For Free

[poliphilo]

You know what?  There could be enough sun and wind about today to dry a load of washing. Sameena-next-door has had the same idea. You gotta grab the free stuff while it's being offered.

One of the good things about Paganism is it puts you back in touch with the instincts of the farmer and the hunter gatherer. I'm not a Pagan any more. Not really. But I think my time in the movement has sharpened up my appreciation of the things that can't be got in shops.

There's riches all around. Accept with thanks and try not to waste.

My father in law has apple trees. They produce tons of apples. These apples aren't as pretty as the one's you get in the supermarket,  nor as big either, but they taste OK. We eat them, the rabbits eat them.

Last night I stewed a load of them in port and served them with ice-cream.

Also I'm cutting  them up and bagging them and putting them in the freezer as winter provender.

Only the freezer isn't big enough to hold them all.

When I was a kid we used to store apples in an old air-raid shelter. It was built into the hillside and had a laburnum tree on top. 

In those years after WWII you didn't waste a thing.  All of us lived like misers.

I was thinking about this just now- on a nostagia trip if you like- when it suddenly occured to me I could store the surplus apples in one of the sheds.  Bloody obvious, really.  I reckon if I put down newspaper and laid the apples in rows- not touching- like my mother used to do,  it ought to lengthen their shelf life. The sheds are just as cool and dark as the old shelter was. 

So there's a job for me to get stuck into this afternoon......

Comments

[elegysostenuto.livejournal.com]

I spent about seven years as a pagan and I have to agree with you.

I never really appreciated things like bees and sunshine beforehand.

Now, I'm intensely aware of all the little miracles surrounding me every day.

I think it has made me a better parent. I make sure to share these moment with my little one.

It also made it a lot easier for me to go to a farmer's market and buy their organic produce, rather than the stuff at the store.

People around the city seem to have a very odd attitude about organic. The general consensus is that its unsafe and there's somewhat suspicious about. And about those weird hippies who eat it.

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

Paganism really got me noticing things in Nature- and much more aware of the passing of the seasons.

My problem with organic produce is that the shops here charge so much more for it. Mostly we can't afford it.

Wonderful!

[serennos.livejournal.com]

Could you save apples that won't fit in your shed / freezer in liquid form? One of my grandfathers used to make wine out of anything that wouldn't fit in the larder - and even then would send us out to look for sloes and elderberries for more gin and wine. He was never big on drinking it - he was hooked on the brewing of it.

The most valuable lesson I learnt was: never eat a raw sloe - your face takes about a week to recover from the puckering!

Re: Wonderful!

[huskyteer.livejournal.com]

I'm planning to go out after sloes soon. Do they count as free stuff when you need to buy the gin to go with them?

Re: Wonderful!

[serennos.livejournal.com]

The sloes are, and so's the hangover!

Gordons sell a Sloe Gin, but I bet it is far cheaper (and nicer) if you make it yourself...

Re: Wonderful!

[huskyteer.livejournal.com]

It is - I've tried both!

Re: Wonderful!

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

My mother used to make her own wine- and so did we for a while. The results were unpredictable.

Unfortunately we got rid of our gear a while back. This was probably a mistake.

[jfs.livejournal.com]

We used to keep apples in the garage; wrap each one in a bit of newspaper so that they're covered completely and you can pile them in a box like packing glasses to move house.

I remember unwrapped apples in January being much sweeter than normal - something to do with the storage process, unfamiliarity or nostalgia?

[serennos.livejournal.com]

I'm sure I've read somewhere that people used to keep apples in barrels and I always wondered how they didn't go rotten. Perhaps they were wrapped up before being put in barrels!

[jfs.livejournal.com]

The point of wrapping them (so my mother told me :-)) is the same as Tony laying his apples out not touching each other; if one starts to go rotten, it doesn't spoil any of the others.

Edit to add: And being brought up by parents who grew up in WW2, if you did find an apple with rotten bits, you cut those off and enjoyed the rest of the apple.

[serennos.livejournal.com]

I do this too (though I found a worm in a pear the other day and although the rest of the pear was okay, my stomach wasn't).

[nostoi.livejournal.com]

My mum still has a small fruit knife which was her mother's. In today's world where we just chomp into them I think we've forgotten that in the past people would slice the fruit and probably check for 'wildlife' before eating.

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

There's an apple barrel on board the Hispaniola in Treasure Island. Jim Hawkins hides in it and over-hears Long John Silver planning his mutiny.

