach and zucchini from the garden
Plain greek yoghurt with frozen raspberries (from picking) & blueberries (from road stand)
and local honey
chopped veggies sticks - celery, carrots, sweet yellow peppers, cherry tomatoes and cukes from the garden
a grocery store apple and ivanhoe cheese curd - white!

************

DAY 2:

Spinach salad with sliced turkey slices, cherry tomatoes, cukes, sweet yellow peppers and diced Wilton cheddar cheese

Home made balsamic salad dressing

a grocery store apple

Veggie sticks - celery and carrots

Mexican oatmeal - quick oats, cinnamon, nutmeg, chili powder, brown sugar

************

DAY 3:

Turkey-Pumpkin Chili with 2 johnny cake muffins (cornbread) in reused ziplock bag

Spinach salad with cukes, cherry tomatoes, sweet orange peppers, onions and walnuts served with homemade balsamic dressing.

Maple cinnamon oatmeal with chopped almonds and apples.

************

Day 4:

Leftover Sheppard's Pie

Veggie sticks (carrots, cukes, peppers, celery)

1 whole orange, sectioned

small (reused) ziplock bag of Tostitos chips with 1/4 cup homemade salsa

************

DAY 5:

TAKE OUT DAY!!!
(I thought I would treat myself and,
in the process, show you what I eat for fast food)

Sushi lunch combo B

Added BONUS:  It's across the street from my work - so I can walk there!

How's that for balancing the high carbon foot print sushi?!

I could have remixed any of the elements from the week's lunches to make a fifth lunch.

It wouldn't have been that hard, once I had all of the stuff on hand.

************

I tried to make a bunch of healthy snacks using stuff from the garden and pantry
for 5 whole days.
I tried to make sure I had plenty of protein (but not enough for a construction worker),
decreased my salt intake (by making home made stuff, stead of packaged),
bring stuff I could snack on throughout the day that was both sweet and savoury (to satisfy both cravings),
to eat the rainbow each day,
to reduce my waste by using and washing the same packaging...
and I think I succeeded!



So how did you do with the challenge?

Pickin Punkins...and other Fall things...

Every year we buy pumpkins locally...that is, when we aren't growing them of course!

I try to avoid the big box stores...there is something weird about paying 99 cents for a big pumpkin...

It's mostly to support the local growers, but its also weird to see something so giant be so cheap.

So we drove a short way to Silverbrook's Garden Center at 3071 Rutledge Rd  in Sydenham.

http://www.silverbrookgardencentre.com/

It was the Friday before Hurricane Sandy hit.

They were calling for storms, high winds and of course rain.

For some reason, Friday didn't listen and it was GORGEOUS!

The sun was shining...the air was warm...like spring.

Owen was all over the pumpkins.

Picking out a proper pumpkin is like a scientific process.

And heavy!

We loaded up one of the push carts that Silverbrook offers its customers.

Here's Owen already dreaming about the things we shall carve into them.

Not to mention the pies we'll make and the seeds we'll roast!

Silverbrooks also had some pretty cool looking squashes and gourds.

(Great for natural decorating for your centerpiece!)

The funniest part of the trip was when Owen spied a huge box of apples.

They had a few kinds to choose from but Owen dove right in to the Empire apples.

(medium sweet apples)

The lady was just about to say that Owen could try one...but he was already munching away...

We grabbed 8 pumpkins in total as well as a basket of apples.

Silverbrook is a wonderful spot...we love to go there on occassion to buy seedlings that we don't start from seed, antiques, candles and other produce as it comes into season.

It really has an old fashioned feel to the place.  Like you've stepped back in time.

No one is wearing costumes, but you'll be pleased with the personable service and friendly folks you'll meet.

The pumpkins we bought went right into our front yard for decorating, but now that Halloween is over, I'll be bringing them in for a future post on how to cook and prepare pumpkin mash for the freezer for baking.

Not to mention a post on roasting seeds!

The apples are already gone...they were good!!!

Where did you get your pumpkins?

Update from the property...

So the days are getting shorter and the nights are getting cooler.

We have been fully engulfed in making way for next years' plans.

In the works:

Making room for a fruit orchard, chicken coop, seed saving and getting the full garden going.

One side of our property provides the shelter of pre existing trees...but we've been discovering that most of the trees we thought we had...are actually dead tree trunks with thousands of vines growing up them.

The result is a bunch of trees that appear to have foliage...tricky mother nature!

Our plans include apple, pear and cherry trees.

I need to research what types are hardier for cool climates.

I need to learn about cross pollination,

some types won't produce if your don't have a couple of more than one type around.

I also drafted next year's water barrel structure.

It still needs the ends evened up with a saw and nailed or screwed together.

