What are you making with your Edible Harvests ?

I'm having the same issue with Bramleys. Two of the houses near me have put out tubs of them, I made a crumble one week and a Brown Betty the next, to use up stale bread. I've still got lots to use and I'm going to try slicing them thickly, coating them in a cinnamon glaze and airfrying. They are some of the best cookers I've ever tasted. They are so expensive to buy in the supermarkets I really feel the need to make the most of this bounty!

I also have loads of eating apples, as the grounds around my workplace have a lot of apple trees in the boundary hedge. There are plenty low enough to be picked without even stretching, and I found at least 4 different varieties including russets.

 

When i do have my own cooking apples, i cook them with a bit of honey and freeze them. Can portion it up before freezing but i just put it in a freezer bag, when i want some i defrost it a bit just to break off what i want and put the rest back in the freezer.

Just made a mixed fruit compote with
8oz each of Gooseberries, white and redcurrants and blackcurrants. 10 oz of sugar and 1 oz of arrowroot to thicken.
Put the sugar in a saucepan and add the fruit, bring to the boil, mix the arrowroot with a bit of water and add to the fruit, stir until thick and don't leave it too long on the heat, then take it off the heat.
I put it on my porridge along with other fruit.

 

I made a big batch of applesauce in the Instant Pot last night. Cut a mix of cookers and eaters in chunks, added a bit of lemon juice and cinnamon and half a cup of water, no sugar, cooked for 5 mins and left to naturally pressure release. Mixed it into my porridge this morning - it was perfect.

 

I rarely make apple pies or crumbles now @Escarpment [our crumble was very tasty!] so I've not looked at the prices of apples. I'll try and remember to look when I'm in. My younger daughter liked eating the leftover bits of the Bramleys when I prepped them for pies/crumbles, but never really liked the end results. She still doesn't like fruit pies or crumbles.
I bought a couple of inexpensive trees when we moved in here, and they were supposed to be Bramleys, but turned out to be something else, and got scab too often, so I got rid of them. I only buy apples for the blackbirds, as it's a fruit I'm not keen on. I had a craving when I was pregnant though - for a particular type called Empire, which were crisp and juicy. Never eaten them since!

It's hard to ignore a good harvest, so I can understand why you want to use them.

 

No cooking for me today. Did make a remedy up from one of my books for my sore throat, and it seems to have worked. It was l tblsp honey with l tablsp ACV mixed with little warm water, gargle x 3 times during day. It eased the pain instantly for a few hrs. then woke this morning and no sore throat so far.
Just making my menu up for tomorrows baking morning. lv found a carrot cake recipes in my Farmhouse Fare Book. Its full of recipes contributed fr a farmers wkly mag. Lady who added this recipe says it's from her New Zeland farming friend. It a one pot cake mix again, so if its any good l'll post it on here Monday . I'v got no carrots to harvest , but they were on offer this week at a very good price. Im also making again a savory tom quiche that l tried last wkend. It was really nice and as iv got some more tom rippened on windowsill. Plus it uses thyme & parsley iv still got in back garsden. Will dig up another layer from our potato tower on patio, to make pot salad with chives, before chives dies back. We always have a mixed salad from what l can find in the garden ie sorrel, mint, young mustard greens , chard etc. l like to make fruit flavoured water, so will use up some of the muscat grapes we harvested..has to be made up in fridge 24 hrs before...if its still a bit chilly tommorrow night will add a little rum while watching our Sunday Autumn movie

 

My black eye/ cheek from being hit by a large apple while harvesting is now “magnificent” if that is the right adjective. A riot of all colours of the rainbow…well not quite! Like others I have made an enormous batch of apple sauce which might last me until I pop my clogs. My commercial sized check freezer is now rammed with this year’s harvest of all sorts including the apples. I have been reduced to liquidising the excess tomatoes before freezing as that way they take up less room. Any further excess will have to go into chutney which I will be making next week.

 

Maybe you have a Knobby Russett @hailbopp.

 

Well the pears continued to be at the fore front. Mostly from windfall from the storm but still wonderful to eat and then when you can't bottle/freeze any more I have started some wine. Did manage to freeze another container in red wine only because I had emptied a container and there was some space...we only have a small freezer.

 

Last of our Runner Beans on the sticks awaiting being ready for us to wither a bit then we pick , dry and store for next season. We volunteer at our local Victorian walled garden in the grounds of our new hospital don’t know why we don’t to the same , anyway OH pickled last of our peppers yesterday.

 

Still picking Padron peppers - just cook in small amount of oil till they're blistered all over, then add crunchy sea salt!
Also Gardener's Ecstasy still producing, but they just get eaten!

 

Peter Piper…

 

Using all from the garden pears, onions, parsley, garlic, pea bean pods and pea bean seeds, volunteer potatoes made some chutney today. With all that you would think many jars but ended up with 4!

 

Harvested the first medlars. So many this year and a great size. Will take some to neighbours who love them but then I need to rethink about making medlar jelly. It is lovely but very time consuming.

Picked some more pears. 2 of our trees are Beurre Hardy but they are not the same fruit. These ones have green skins and after a few days indoors they become very ripened. Apart from eating them not sure what I'll do with these.....more neighbours?

 

Someone gave me a gift of a medlar and a quince. As others have found, the quince does nothing, and so far only a few medlars. Do you 'blet' them to make jelly please @On the Levels ?
( I am thinking of getting rid of both, and if using the medlars takes a lot of work, then their time is up)

 

I was given some pears think that i might cook them like apples and put in the freezer, haven't done it before.