Another party PLUS the annual apple harvest

 We headed to the farm Saturday morning and Kippy got to celebrate her 12th birthday one more time!  This time with family and extended family from out of town (Aunt Joan, Aunt Judy, cousins Julie & Maria).

 By special request, Grandma Rose made a red velvet cake with cream cheese frosting, plus a few extra chocolate mustaches to go with.

 

 It wasn't all about the party at the farm.  There was some work to be done. While Uncle Randy, cousin Brett, & cousin Kaleb were busy bringing in the corn harvest, the rest of the clan worked to get the apple harvest completed.  Although, much of the low hanging fruit had already been feasted on, there was still work to be done.

 The apple trees were loaded with apples, but many of them had become food for the birds who also realized how juicy and delicious those honey crisp apples were. 

 Steve got his traditional job of loading up in dad's Cherry Picker and harvesting all the apples too high to reach by step ladder.

 Dad was in position to catch the apples that Steve threw down and Kippy sorted the apples into the appropriate bucket.  The sorting isn't an exact science, but there is a method to the madness.

If there was nothing salvageable with the apple, it would go into the crap-apple bucket.  These apples got fed to the chickens.  Bluck!  This is all bird damage.  Dirty birds!!

Completely perfect, unblemished apples were put in the "teacher" apple bucket.  These apples were shined up by Kippy and personally handed out to each of the teachers at Our Lady of Victory.

The rest of the apples were sorted out for apple sauce, apple pie or just plain old eating.

 Of course, there was always a kitten or two around to get a little extra attention from Kippy.

 Abby practiced some of her newly acquired driving skills by taking a load of crap-apples to the chickens.

We also didn't miss an opportunity to get some photos of Kippy next to her now 12 year old Red Canadian Cherry tree.  And Meg didn't miss a chance to get some extra love from Kippy too.

Just ONE guy

One of our family's favorite sayings comes from our nephew, Nixin Rudy, who when he was 3 years old and wanted to do something by himself would emphatically say, "One GUY!!"

Our Honey Crisp apply tree ended up with just ONE guy too.  One apple that is. 

 It started out with 3 apples due to only one branch blossoming this spring.  The wind eventually reduced our produce to ONE. SINGLE. SOLITARY. apple.

I have yet to pick our ONE guy.  I suppose it is to prevent the inevitable quandary of who will get to eat it!  We are all hoping this year is an anomaly and our tree will go back to being the producer it has been in the past.

Apple Harvest 2010

A bonus of going to the farm last weekend to celebrate Kippy's 10th birthday (September 25 & 26) was being able to help with the Apple harvest. There are two HoneyCrisp apple trees at the farm, which were planted when my neice, Makenzie (1993), and nephew, Kaleb (1996), were born. The tricky thing is that some years there are loads of apples and some years there have been no apples at all. It all depends on the weather when the trees are in bloom. Rain and high winds greatly affect pollination as well as temperature, like a late Spring frost. This year was a little less than average, yeilding 9 five-gallon buckets full of apples, plus a couple of pails full of bruised and banged up apples are used for apple sauce. In a banner year, we can get almost 30 five gallon buckets.

This year the apples were HUGE even tho the yield wasn't great, maybe because of the smaller number of apples on the trees. We had 4 adults and 4 kids helping with harvest. Kaleb got the job of picking from up high in the cherry picker, while Kippy & Logan climbed right up up in the trees to pick. Abby used a ladder, while I helped out with transferring and rating the apples. Grandma Rose was busy cutting up the apples for apple sauce and shared slices with all of the workers. Steve and Grandpa Rod were in charge of moving the ladders and the cherry picker into position. It was a very good time and we have been eating delicious, juicy, crisp, sweet apples every day since then. I love them cut up in salads and in morning oatmeal.

Another option if you have apples that are less than perfect is to make crockpot applesauce.
I don't follow a formal recipe, but this is what I do. I core and quarter enough apples to fill the crockpot 3/4 full. Add 1/2 cup a liquid, I love using orange juice, but think that cranberry juice or apple cider would be good. ...I have used water too. It all works. I sprinkle liberally with cinnamon, add a dash of nutmeg and salt. I also add a couple tablespoons of lemon juice. Cook on high for 3 hours or low for about 6 hours. I simply mash with a potatoe masher because we like it chunky, but if ran through a mill it would be perfectly smooth. The Honeycrisp apples are naturally sweet, so no sugar necessary. Of course, we love it warm with a dollup of ice cream. Tastes like PIE & makes the house smell wonderful! Yum!
How do you like your apples?

Wordless Wednesday

The best invention

A bucket of apples can take a bit of time to process by hand, but with this handy contraption, you can be done in no time at all!

Behold the apple peeler, slicer, corer.... this has to be the coolest invention ever! If you don't already have one, you have got to get one.

A few quick turns of the handle and the peel is removed, the core is gone and the apple is neatly sliced.

Here is the final product... a perfectly peeled, cored and sliced apple in literally seconds.

A few quick cuts and your apple ready to go or you could leave as is and have perfect slices.

Eight cups of sliced apples ready for any apple recipe. I typically freeze in 8 cup increments in 1 gallon freezer bags.

Abby put this crumble together this past weekend.

Vanilla ice cream is the perfect accompaniment for warm apple crumble.

APPLE CRUMBLE

6-8 med. apples, peeled, cored, sliced thinly 1/4 c. sugar 1/8 tsp. salt Dash of cinnamon Dutch Crumble Topping Toss apples with sugars, salt, spice; pour into greased 9 inch pie pan. Top with Dutch Crumble Topping. CRUMBLE TOPPING: 1/2 c. butter 1/2 c. quick oats 1/2 c. flour 2/3 c brown sugar 1 tsp. cinnamon 1/2 tsp nutmeg 1 tsp. baking soda Mix with pastry blender until pebble-like. Sprinkle over apples. You may have to press down lightly. Bake at 350 degrees for 45 minutes or until done.

Fall harvest

We planted this Honey Crisp apple tree in our backyard 6 months after we moved to Fergus Falls, in April 2003. We have enjoyed 3 harvests from our tree, but this year was by far the largest despite the fact the wind has blown many apples off the tree. Last week Friday, I went out to help myself to an apple and I noticed the yellow jackets were swarming and munching on them, so I quickly did the harvest myself. Filled up one crisper drawer. The apples are crunchy & juicy... the perfect eating apple! At first the girls weren't too happy with me that I picked them all myself, but when I explained that I was getting swarmed by yellow jackets, they changed their tune.