Is It AUTUMN Yet

Yesterday and today, I was out in my yard foraging and harvesting what I have from my summer crops. A neat little tree (not little anymore), which was maybe 4 feet tall when I moved in five years ago is now over 10 feet, directly in my front garden. Engrafted with another tree-very strange-looks like a type of cherry tree, is a yellowish green apple tree. I got into this garden with alot of different plants, both these trees seem to be growing out of the exact same spot in the garden. I couldn't figure it out until I decided to study the bark on each tree and did see that they are different. If you don't keep an accurate diary of your gardens and plants, you are not going to remember from year to year what is happening in your gardens. I thought I took alot of notes, and the last couple of years have had alot going on in them, so I have not distinguished what these trees are and what they are producing for me to eat. Yesterday, I picked alot of these little apples off the tree, being tired, laid them on the dirt near the tree, and today, being dry out but very hot, all rotted. I had a nice bowl sized full. Disappointed I was and am, I began to pick more off of the tree.

I have been taking a course from Herbmentor.com and was studying wildweeds that can be eaten. While studying and watching videos tonight, I came across one on wild apples. My apples look better than wild (the ones I picked anyway), many on the tree look like crab apples. What I learned also is that no apple is a crab apple, just wild apples. Yes, I can make something with them. I think I will make an apple sauce and get them into the frig tonight just in case they do some funky type thing that the others did last night. I think the sun got to them today. There are worms in alot of them and many bumps and odd shapes on the tree. High up though, are more that I could pick but need a ladder and someone to watch me while I climb. I am getting up there in age you know.

Now my next lesson is how to prune apple trees seeing this is the third one I have in my yard and have not pruned, sprayed or done anything other than pick up the droppings and make apple sauce.

I would love to make apple butter but you need alot. At least with the apple sauce, I can make muffins and breads also.

I froze my apple sauce the last two years in zip lock baggies.

My recipe from Kathy---------

Harvest your apples,

Deworm if need be

Cut up in fourths

Throw in pot

add a bit of water

cinnamon, sugar, brown sugar if you like

slow cook

After softened, pour into a funnel type of colander, special for apples, and keep mushing with a neat wooden tool or spoon. Use a potatoe puree type tool, and get all of that nice apple mush away from the seeds and skins.

Mash the apples like you do mashed potatoes, let cool and put into gallon or small sized zip locks or can if you know how. If you want to can and give away, make sure your jars are cleaned in the dishwasher, ladle the applesauce into the jars, label and give away. Make sure you tell your family and friends to place in the frig and will last up to two weeks. The reason I like to freeze mine because I can store it for over a year. I still have apple sauce from last year. It is fun to compare the color of the sauce from year to year or batch to batch-rose colored, peach colored, light yellow in color.

Don't forget to write this in your recipe book and log the color of your sauce, and how many batches you made. Great for history!