Keep Smiling

Keep Smiling

Friday, September 28, 2018

September Apples


One of my very favorite things
about this time of the year is driving
to the orchard to buy fresh apples.


About 20 miles away from us is this
wonderful orchard that is family
own and operated.


We go there once or twice a year 
during apple season. 


Their apples are beautiful and
their prices are great.


We take our own boxes and select 
from their many bins.


Honey Crisp


And Golden Delicious were 
what they had last weekend.




In another week or two they will
be picking Granny Smiths 
and Fuji.


These old crates where sitting 
next to the bins, to set your
boxes on while filling them.


So with our apples bought  . . .
we started canning.


 First thing we did was to
make apple sauce.


We put up 14 pints :)


While I was cooking the apples . . .
I made a cup of orange spice tea 
and added some of the hot apple juice 
from the apples as they were cooking down.

🍁🌽🌻🍂🍎🍏🍁🌽🌻🍂🍎🍏
 
Yum!
Tastes like Autumn :)

🍁🌽🌻🍂🍎🍏🍁🌽🌻🍂🍎🍏

Food takes on a whole new meaning
this time of the year . . .
we trade out our salads 
and fresh fruits and veggies
for 
hot foods like stews, roasts, pies 
and all of that wonderful 
warm a friendly comfort food.
I love it!

Keep Smiling!


Your blogging sister,
Connie :) 



47 comments:

  1. It must be wonderful to live by an orchard with fresh fruit available. The Granny Smiths are my favorite...the greener the better!

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    1. They are very good. Today, Steve and I are canning apple pie filling. The recipe makes 7 quarts: I'm excited to try it :)

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  2. I love this time of year and the change of food available. I do so wish there was a farm locally that we could get apples. Have a wonderful weekend.

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    1. It is nice having this orchard so close. Washington State is very famous for it apples. The central and eastern parts of your state are agricultural mainly, apples, grapes, wheat and potatoes.

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  3. What a nice place to visit. Great job with the applesauce! I love the wood boxes with advertisement on them. This time of year does make one change their menu's a bit. I just went outside to feed the birds and squirrels and found my Zinnia's were all frost bitten. Had to toss them. Its just too cold here to have much grow anymore.

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    1. We have been pulling up our garden little by little anticipating a visit from Jack Frost. I hate to doing it after frost, because everything is mushy. Then again, I hate not having plants to enjoy right up to that point. I am leaving some tomatoes so we can eat on them . . . I just cannot get enough of them this year :)

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  4. I love visiting orchards in the fall. We have two family owned orchards very near us and I love to pick out my apples and then grab some cider and donuts while I'm there.

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    1. When I was a child the place we went up in Michigan always had a wooden barrel with cider. You could get a taste or fill a jug. There is something grand about visiting an orchard and enjoying Fall color and the crisp air. There is a smell in the air, from the leaves turning( I think ) that only happens in the Fall. It's invigorating! I love this time of the year :)

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  5. Hi Connie, What fun to go to the farm to get your apples like that! There is a fruit and veggie store not far from here and they get bins of different kinds of apples so we go and mix and match. This year we probably won't as have left over applesauce from last year so not canning any this year. I may just buy some bags of apples from Aldi's and dehydrate a few apple slices. I did read that Gala and Fuji are good to dry for sweetness and Aldi's have them in their ad this week. You and Steve will eat well and healthy this winter! Nancy

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    1. I know, our garden has changed a lot of our eating habits and now that we are canning we can make better choices all year :) That and it saves money. Everyday I feel more blessed with our choice to purchase this little country home. We love living here.

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  6. Connie, You are amazing, canning all those apple sauces. The apples look so good too. Whenever I go to orchards I am tempted to buy more than I can eat. There's no way I will can anything in my life...I never learned and it just more work than I am willing to do...but I truly admire you and your hubby doing it. When all your gardening and canning is over , you will have to photograph all the pretty things you canned. To me it's a work of art. Blessings,xoxo, Susie

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    1. Hi Susie we have lined our shelves in the kitchen and filled more in the pantry. I'm with you, I have always consider rows of home canned food as art. I love looking at them; they make our little country home seem more country cozy everyday :)

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  7. MMMMMM...applesauce this time of year sounds so delicious. Your tea recipe sounds great!! Have fun canning!!

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    1. Thanks for stopping by . . . I am just taking a little break before starting to can 7 quarts of Apple Pie Filling. Doesn't apple pie sound good . . . I love the foods of Autumn and Winter.

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  8. You've inspired me... we're going to go apple picking next week! We missed last year because the place had a fire destroy their barn but this year they're back in business.

    I smiled when I read that you added hot apple juice to your spice tea. That's just the kind of thing I'd do too. Yesterday a friend asked me what I had put in my tea and I was forced to admit I'd added a dollop of Marmalade. It was very tasty.

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    1. That sounds wonderful. I'll be right over for a cup . . . maybe I could bring apple muffins :)

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  9. We are in Brown County right now and nothing says fall like this area of Indiana. I told my Shug I want to stop on the way home and get some apples at an orchard, but I have a feeling he’s going to point it North and get home. I’ll get to one though, sooner or later! I figure I have until the end of October!

