The season of autumn has now arrived and with autumn the season of the apple harvest begins. Apples grow in almost every state in the United States. Washington State is one of the largest growers of apples. New York state produces a large crop of apples, as well as Virginia and Ohio.
Apples come in many colors, sizes, and varieties. You can choose from Red Delicious, Granny Smith, Rome, York, McIntosh, Jonathan, Jona-Gold, Jona-Mac, Waldorf, Honey Crisp, and many others. Apples have a long shelf life and are available in every season of the year. Each state has their own apple season and our state is now beginning its apple harvest.
Making crock pot apple butterApple butter is simple to prepare in a crock pot and with simple ingredients of apples, sugar, and spice and a small amount of apple cider vinegar. In a crock pot, you can cook the apples overnight and prepare the apple butter the next day. For this apple butter you will need enough apple slices to fill a four or five quart crock pot; peel and core the apples and slice enough to fill the crock pot. Add one cup water and cook on low overnight or until the apples are tender. Pour off all liquid from the cooked apples and run through the blender in puree mode. Return the pureed apples back to the crock pot, add three cups of sugar (or more) depending on the tartness of the apples. Add two teaspoons of cinnamon, two teaspoons of apple pie spices, half cup water, and a half cup apple cider vinegar.
Cook uncovered for three hours on high or until mixture reaches a spreading consistency (like butter). Pour in pint or jelly jars sterilized in boiling water. Seal lids and rings and process in water bath for 20 minutes. If you have two crock pots, you can double the yield. A crock pot should yield three or four jars. You can prepare a batch each day and process all the jars at one time.
Making a homemade apple cobblerThis is a simple apple cobbler recipe with just a few ingredients that is great with vanilla ice cream or Cool Whip. You will need eight fresh apples peeled, cored, and sliced, two and a half cups of plain flour, two teaspoons baking powder, one stick light margarine, half cup Crisco vegetable oil, one teaspoon apple pie spices, Eagle brand condensed milk, and half can water. Mix flour, baking powder, vegetable oil, condensed milk, cinnamon, apple pie spices, and half can water in a large bowl. Melt margarine and pour into a 13x9x2 inch baking dish or pan, pour batter into the pan, spread apples over the batter and sprinkle them with sugar. Bake at 400 degrees for 65 minutes or until tender.
Shorter days are sure sign autumn is hereWe now have 90 minutes less daylight then we did on the first day of summer and are still losing a minute each evening. Sunsets are coming earlier and filling the evenings with hues of colors ranging from red, yellow, orange, pink, purple, and dark blue. The shorter days and a nip in the night air are triggering a hint of color in the maples and hickories.
The Cole family of vegetables can now be set outThe Cole family of cabbage, broccoli, collards, cauliflower, and Brussel sprouts can be set out in the autumn garden. Add a layer of peat moss in the bottom of the furrow before setting out these plants to improve soil texture in winter and help absorb moisture.
Set plants about two and a half feet apart and feed with Plant-Tone organic vegetable food before hilling up plenty of soil on each side of the furrow. Side-dress with Plant-Tone organic vegetable food once a month and hill it into the soil.
Planting ornamental cabbage and kaleThe colorful ornamental cabbage and kale in colors of red, yellow, mint green, white, pink, purple, and lavender are now featured at Home Depot, Ace Hardware, Lowe’s Home Improvement, Walmart, and most hardware’s and nurseries. They can endure a long autumn season and also into winter if you place them on the back side of the porch or carport and cover with a cloth or towel on freezing nights.
Feed them with Flower-Tone organic flower food once a month and lightly water once a week. Remove the clothes each day when temperatures warm up. Use the cloth to cover the medium in the container on cold days.
The heating season is almost upon usThere is a nip in the air of September evenings and the heating system will soon be in full operation. Furnaces and heating systems need to be checked out or tuned up before cold weather gets here. Keep a few filters available and change them several times during the season. Measure the size of the filter and write it on the unit with a black permanent marker so you will know what size filter to purchase.
Spraying around back door and carportCooler temperatures are now arriving and crickets, crawling insects and other creepy crawlers will be trying to find a warm place to spend winter. Spray around the porch and carport with insect spray to prevent them from crawling inside. Open and shut doors quickly when coming and going inside and outside the house. Spray outside the house every week until frosty weather arrives.
Jack Frost and frosty lawns comingSeptember only has around nine days to run its way out. October usually brings a hint of frost, but we can look for a killing frost around the time of Halloween or shortly thereafter. Now is time to prepare for it.
A hint of autumn color in the leavesAs September winds its way down, a tint of red is in the dogwood leaves and some yellow is showing up on the maples. Most hickories are sporting some bronze in their foliage. A few have already fallen and October arrives in a few more days bringing with it a blaze of red, orange, pink, gold, and yellow as the splendor of September fades into the glory of October.
Still plenty of pansies and time to plant themThe hardwares and garden centers still have plenty of colorful pansies in full bloom and there is till plenty of time to set out containers of these flower’s with faces. You can choose from colors of purple, yellow, pink, burgundy, orange, white, bronze, lavender, wine and maroon. Pansies are tough and winter hardy and will bloom all the way into the spring. You can purchase them in six and nine packs in a variety of colors. Their foliage is as beautiful as their blooms. You can use the same medium the annuals of summer were in and add about the same amount of potting medium to the containers. Water them lightly once a week and feed every 15 days with Flower-Tone organic flower food.
Making a batch of pansy leaf teaEarlier we referred to setting out pansy plants for autumn that will thrive until early spring. We have something very interesting to share about pansies and it is all about making tea from pansy leaves. The ancient Celtic people made a tea from dried pansy leaves and it was related to love in two ways. It was consumed as a love potion and also drink to help cure a broken heart.
Most teas are concocted from some sort of leaves and we can only imagine how it was made. We know the leaves were dried, but freshly-harvested leaves would seem to be more flavorful. It may be something to experiment with on Saint Valentines. Perhaps it could be a great medicine for the heart.
Hoe hoe hoedown“Healthy Appetite.” A pastor was invited to dinner on Sunday at the home of a member. The pastor was surprised that there was no knife, fork, and spoon beside his plate. The wife asked her young daughter why she had not placed dinnerware for the pastor. “Oh, don’t need any,” she answered, “Daddy says he eats like a horse.”
“Finally, a bite!” A six year old went fishing with his father. The boy became bored with the whole experience, and after an hour he took a walk in the woods. A few minutes later, the father heard a loud cry. He saw a man hopping around on one foot and in pain. “What happened?” he asked. “It’s my fault, Dad. The man told me he hadn’t had a bite all morning so I bit him.’
“Good question.” Why did the mama flea look so sad? Because all her children were going to the dogs!
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