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

I've refined my plan. I'm putting the apples in egg boxes. We've been saving them- I suppose with a view to returning them to the store- but now I've got a use for them.

Waste not, want not :)

[nostoi.livejournal.com]

We have an apple tree and a pear tree. The apples look awful and taste awful, besides which the birds always have one peck at them, come to the same conclusion, so they go rotten, fall off then are eaten by flocks of blackbirds at Christmas - the only bird which will touch them. As for the pears, they are so high up only the squirrels can get to them.

We are not efficient here and need to sort something out I think!

Oh, and I agree about Paganism. Something to be said for it being taught in schools and teaching a better appreciation of our resources.

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

How about using the apples and pears to make wine?

There are lots of things that ought to be taught in schools and aren't- cookery for instance. They used to call it "Domestic science" I believe.

[lblanchard.livejournal.com]

Before we got the dog, I used to hang laundry out back. Now I'm afraid it might pick up some of the odor if Mr. D. uses his "litter box" (our entire "back yard" is about four meters square). But when he goes to Doggie Heaven, I plan to start again.

I suspect that your comments about paganism are true for some people, but I also think that country folk keep that awareness irrespective of their belief systems.

[nostoi.livejournal.com]

This is true - perhaps paganism is more of a help to those not naturally aware of the seasons etc.

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

I'm a townee, born and bred, and Paganism introduced me to ideas I might otherwise not have encountered- but, yes, I agree- if you live and work in the country such knowledge- whether tinged with religious feeling or not- comes naturally.

[pondhopper.livejournal.com]

Here is a lovely page about apples with a section on storage:

http://www.the-tree.org.uk/BritishTrees/Apple/apple4.htm

My parents used to keep the Autumn harvest apples all winter in crates in the basement. If we had lived in a climate where it didn't freeze in winter they wold have kept them in the storage shed in the back garden. I remember my dad wrapping each apple in newspaper first.

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

That is a nice page. Thanks.

I'm afraid I just froze a lot of apples without all the blanching etc they recommend.

[pondhopper.livejournal.com]

When you defrost them they'll be quite soft and mushy but you can still cook them into apple sauce!
(I was born in apple country: the state of Michigan. My mother prepared apples in so many ways. I still long for the apple butter she made.)

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

That's OK then- because apple sauce is exactly what I'll want them for.

We eat a lot of apple sauce.

[sovay]

When I was a kid we used to store apples in an old air-raid shelter. It was built into the hillside and had a laburnum tree on top.

That is a wonderful snapshot.

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

Thanks.

I don't suppose it's there any more

[oakmouse]

Nice. You could put up the apples, too, as applesauce or apple butter; the jars cost a bit up front but are infinitely reusable and the process is dead easy.

We just picked the Italian plums from our little tree and are going to make a batch of ginger plum chutney this weekend. JM also got a lot of strawberries for $1.59 a pint (they're late berries and very close to spoiling) so I'm making strawberry peach jam tonight. Cheap, delicious, easy to make, and lovely to look at on the cupboard shelf. *happy sigh*

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

Ginger plum chutney sounds wonderful.

Maybe I need to get into making jam and chutney.

[oakmouse]

My plan is to cut the plums in half and pit them, chop up some onions and some candied ginger, and throw those (maybe with some raisins too) into a pot and cook it until thick. Then add mustard seed and perhaps some turmeric, jar it, and run it through a boiling water bath process.

Jam and chutney are so easy! Most of the work is in the cutting up of the ingredients.

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

I remember my mother making jam- very good jam too. But from where I was standing it seemed like an alchemical mystery- something I could never attain to. I don't really know why.

What's "a boiling water bath process"? It sounds fearsome.

[oakmouse]

It's not --- quite easy, really. You have a big pot called a canning kettle (like these: http://www.pickyourown.org/canningsupplies.htm#canners) and you fill it to a certain mark with water, cover it, and bring it to the boil. You then sterilize your jars, lids, and rings in the boiling water, and then when you've filled and sealed the jars you boil the filled jars in it for a fixed period of time. And bob's your uncle.

That's the five cent version, but it's not a whole lot more complex than that, just details of how long and so forth. You can use a BWB for any acid food --- jam, pickles, chutneys, most fruit. If you want to put up veg, meat, or fish, you need a pressure canner.

