fruit – Page 2 – Planet B Gardens

hand pies for freezing

Large pies work well for freezing in my experience, but they take up a lot of room and are more suited for a larger crowd. Hand pies seem like the perfect solution. They can be tucked in nooks and crannies in the freezer, and I can take out as many servings as I have people when I’m ready to bake them. The process starts the same as for large apple pies. If you’re preparing a large batch of apples for pies (or dehydrating) I highly recommend investing in a hand-crank apple peeler and corer. It’s fast, fun, and you get perfectly uniform slices. Once you’ve run the apples through the

October 5, 2015

apple butter

First time making apple butter. Apple butter has no dairy in it despite the name. The end result is supposed to spread like butter, but be made of only apples, sugar, a touch of salt, and spices. The recipe I used also called for apple cider vinegar during the simmering process. I started by washing and slicing the apples into quarters, keeping the skins and core attached. The quartered apples went into a large stock pot with 4 cups water and 2 cups apple cider vinegar. After bringing to a boil and simmering for 20 minutes or so, the apples were soft. I put them into a food mill a

October 4, 2015

ripe, delicious fall apples

Friends Sheryl & Dan’s apple orchard is ripe with what seems like an infinity of apples right now. I dropped by yesterday to gather apples for eating, making apple hand pies for freezing and apple butter for canning. The trees were so laden with ripe apples, many were dropping to the ground as we walked the orchard. We picked those up to add to the already full box. Dan had the excellent suggestion of adding apple cider to my list to make use of the surplus. I have no doubt that Dan’s joy and enthusiasm for farming is a key ingredient for making his orchards a success!

august fruit

Friends Sheryl & Dan have a magical Montana orchard and vineyard. Today’s harvest included fresh, ripe apricots, juicy peaches, and bright yellow plums — plus some native corn and a lovely lemon cucumber in addition to a few other veggies. I canned a dozen jars of fresh peaches this afternoon. Still deciding what to do with the apricots and plums. The remaining peaches are for eating fresh and for keeping the air smelling sweet. Corn got tossed on the grill with a little olive oil and sprinkling of Maldon salt for a snack — a delicious and chewy treat.

winter – pruning time

Couple weeks of rain and relatively warm weather have cleared most of the snow. Now that the trees are dormant, it’s a perfect time to prune untended trees that came with the property. The scraggly plums from summer got a serious haircut. I have hopes the lone maple “bush” will start looking more like a proper tree after a few years of clearing suckers, sawing off thin trunks and deadwood, and pruning waterspouts and weak branches. Here’s the after shot: Brush pile from a single tree… Nice to have Tika helping clear branches.

ripe fruit canning

Ideally you capture fruit at the height of its ripeness when canning. Too ripe and it becomes mushy. Not ripe enough and its tastiness is compromised. The pears and peaches gifted to me from my friends’ orchard were at that perfect point for canning: Pears in a light brown sugar syrup Peaches, pitted and halved Peaches canned with vanilla. [Update & note to self: Next time skip the vanilla. It’s not the best in combo with peaches.]

September 28, 2014

orchard inspiration

My friends’ orchard, vineyard, and gardens are blow-you-away beautiful and an inspiration. Here’s what was ripening today: Peaches Grapes Apples Plums and Pears. Plus the bounty of their garden gifts:

September 26, 2014

plum jam

Plum trees turned out enough plums in this first season to make three pints and one quart of jam. Here is a bowl of the pitted bounty: The trees yielded 6 cups of fruit once I pitted the plums. I added 1.25 cups of water, 4 cups of sugar, and 2 tablespoons of powdered pectin to the mix, plus a teaspoon of citric acid to up the tartness. Then set it on the stove to boil. While boiling the fruit, I boiled the jars and lids. When the fruit was boiled down to the right thickness, I jarred those babies and put them in a boiling water bath for 15 minutes.

September 18, 2014

guessing the plum type

So far we don’t know what kind of plums these are. They start ripening looking kind of pink, then reddish purple, and end ripening with a reddish gold skin. The flesh of the ripe fruit is yellowish green. It’s a freestone. About the size of a ping pong ball. Slightly oval. Tastes mid-sweet with a bit of tart. Any ideas about the type of plum we have here?

plums picked & ready

The scraggly plum trees that came with the property did pretty well — considering they’ve had no care in a long time. Enough plums to make a small jar of preserves, plus a few for eating fresh….