Tag: apples

Categories
Writing

Taking A Break – Shopping

Apples
Orchard Apples

Tuesday was the first of three days of holiday in Big Grove. It began with commerce.

Meeting mercantile needs inevitably leads me to the county seat, and to people in the community I’ve known for years.

To get a long past due oil change I went to the Jiffy Lube on Highway One in Iowa City. “Jiffy” had been removed from the process, as each oil change takes 20 minutes, and they have crew enough to do only one car at a time. I left unwilling to wait an hour and headed to the Mobil 1 Lube Express on Riverside Drive, which I noticed for the first time on my drive in. In and out in 10 minutes. I asked the cashier, “is this place new?” “We’ve been here ten years,” he said.

Next stop the HyVee grocery store on North Dodge for two items, both of which they carry, but our main store does not: a certain size plastic storage bag, and whole mustard seed. I ended up paying more to get some Morton & Bassett brown mustard seed which proclaims it is “all natural, salt free, gluten free, non-GMO, preservative free, no MSG and non-irradiated.” I didn’t know irradiation was a thing with spices. I also picked up four links of vegetarian sausage for gumbo. There’s a bag of okra in the freezer that needs using. The new store is nice, but pricey.

Orchard Apples
Orchard Apples

Turning east on Dingleberry Road off Highway One, I headed to Wilson’s Apple Orchard where I’ll spend the next six weekends as the mapper in a u-pick operation. I spent two hours walking through the 110 acres, re-familiarizing myself with the layout, the new groves, and which apples are ripe where. Gala are at peak now, and this Labor Day weekend is the Honeycrisp weekend. I tasted some Honeycrisp and they are almost there… just a couple of days away. The rough creek crossing was flooding over the rocks, so I rolled up my pants and felt the cool water running across my sandal-clad feet. When I got back to the barn, I was covered with sweat. I bought a gallon of fresh apple cider and a small bag of apples, and talked for a while to the manager while dripping sweat from my arms to the floor.

Apple SignNorth on Highway One, Rebal’s Sweet Corn had their sign up so I stopped and bought a bag of ears. The farmer said there were two more patches to harvest. One for the Labor Day weekend, and the second was uncertain with it being so late in summer for sweet corn. It’s only the second time we’ve bought sweet corn this season.

The final stop was at the hardware store in Solon where I bought four boxes of canning jar lids and a box of rings. It’s more expensive there, but I enjoy my visits to get hardware close to home. The folks that run the store are making a business out of it, and there is something to learn about small town life each time I stop.

Once home, I picked tomatoes for dinner, which was sweet corn, thick-sliced tomatoes and apple cider. The whole day set me back $117.53 plus fuel.

A bargain vacation while sustaining a life in a turbulent world.

Categories
Writing

Apple Tree Takes a Hit

Vroken Branch
Broken Branch

The Golden Delicious apple tree had been having trouble for a long time. Last night it took a hit as the combination of a fruit-laden branch attached to a disease weakened trunk broke off.

It was one of the last crop bearing limbs, so this winter the tree will have to come down.

It’s not a crisis. More a sign of what’s to come.

I planted six apple trees, including this one, after my mother-in-law’s funeral. The rest of the family drove to her home near Ames where I would join them once the bare root stock from Stark Brothers was in the ground. That was more than 20 years ago.

Since then, two more trees have been lost—this one makes three. The remaining trees produce enough fruit for our household which is loaded with cider vinegar, applesauce, apple butter and dried apples. We pick the best and leave or give away the rest. We’ll be fine.

Fallen Branch
Fallen Branch

After taking the photos, an hour in the kitchen produced juice for cider vinegar. I filled the two-quart jar that holds the mother for another season of fermentation.

We recently turned up a few old items of food. We have some vintage 2008 Duncan Hines cake mix, which I decided would be a reasonable vehicle to eat more apple butter. I made the lemon flavored one first. Squares of cake topped with vintage apple butter makes a delicious dessert. When I say “vintage apple butter” I mean the jars are labeled so the variety and circumstances from which the apples originated is known.

This morning I made a batch of tapioca. It’s not like pudding, but it is close enough that I plan to make more at least until the three boxes are used up. Not sure what prompted that purchase circa 2007, but the result, prepared according to instructions on the box was decent. If I can figure out the layers, it would be great to make a parfait. Perhaps to be served like ice cream.

The garden yielded a dozen cucumbers, the same number of Brandywine tomatoes, celery, green peppers and a few cherry and grape tomatoes. There is plenty of kale, but I’m letting the plants rest for a while before resuming regular harvest. No noticeable bugs have invaded… yet.

This report and its observations aside, it is a peculiar time.

The fallen apple tree branch is a reminder of the life’s brief span. Accepting the tree’s demise has long been avoided. Until this morning.

