Apples

It's the time of year when we exhort friends and neighbours to come and help themselves to apples. The red dessert apples are prolific but have no keeping qualities, starting to deteriorate as soon as they have left the tree, turning from crisp and juicy to dry and wooly-textured in no time.

Leander meandered down the road to collect windfalls for his daughter's horses. (It's not every day that you can use 'Leander' and 'meander' in the same sentence!) He came with carrier bags but left with a laden wheelbarrow, returning it later full of fresh horse manure to add to our compost heap.

Lea made the observation that our vegetables are so good because of the yearly input to our soil of what he refers to as, 'poo' from the horses. So, a grateful thanks to Rocky and Harry for their contribution!

The juicer is hard at work producing liquid of the most beautiful colour from these apples. If I saw it bottled for sale in the shops I wouldn't believe that the colour was natural.

I'm cooking and freezing supplies to keep us going throughout the year ahead. It's tedious, but the effort will be worth it.

 This is a favourite apple recipe.

Tarte Tatin

1lb apples, peeled and finely sliced

4oz soft light sugar mixed with a teaspoon of cinnamon

pastry, 4oz flour

             2oz butter

 Cut a circle of greaseproof paper for the bottom of your dish and grease well with butter. Cover with the sugar, then the apple slices. Press the rolled out pastry on the top.

Bake gas mark 4 for 30 minutes or so until pastry cooked.

Invert on to a plate when cool. Good with cream. (But then , I always say that!) 

But if we want to enjoy blackberry and apple pie there is still more picking to be done!