We hope that everyone will
come down for the next delicious Pathfinder Produce market, this Thursday,
October 6, from 1 to 5 p.m. at the Village Commons. There are so many great items to choose from
… it’s like voting for your favorite fruits and veggies! (Our theme for October as National Down
Syndrome Awareness month is ‘My Vote Counts!’)
It’s the top of the harvest
season and there’s always something new to try, or you can use produce you know
well in different ways. CHOICE … it’s
what makes food shopping an adventure!
***
This
past weekend was one of those where I wanted to get lots of work done, and one
project just sort of segued into the next.
One of the first things accomplished was to store a bushel of Cortland
apples, which my mom brought me on Saturday morning.
Cortlands are a cross
of McIntosh and Ben Davis apples, and were developed through research at the NYS
Agricultural Experiment Station in Geneva in 1898. They are red-and-green skinned, slightly
tart, and have a white interior that resists browning.
They are good for fruit salads, pies, and sauce. Apparently they freeze
well too.
With
that many apples on hand, I had to make a few pies, based on the universal
clamor of the troops. I’m still looking to perfect my whole wheat pie crust --
based on last week’s thoughts on butter and Julia Child, I tried to make a
traditional butter crust. The dough
worked easily and was really flaky. I
tried to cut down on the sugar in the filling to try to make the pies a bit
healthier. The results were decent, but
my pies just aren’t as good as my mom’s or grandma’s!
Proper
apple storage is key and fortunately, I was able to clear out enough space in
my crisper drawers to store the apples I hadn’t used for baking. I removed any
leaves and blotted off any water that was on them, trying not to polish off the
bloom;
that’s the hazy white coating which is a naturally emitted wax that helps keep
fruit moist. I gently placed the apples
in the drawers, and kept any blemished fruits out to prevent rotting issues.
(As the old saying goes, “One
bad apple can spoil the
bunch.”).
Of
course, doing this reminded me of times when I’ve seen other storage
procedures. When I was a kid, my grandmother would gently wrap each apple in
newspaper and then store them in the old Westinghouse (Or was it a Philco? That
thing ran like a champ for 50 years!) It was kept in “the old kitchen,” which
had been converted into my grandfather’s workshop, which was an icebox itself
during winter months. The room still had
vestiges of a 1900s kitchen and was a dimly lit place that was magical with its
disordered mix of tools, spare parts, and the flotsam and jetsam of farm living.
Of
course, farm families from earlier eras had to over-winter their apples too; I
remember the staff at The Farmers’ Museum, Cooperstown, would dry apple rings
by hanging them on a string over the hearth.
And then, a good number of apples would be used to make cider with a
hand press, with the amber liquid being stored in barrels, and the pomace
being used to fatten the pigs. Of
course, these families all had root cellars too, used for potatoes, carrots,
turnips; other produce would be placed under the rafters to store until needed.
After
the apple storage and pie baking, I turned my attention to other projects, all
part of regular fall preparations. My
husband and son went to one of our neighbor’s farm stands, and they brought
home some winter squash. But that’s
another story for another week.
Until
then, enjoy the best of fall’s flavors!
Lori