Elevating the water barrels will provide nature force to the stream of water from the barrel faucets.

The dead trees we've been removing from the scrobs around the edges of our property became a huge store of kindling and logs for our fireplace.

We're pretty stoked about that...as it is one step towards not caring if the power goes out.

We were given these crates by some guys staying at Desert Lake Resort.

The were elevator guys working in Kingston for a few months.

The crates were actually boxes for shipping their parts for the elevators.

The guys left them for us for burning, but I had other ideas!

Another thing we're waiting on is our potatoes!

I think I forgot to mention our composter experiment.

When we moved we found a bag of potatoes that had started growing.

We threw them in this composter and started filling it with top soil

every now and again.

The top soil is now about 4-5 rows of holes up the barrel!

The idea is that when the tops start to die off, we'll empty the dirt out of the barrel.

Ideally we'll have a big pile of potatoes too!

Perfect for storage this winter!

I'm still toying with some locations for a cold storage at this new house.

I have a couple of candidates but I want to monitor the temp fluctuations throughout the seasons.

I also want to monitor if these locations have any moisture issues.

I had a spot in mind, but the roof over top of it might leak during heavy rains through an air vent.

These are all things I prefer to investigate prior to losing a whole harvest to pests, mold or rot.

I can't think of anything more disappointing.

I've also been saving some seeds too!

So far I've cleaned and dried canteloupe seeds and green onion seed bulbs.

So as the leaves change colour, don't forget to enjoy all that fall has to offer:

-Pumpkins and squashs

-apple cider

-apple pies & crisps

-using nutmeg and cinnamon in your cooking (they taste like fall to me)

-root vegetables, roasted & buttered

-warm wooly sweaters

-thick socks

-cool evening walks in the woods

-the smell of campfires or wood stoves

Corn Maze!

Owen and I had the opportunity to try out a corn maze recently.

I had never been to a corn maze...but I'd always wanted to.

Corn mazes are a wonderful way to spend an afternoon outside, enjoying nature, supporting local business, supporting your local food producers and after the maze season is over...the farmers harvest the corn!

We were in Brighton visiting my Mom at her cottage in Presqu'ile Park.

She introduced us to Cricklewood Farm...

It was a lot more than just a corn maze!

We showed up on a fairly hot day and we were sure to bring lots of cold drinks.

We went into the farm store to see what we needed to know before starting out on the corn maze trek.

Above, Owen is pictured with the info board inside the farm store.

We were greeted by some very friendly ladies who explained everything we needed to know.

There were a few rules to follow while in the maze:

-no smoking

-no running, no bare feet

-do not pick corn

-no short cuts (it damages the maze)

-an adult must accompany anyone 15 yrs or younger

-dogs must be leashed and scooped

-no drugs or alcohol (its trippy enough in that maze without extras!)

They gave us some take away pamphlets with more information.

Not just about the corn, Cricklewood farm features lots of produce including many, many kinds of apples.

I had no idea there were this many kinds of apples!?!?!

Owen was really getting into the whole experience!

(Pictured here with apple picking carts)

Cricklewood farms has dwarf trees for easy pick your own apples.

They are also introducing some experimental types...ready in the next few years.

There's no stopping Owen...on with the corn maze already!

The corn maze itself was amazing!  (sorry about the pun)

There were 2 mazes to try:  one was a small toddler maze, which took about 15mins max.

The other was the giant 6 acre maze that took an hour and a bit.

The toddler maze featured little sign posts that detailed the life of "Kernie the Kernel"

We read all about how Kernie starts as a seed, gets planted, then grows up to be a big strong corn plant with lots of healthy ears.

The giant maze offered something similar, but way more involved.

We were given a sheet all about this year's corn maze theme.  There were word searches, definitions, wildlife in trouble and a cross word.  All activities were centered around wildlife.

Above is a selection of the mazes of the past. 

Each year they design a new one and an aerial picture is added to the large collection. 

This year, Cricklewood Farms partnered with the CWF (Canadian Wildlife Federation) to produce this year's theme "The American Badger".

Once finished the maze, we were happy to find the rest area for visitors to the farm.

A picnic area...

An apple maze you trace with your finger to help the worm get to the center of the apple and back out again...

A hay mountain (which the brochure states is for kids and adults)...

And those boards your put your head through and take pictures...my pumpkin!

All in all it was a great afternoon!

I urge you to check out some wonderous fall activities, which can include, but are not limited to:

-pumpkin patches

-apple picking

-corn mazes

These activities can be found at your local pick your own farm...

or click on the link below:

http://www.pumpkinpatchesandmore.org/CAONpumpkins.php

Don't forget the apple cider!!!