I have six jars of strawberry-peach jam and seven jars of plum chutney cooling next to me right now, and am processing five more jars of chutney. (My canner holds seven jars at a go.) It all came out quite well. Fresh fruit, clean equipment, and a little time, and you can't really go wrong.

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

Yes, that doesn't seem so difficult.

I think I'm going to have to consider taking it up.

I love home-made jam.

[oakmouse]

Homemade jam is unbeatable! And if you can get the fruit for a reasonable price, it's cheap too.

[richenda.livejournal.com]

>>These apples aren't as pretty as the one's you get in the supermarket, nor as big either, but they taste OK. We eat them, the rabbits eat them.
Last night I stewed a load of them in port and served them with ice-cream.

I was speed-reading and, just for a second, wondered if you meant the apples or the rabbits plus apples.

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

Rabbits and icecream- that's getting into Heston Blumenthal territory. :)

[richenda.livejournal.com]

I don't know about Heston Blumenthal - a chef, presumably?

But rabbits that have been feasting on apples - oh my!

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

Heston B. is the guy who cooks with blowtorches and combines the most unlikely ingredients. He is famous fot his "smoked bacon and egg ice cream".

[richenda.livejournal.com]

Now that sounds just plain evil!

[richenda.livejournal.com]

Afterthought - there's a short story somewhere about feeding an invalid "rabbit shape" - presumably a sort of rabbit meat in aspic thing?
There's a nasty denouement, I think, but am not sure.

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

I seem to remember my grandmother having a jelly mould in the shape of a rabbit. Maybe that's what it was for- for making "rabbit shape".

Yuk!

[richenda.livejournal.com]

Could well be. I love rabbit - but cold rabbit?
On the other hand, I've seen a chocolate blancmange rabbit on a green jelly "field".

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

Pretty!

[jackiejj.livejournal.com]

A task after my own heart. I wish I could help you!

There's a tin-roofed old silver-wood shed behind my new house, and the first thing I'm going to do is order firewood and have it stacked in there.

Then I'll gather kindling into baskets (in the cool evenings at sunset..."all is safely gathered in/ e're the winter storms begin....")

Fall coming makes me want to store and save. I guess it's the Neanderthal in me.

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

I'm in that Neanderthal mood too.

Wouldn't it be nice if we could hibernate?

[daisytells.livejournal.com]

Ah, yes, during the entire spring, summer, and fall I remember hanging out the washing and I miss the smell of the clothes when they came indoors from the line. One of the things I occasionally miss about the country.

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

I like to hang out the clothes. I do it whenever I can. But this has been such a rainy summer I've only been able to do it rarely.

[silverhawkdruid.livejournal.com]

When we had an apple tree we stored the apples in shallow boxes, and wrapped them individually in newspaper before placing them there, to keep them from touching each other. Then we put the boxes in the wood shed to keep them cold. It seemed to work as I recall. :-) What about seeing if your local greengrocer has some of those cardboard sheets with dips in them that they use to transport fruit in, and the boxes they came in? Do they still use those?
As for the washing. My machine has about died, and rather than risk ruining our clothes I decided a short while ago to start handwashing and see how we get on without a machine. I am becoming more and more appreciative of good drying weather, not least because it has been quite a rarity this summer. I am remembering back to my childhood, when all we had in the way of mod cons was a baby burco boiler to cook the bedding. Everything else was washed by hand, and wrung through a mangle before being hung on the line to dry. I also remember my dad showing me a washing dolly, a sort of stool design with a long handle, that was used when he was a child to pummel the laundry in a tub to get the dirt out. I imitate that on a small scale, with a bucket of clothes and a wooden spoon to pummel with. :-)
I must admit that I like the idea of at least finding a mangle if possible. Wringing the water out is the hardest part of the job for a gal with weak wrists like me. LOL
regards,
Silverhawk

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

In the event, I've opted for egg boxes. These are small apples and I can get four of them in a box designed to hold six eggs.

I've been without a washing machine in the past. At one stage- about 20 years back- I was washing clothes in the bath.

It's been really disappointing how very few good drying days there've been this summer.

[silverhawkdruid.livejournal.com]

The bath will certainly be pressed into service for the heavier and bulkier items. The rest I am washing using nice big buckets, and a cast iron pot for the boil wash items.
The last few days have at least been dry here in Colchester. How are things in your part of the country?

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

We've been enjoying a run of dry, sunny days. It's been so pleasant we've decided to have a run out to the seaside this morning.