9.10.11

Normally I don't post on Saturdays but I couldn't resist the date.  I love when the numbers line up like that.  

Yesterday I made my friend Keith come over and pick apples with me. Our two trees have been very prolific this year and the apples were starting to jump off the trees.

I have no idea what the varieties are – one tree produces apples with a vaguely Golden Delicious flavor to it and the other one has tart apples on it.  Neither are particularly good eating apples but they do cook up nicely.

Luckily for Keith and me he brought his daughter with him so we made her go up the ladder and pick them from the higher branches.  She is infinitely more agile than either of us.  

Next year I want one of those old three legged orchard ladders.  I think it would a look a little more charming than our day-glo yellow fiberglass one (which is stage left, out of camera range).

I baked one pie and have a pot of apple butter simmering with my windfall.  

The pie recipe is used is this one.  It has a ton of great reviews and I like the story of how the woman's grandmother wouldn't have known what all the fuss was about – it was just her standard apple pie recipe.  And her granddaughter loves how, with one simple little recipe, her grandmother has entered so many kitchens and has joined many families at their tables.

Even though it is still in the 90's today there is a suggestion of Fall in the air.  That subtle breeze and the first of the leaves dropping from the trees.  The smell of apples cooking sure adds to that Fall feeling.  

There is something really rewarding about taking something that grew in your own garden and making something out of it.