Apples in Abundance

Apples in Abundance

Our little stunted orchard has produced an excellent harvest of several different kinds of apples, and today, as they had started to drop from the trees, I thought I would pick them ready for storage and eating.

Several of the apples were a bit bruised from falling and others had some insect and bird damage, and quite a few had been nobbled by pheasants. I am convinced that the pheasants had been knocking the apples from the trees as there was evidence that they had been lurking beneath the trees for some time.  Birds have a sixth sense for the exact moment fruit has reached fully ripened perfection.

I have wrapped the perfect fruits in tissue paper and placed them in a storage box in a cool place for keeping (for a while anyway).

I decided to use the most damaged apples immediately and made an Apple Sponge Pudding and some Spicy Apple Gingerbread with them.  Recipe for the Spicy Apple Gingerbread is below.  It is delicious.

Spicy Apple Gingerbread

250g           Butter or margarine

100g           Soft brown sugar

2                 Eggs

120g           Black treacle

150g           Plain flour

50g             Self-raising flour

1½ tsp       Bicarbonate of soda

1½ tsp       Ground ginger

2 tsp           Ground cinnamon or allspice

125g           Grated apple

120ml        Hot water

Method:

I mixed mine in a food processor but the recipe can be done any way you like. Cream the butter and sugar. Add eggs. Mix in treacle, flours, spices and other dry ingredients. Mix in the grated apple and hot water. Easy.

Bake in a lined baking tray or in individual muffin cases or a muffin tray at 180°C for 35 - 40 minutes.  Quicker in a fan oven.

Dust with icing sugar to finish.  Delicious.  This recipe makes a very light, moist and very moreish gingery confection.  It would work very well as individual muffins or cupcakes, and I think I will try that method next time.

Something to Dye For

Dyeing with Food Colouring

My little bottles of food colouring

Quite recently I have been given quite a large quantity of woollen, silk and cotton yarns.  Real treasure, and very much appreciated.  Two skeins of this are pure wool, but were, to my eye, a rather unattractive, dull,  salmon pink colour.  I decided to dye them using food colouring.  

This is the method I used:  First I mixed half a pint each of white vinegar and tap water and poured this solution into an oval Pyrex dish.  I then added a skein of wool and left it to soak for around an hour.  Next I squeezed the yarn and poured off the remaining liquid (into a bottle to use another time, of course).  I arranged the yarn loosely in the bottom of the dish and dropped food colouring liquid onto the wool in a random pattern.  I was looking for a varigated effect.  I dabbled the food colouring into the yarn with my rubber-gloved fingertips ensuring that all the wool was thoroughly wetted, but not so much that the colours got mixed up and went muddy.  Next I covered the bowl with clingfilm, pierced a small hole in the middle and microwaved it for 5 minutes.  After the 5 minutes were up, I let it all stand for a further 15 minutes and then microwaved for 5 minutes again.  I again left the bowl to stand for 15 minutes than removed and rinsed the yarn in a couple of bowls of cold water.  Result!  Permanent, random-dyed woollen yarn.

                                  
    The yarn after dyeing was completed

I am really pleased with the results and will be off to the supermarket later to pick up some more yellow food colouring, as I am running a bit low.  This could become very addictive. 

Of course, the colours would have been brighter if I had used a white or cream yarn, but I can now make use of two skeins of wool that I would never have used if they had remained pink, so I am very happy.

    The finished skein wound into a ball

New Lamps From Old

I have been given several gifts of beautifully scented essential oil jar candles over the last year and most have burned a hole down the middle, leaving an outer core of unused sweetly scented wax. This morning I put the said glass jars in a water bath (one at a time) and re-melted the wax therein. I have now made one rather nice, stripey new candle. I must admit that I am rather pleased with it.

Bags of Bags

I have been making shopping bags over the last few days using a pattern I made from drawing round a long-life supermarket carrier bag. I did make some before Yule and gave them away as presents and now I am getting a few orders for more. I am using recycled curtains and cotton and linen clothing from a charity shop for the fabric. The bags are strong and sturdy and will take a lot of weight. I am now thinking about using blackout lining to make some potato keeping bags. Just need to source some of the said blackout lining material from the charity shop now.

We have ordered our seeds for 2009 and they should be with us soon. Managed to save a fair amount of seed from last year too. Himself has been digging over the veg garden and also digging out a new squash patch. Fetched a huge load a seaweed from the beach after the last storms and now it is really rotten and stinky it is being dug into the ground. Seaweed is a fantastic fertiliser but it really does smell disgusting. It's a good job the neighbours are away.

We have had a real problem with longtails in the veg garden. They ate half a row of carrots, nearly all the parsnips and the kohl rabi a couple of weeks ago. All we have left now in the garden is kale, mustard greens (a bit straggly but still OK) and the purple sprouting that they have not quite nobbled yet. What can we do? We make compost to help the garden and they set up home in the nice, warm compost heap. It is a problem that is unlikely to go away and we have to decide what to do but I expect it is going to involve the Pest Control Man.