APPLES 2012

  
     As September rolls on by this year, Apples are the pick of the season!! Apple Crisp, Apple Pie, Apple Sauce and this year Apple Butter. My favorite eating apples are Ginger Crisp, Honey Crisp, Macoun, and Empire. My least favorite part of making apple anything is the prep work. Without the proper tools, Apple coring can be a task depending on the shape you desire. I am currently waiting on my apple corer to come in the mail. I twisted mine...

     LOL! I did that on a not so ripe apple. The tool went in but didn't come out without a fight!! Ever since I did that, the apple preparation has been hindered - at least for making Apple Rings!! So, the apples I picked on Sunday are awaiting their new corer. Until then, no rings for now. I tried to use this bent thing lastnight and it still did the job but I had to be careful not to twist it more!! Not only that but the insert that holds the twisted piece of metal actually came apart from the handle and stuck in the apple. I can't wait for my new tool to get here!!

     Do YOUR kitchen tools sometimes drive you crazy?? Which tools and why?

This Season's Harvest...

     The latest harvest from my garden. A plethora of tomatoes. This season, almost everything in my garden is from seed. With things the way they are, doing things a simpler way (even though it seems more difficult) can be more efficient on the wallet. Many things can be done at home with less help from the outside world. Of course it is always easier to run out to the store and just buy what you need but sometimes there is a certain pride involved with creating what you need from what you already have. And many times I have surprised myself thinking I need to go buy something when all I need to do is look around my house and find the correct ingredients to create it, whatever it may be. From Laundry Soap to Hand Cream to growing in my Garden. I try to use the resources I already have. And with that said, this season, I used seeds I had previously collected and I purchased other seeds which I did not have.

     With the weather so wonky this growing season, it was difficult to get some of my seeds started. I started them inside in late March. I thought I was early because the weather was so nice so early in the year, I may have been wrong.

     The first thing I planted were tomato seeds. I was so excited when the seedlings popped up and kept on reaching for the light and sun. I moved them outside in mid April, along with others, to get the optimum sunlight and weather. And then the weather changed. We plummeted into a cold snap that lasted more than a few days. I covered the plants with a tarp for the nights and hoped for the best. These plants were too large at this point to be moving them inside again. That and there were way too many of them because I just kept on potting more and more seedlings!! By the beginning of May, I was noticing that the tomato plants and all the other ones that were outside during that cold snap seemed to be growing at a much slower rate compared to others that I had planted during and after the cold snap. I arrived at the conclusion that I had in fact STUNTED my first round of Tomato Plants. :-( But what can I do about the weather?? Lesson learned: Next time, when in doubt, bring them in no matter what. 

     As you can see, they still gave fruit but maybe didn't grow as much as they could have. Now I am busy thinking of things to DO with these Tomatoes ;-P