I accept it. Despite the downward curve of the arc, there is time to plant another tree. If not for me, then for whoever inhabits this plot of ground after we are gone. Looking forward to putting new stock in the ground.

Categories
Writing

First Tomato

First Tomatoes Ripening
First Tomatoes Ripening

Barb called from the orchard.

She wanted to know if I planned to work as a mapper this season. The mapper helps people find apples in a u-pick operation. I said I thought so, but would have to confirm in a couple of weeks, well before the busy season.

Life is complicated for low wage workers working multiple jobs — a constant juggling act of tasks and priorities.

I went to my backyard grove of fruit trees and tasted an apple.

Sweetness is coming, but not here yet. The seeds are not mature, indicating we are a ways off. It won’t be long though. First order of business will be extracting juice from ripe apples to make more cider vinegar. After that, I’m not sure.

It is surprising how big the Amish Paste tomatoes are. I was expecting them to be like plum tomatoes, but they are much bigger. The first two are ripening. As with the apples, it won’t be long.

Lot’s to do on Ruhetag from the warehouse. Better get after it.

Categories
Kitchen Garden

Apple Blossom Time

Apple Blossoms
Apple Blossoms

It’s apple blossom time in Big Grove.

Conditions are excellent for an abundant apple crop. There are plenty of pollinators, the ambient temperature is warm and the wind is calm.

Already I’m thinking of apple cider, apple butter, apple cider vinegar, apple sauce, and, of course, fresh apples. It is a hopeful time.

This morning’s chores included watering indoor seedlings. They need transplant as some are becoming root bound. Soon—maybe 10 to 14 days—they will be in the ground, so I’m not going to transplant into a larger container in between. The seeds I planted on Earth Day are germinating and it’s all good.

The challenge is finding time to work in the yard and garden—I don’t have any brilliance on that topic.

Working three jobs provides variety in life. For that I am thankful, yet they all demand time.

In between one and the others, carving out blocks of garden work time is important—something I couldn’t get adequately done last year.

Here’s hoping the inspiration of apple blossoms and lilac blooms engenders a better garden this year.

Categories
Kitchen Garden

Early Spring Gardening

Apple Blossoms
Apple Blossoms

The fruit trees are blooming. The fragrance is sweet and rare. I stopped to breathe it in.

Pollinators buzzed, providing hope for a good crop of apples and pears, dampened only slightly by yesterday’s rain. Even the diseased Golden Delicious tree is blooming—perhaps one last crop before it becomes firewood.

The newspaper’s freelance garden writer wrote April is the time to get to work in the garden, and so I have. Spinach, peas, lettuce, radishes and turnips are up. The chives and garlic survived both winter and the spring burn. A new pile of apple pomace from the cider mill lies next to the horse manure and grass clippings, ready to turn to compost. There are plenty of weeds starting to grow, needing suppression. If I did nothing else, work in the garden would take all of my time this month and next.

In the bedroom, the tomato seedlings are about six inches tall. Seeds sprouted and are growing so that after hardening outside a day or two, they will be ready for planting.

At the farm there is less worry about frost and a more diverse crop has been planted. Broccoli, kale, onions and others are already lined up in field rows along with rhubarb and garlic that wintered. I spent part of Friday planting leeks in the field and transplanting eggplant seedlings in the greenhouse.

In many ways, April is for a gardener—last preparations for a rush to planting after the last frost. Then a season of replanting and weeding, and eventually harvesting. There are worse things in life than this.

Apple Blossoms
Apple Blossoms
Categories
Kitchen Garden

Scent of an Apple

Last Apple Crisp
Last Apple Crisp

LAKE MACBRIDE— New Year’s Day was for rest and household chores. The bed sheets were laundered, along with work clothes. As the washer and dryer ran, I rearranged the ice box and cooked chili and apple crisp—two dishes that have long been part of our cuisine.

People who complain about Red Delicious apples have likely never tasted one directly from a tree. At the end of the season a bowl remained to make one last apple crisp.

As I cut and peeled, the apples were ambrosial. They yielded sweet, almost divine fragrance with each cut. Not the crisp freshness of new apples, but the mature, aromatic drift of delicious.

There were bad spots, but plenty of good slices for the bowl—just enough.

The issue with local food is a lack of citrus fruit in Iowa, impossible to live without. It may be possible to re-create a greenhouse environment—carefully modulating soil, moisture, temperature and light—to grow citrus in Iowa. Why would we want to?

In winter I use imported lemon juice: Italian Volcano organic lemon juice, and there are few better things in the kitchen. A couple of tablespoons in the apple crisp and the flavor turns from tasty to insanely pleasurable. Combined with the apple aromatics, it makes a dessert fit for kings and queens. Since there are no American royalty, we’ll have to eat it ourselves.

Over many years I have tinkered with the chili recipe and have it about right. At one point I read every chili recipe I could find, especially those produced in the neighborhoods where I grew up, including my mother and grandmother’s recipes. We are solid on this dish.

