Of Rain And Apples
It's been a longer week, and I have to say I'm faintly relieved it's over. I sit here, staring out the door at the light rain falling, listening to it hit the leaves of the bushes nearby, and have to say I still am not minding it being a wet spring/summer so far. I know others are ready to riot over it, but I am enjoying it very much.
It seems as if, until the week, I've been going at full speed and never catching up. I'm still not nearly caught up, but am taking a breath anyway. It's allowing me to see what I really need to do and to gear up for the next round of chaos. This past week has really shown how much I've run myself down. My allergies have really taken over, making a trip to the doctor with prednisone and eye drops being necessary for at least a week.
However, blueberries don't stop ripening, the grass doesn't stop growing and the list of big projects isn't getting any shorter. So I keep doing. Today, however, was a different story. I decided to work on 2 very neglected apple trees. They're on our neighbor's property, but as long as I give her some of the apples in the fall, I can do whatever I want to the trees. Considering I usually don't get a chance to work on them until September, it's obviously a little earlier than usual.
It's been at least 20 years since these trees had any significant pruning, so a few years ago I began. Today was another one of those pruning days. I always start out working on the ground and hope that I've got the trees so I can back Dad's truck up under it to work higher in the branches. By taking many of the smaller branches out, it allows the tree to get much needed air circulation througout its canopy. Plus, those branches take valuable energy away from the tree, making it far more susceptible to diseases and low grade fruit.
While pruning, a bunch of the green apples fell. It always makes me mad - it seems so wasteful. I know I have to thin many of the apples to get larger apples, but I still get mad to see them fall. I decided to try making green apple jelly. It had started to rain, and I had a couple of quarts of the little green rocks, so figured it would be a good time to play.
I washed them up, got my handy dandy chop wizard out and ca-chunked them into little pieces. Fast! I then set them to cook for about 30 minutes. Sieved them through a fine screen to make a thin apple sauce and then cooked them according to general apply jelly directions.
It's nothing special to look at, but it tastes just like apple pie! Wonderful stuff! I'm thrilled! A way to take waste and make it delicious and useful. There is nothing better. Apple pie on toast. I'm looking forward to it!
It seems as if, until the week, I've been going at full speed and never catching up. I'm still not nearly caught up, but am taking a breath anyway. It's allowing me to see what I really need to do and to gear up for the next round of chaos. This past week has really shown how much I've run myself down. My allergies have really taken over, making a trip to the doctor with prednisone and eye drops being necessary for at least a week.
However, blueberries don't stop ripening, the grass doesn't stop growing and the list of big projects isn't getting any shorter. So I keep doing. Today, however, was a different story. I decided to work on 2 very neglected apple trees. They're on our neighbor's property, but as long as I give her some of the apples in the fall, I can do whatever I want to the trees. Considering I usually don't get a chance to work on them until September, it's obviously a little earlier than usual.
It's been at least 20 years since these trees had any significant pruning, so a few years ago I began. Today was another one of those pruning days. I always start out working on the ground and hope that I've got the trees so I can back Dad's truck up under it to work higher in the branches. By taking many of the smaller branches out, it allows the tree to get much needed air circulation througout its canopy. Plus, those branches take valuable energy away from the tree, making it far more susceptible to diseases and low grade fruit.
While pruning, a bunch of the green apples fell. It always makes me mad - it seems so wasteful. I know I have to thin many of the apples to get larger apples, but I still get mad to see them fall. I decided to try making green apple jelly. It had started to rain, and I had a couple of quarts of the little green rocks, so figured it would be a good time to play.
I washed them up, got my handy dandy chop wizard out and ca-chunked them into little pieces. Fast! I then set them to cook for about 30 minutes. Sieved them through a fine screen to make a thin apple sauce and then cooked them according to general apply jelly directions.
It's nothing special to look at, but it tastes just like apple pie! Wonderful stuff! I'm thrilled! A way to take waste and make it delicious and useful. There is nothing better. Apple pie on toast. I'm looking forward to it!
posted by Leslie at
6:08 PM
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