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    1. I'll have to come visit . . . I love tagging along with you on your Brown County trips each year :)
      It's apple time . . . don't miss out!

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  10. Oh I just want to reach into my screen Connie & taste one of those gorgeous looking apples. Your jars of apple sauce look SO delicious!

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    1. Thank you so much it was my first time ever making my own applesauce and it does taste incredible. I am really falling in love with growing and canning my own food. there is just something very warm and homey about it and it brings me comfort seeing the jars lined up on the kitchen shelves. Apples and Autumn go so perfectly together. How can we think of one without the other?

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  11. I love the apple season and it's so nice to see all the different kinds that exist these days! I love Fuji apples which I discovered over here in Switzerland last year!
    I loved the photo of all your pots of apple sauce! Delicious!

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  12. We have orchards about 10 miles from our home, in Green Bluff Washington. They are all in the foothills of Mount Spokane. Every other year I buy apples and make applesauce and Applebutter. We don’t need any this year but will still go up and enjoy the atmosphere of the orchards during one weekend in October. Thanks for sharing about the fun trip that you had.
    Blessings, Betsy

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    1. Hey, just go up there enjoy the Autumn color and the apple season. We always need a few just for eating or maybe a apple pie :)

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  13. Love, love, love fresh, crisp apples. My favourites are Granny Smiths. How fun to go to the orchard and select your own. Those jars of apple sauce look both beautiful and delicious. Connie, you truly must have the most beautiful pantry with all your preserves and pickles all lined up in rows!

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    1. I do enjoy looking at them all lined up on the shelves . . . it makes me feel warm and cozy and ready for cold weather :)

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  14. Great pictures of the Apples and Signs Connie. Autumn there in America whilst it is Spring here- it has been very cold and the grip of Winter hasn't entirely gone. I checked out your Hubby's blogsite and admired his restored wooden yacht and all about when you were both sailing...no further posts since about 2014? Look forward to herring and seeing how you go there this Winter. Regards. KEV.

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    1. Hi Kev, I have been encouraging him to start back blogging now that he is retired. Maybe this winter after the garden is put to bed and all the buttoning down has been done. At the moment he and our friend/neighbor are building a cedar strip canoe. It is going to be beautiful, maybe I can get him to write something about it :)

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    2. Connie- Yes, hope your Hubby can get back to Blogging - like to hear about the joint effort in canoe building.:)

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  15. How nice to have fresh apples to put up and enjoy!
    Very cute old crates...it would be fun to have one of those to keep :)

    Enjoy your weekend, sweet friend.

    ~K.

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    1. I was thinking the very same thing about those crates :)

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  16. YUM. I was just thinking about apple sauce the other day. I remember making it when I was growing up. I thought maybe I would get some apples and give it a try again.

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    1. Homemade applesauce is so good, we like ours a bit chunky with bits of apples all through it :)

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  17. ooooo, orange spice tea with apple juice sounds AMAZING!
    jillxo

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  18. Apples and fall...Love them both! Your wonderful photos make me want to head for the orchards. My Number 1 favorite thing to can is Apple Pie Filling. Yay for apple pies!

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    1. That is what we did yesterday afternoon. I bought a new canning book on Amazon, The Amish Canning Book, I used their canning recipe. Yum!!! I did double the cinnamon and the nutmeg . . . we like spicy :)

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  19. That is something I like about fall too. Apples. Nice and crisp ones. I like to eat one sitting out on the front porch.

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    1. Me too, and in the kitchen, and in the living room, and outside walking around the yard and riding in the car . . . hey, apples are great any place you can get one :)

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  20. We did the very thing this weekend and I'm up early, getting ready to make our applesauce! We got an apple that was a cross between the Jonathon and Granny Smith apples! Like you said, Fall food is soooooo YUM!!!

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    1. The orchard that we go to was talking about a cross between a Honey Crisp and a Fuji . . . they said that their trees should be ready next year. Yum! They are both among my favorites :)

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  21. The apples are so good this time of the year. I just bought one of those little paper totes full at...of all places, Walmart. They had just gotten in a load of eastern apples, .75/lb. and they are really good! Oh, but there's nothing like having an orchard close by. I'm hoping Poppy and I can ride to the mountains for a day or two this fall, maybe to Waynesville for their apple festival.

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    1. I do hope that you can do that . . . The mountains in the Fall . . . I can just imagine how beautiful that will be. Be sure and take your camera along . . . we want to see everything :)

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  22. There is nothing like fresh apples from the farm, we are fortunate to have a farm close by that has many varieties of apples, and they also have a bakery with it and they sale apple pies too, best you have ever had. Your drink you made up sounds delicious, I do love hot apple cider in the fall :)

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    1. Homemade apple pie . . . oh my, my, my, my mouth is watering :)

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  23. What a lovely post as we welcome October...I'll bet those apples are the best tasting....just a very happy post Connie!

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    1. Hi Estelle and thank you very much, you're so sweet.
      Happy October to you :)

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