That said, even if there is a recipe, the cooking of each instance of it is always a little different. The ingredients are simple: onions, kidney beans, Morningstar Farms® Recipe Crumbles, tomatoes, tomato paste, cumin, chili powder and salt are the main ones. There are a couple of key elements to preparation.

Don’t use oil for this vegetarian chili. Instead, drain the tomatoes and use the liquid to cook the onions until translucent. When they are finished, add tomato paste until the liquid is the desired thickness. Pile in the rest of the ingredients and cover with tomato juice. When there is time to simmer the chili for 6-8 hours, use it. Don’t be afraid to add lots of beans.

While these aren’t really recipes, the dishes are common enough for cooks to find and modify their own. To learn how they taste, you’ll have to visit, unless you are royalty. In which case, nuts! Have your staff make your own.

Categories
Writing

Gold Rush

Gold Rush Photo Credit - Stark Bros.
Gold Rush Photo Credit – Stark Bros.

LAKE MACBRIDE— The last apples are in.

The orchard had two crates of Gold Rush in the cooler. They ripened only in the last week, and are predictably firm and tart. Something to hold in storage until the Red Delicious from our tree are finished. I bought a dozen.

Developed in partnership between Purdue University, Rutgers University and the University of Illinois in the 1970s, Gold Rush is known for its late maturing, fruit quality and long storage ability. When they come in, the season is over. A marker in the circle around the sun.

Categories
Work Life

Last Day at the Orchard

Pumpkin Display
Pumpkin Display

RURAL IOWA CITY— Saturday was my last day working as a mapper at the orchard. I enjoy the work a lot, and hope to get hired again next year, but for now, it’s over. The season continues through the end of the month, as soon, all the apples will have been picked.

As a mapper, I greeted visitors and helped them find apples in the u-pick operation. It was fun, and importantly, it was a chance to weave narratives, scores of times during a shift. I have been able to hone my story-telling skills by repeating and improving on the narrative of how to find the best apples. That part of the experience is best, in addition to working with other great people.

Yesterday was also the end of my farm work for the season. I’m down to three paying part-time jobs, and one of those ends in December. It’s time to look for something else to produce income now and in 2015. I have a sound financial model, now I need to execute it.

The coming weeks are expected to be a time of adventure, and exploration as I contemplate answers to the question, “what’s next?”

Categories
Kitchen Garden

Knife Apples

Apple Harvest
Apple Harvest

LAKE MACBRIDE— Father taught me to eat apples after a trip on River Drive to buy a bushel.

It seemed unusual to secure so many at once, but he knew someone, and with a limited weekly income from the meat packing plant, the family took what help he could find.

Dad used a knife to cut away bad spots and avoid eating worms. I remember him rocking in a chair eating apples with a paring knife after dinner. He didn’t call them “knife apples.” I coined that term when describing the fruit from our trees.

My apple trees don’t get sprayed. Not now, not ever. The fruit is not certifiably organic, but no fertilizers or pesticides have been used, and because of that, the apples are not perfect. To eat one raw, I recommend using a knife to cut them open and see what is inside. Mostly what is found is delicious.

Apples keep only for so long. The crisp, white flesh of the Red Delicious apple is the best eating when freshly picked and still cool from the evening air. Patience taught me to wait to pick them until they are well ripened. The large globes come in all at once with a few picking sessions, and then there is an issue of what to do with them. This year the plan is juice, baked goods, and out of hand eating.

Not many are willing to risk eating an apple worm or use a knife when so many varieties are available for out of hand eating with less imperfections. We found a few takers for mine, but a warm apple crisp is often more welcome than the raw materials to make one. The next couple of weeks will be processing and more processing. Damaged windfalls and cutting remains will all get composted.

My work at the orchard will wrap up this month, and with our harvest, I won’t buy apples again until the Winesap and Gold Rush come in at the end of the season. My developing apple culture is just one more way to cope with a turbulent world and contribute to our household’s food security.

Categories
Writing

In the Apple Grove

Home Apple
Homegrown Apple

After a shift at the warehouse, I stopped at the orchard to get Honeycrisp apples. Contrary to what one sees in the mega market, they are seasonal, and the season is short. We hadn’t had enough.

The orchard staff was busy with a tour group, so I went straight to the display near the cooler in the sales barn. Sad remainders, absent of value besides pressing into cider, I ventured into the orchard wearing my white shirt, black slacks and blue shoes from the warehouse.

I had directed hundreds of people to the Honeycrisp groves the last two Saturdays. It was uncertain whether any could be found, but following my own advice, I looked near the trunk of the trees and was not disappointed. I picked eight pounds from two trees in a few minutes.

As I headed back, past the pumpkin patch, across the creek and up the hill, it was invigorating to be out in the orchard where ideas meet reality and bear fruit.