An Outing, with Apples

Sep
28


I had a hankering today to make hay, or apple butter, while the sun shines. Or it’s actually raining today, but the apples are CHEAP, CHEAP, CHEAP. The best farmers market in all the land is in Charleston. Behold, and feel envy!

I love this place. It’s HUGE.

Whenever I’m there, I want to eat everything. And make everything. I feel like I could go home and can 5000 quarts of everything. Plus 10,000 pints and a couple hundred jam jars. By bedtime! I have to work hard to control myself.

The fall produce was looking particularly gorgeous.

I’m in love with these:

But anyway! That’s not what I was there for. I got some pumpkins a few weeks ago for party decorations and will be cutting them up to process for holiday pies sometime soon. I was there for apples. But I did let myself pick up a mess of green beans, some new red potatoes, and some tomatoes for dinner tonight.

I brought home two 25-pound boxes of (mixed) canning apples, which I stuck in the cellar for the moment.

Mostly, I’ll be making apple butter. I sold every pint of whiskey-raisin apple butter I made, didn’t even get a pint for myself. I’ll be making–and selling–more, and keeping some for myself (sheesh!). I’ll also be putting away some quarts of plain sliced apples to use for various purposes later, mostly pies. I like to can quarts of apples plain, just the way Georgia did back when I was living in the slanted little house. Any apples she didn’t use right away to make apple butter, she canned plain, sliced, in quart jars to use later. It’s super handy to pull a quart of ready sliced apples off the shelf for pie, cake, or fried apples in the pan. I’m going to dehydrate all my peels and cores. Love, love, love dried apple peels for potpourri.

But before I get to work on my boxes of apples, I’m making up that mess of green beans. And maybe this apple cake. I think I need it! With ice cream!

I’m excited. I have apples. You?





Comments

  1. whaledancer says:

    What a gorgeous farmers’ market. I’m jealous.

    There’s no sign of autumn yet here in SoCal. Sept brings some of our hottest weather of the year. It’s still in the 90’s and is supposed to get up to 100 by Monday. But I’m so ready for autumn that I’ve begun to crave apples. I’ve decided to get some apples and make Waldorf salad this weekend. It will be cool to eat in the hot weather and still satisfy my taste for apples.

  2. mamajhk says:

    I purchased 2 (20+lbs) boxes of apples (jonathan and jongold) at a local orchard last Sunday. They are on racks on the shower floor of the basement bathroom. Don’t worry it is an extra bathroom so isn’t used very often. It was the coolest sport in the house that I could find.

  3. mschrief says:

    I just finished processing about 300 lbs of apples FROM ONE TREE! They are Gala apples, crisp and gorgeous.

    Apple slices, cubes, apple butter, plum-apple butter.

    Glad apple season happens but once a year!

    :shocked:

  4. wvhomecanner says:

    Oh I KNOW what you mean about Capitol Market and feeling like you want to drag home all of it to can! LOVE that place. Umm, yeah, glad Jerry didn’t take your head off on that ride….. where’s Harbor Freight?? Southridge??

  5. rurification says:

    Yeah, I’m jealous! I’m the same way about wanting to bring home everything. Right now I have a load of winter squash curing outside. We discovered that two of the kinds that we grew really aren’t worth eating. Stringy and nasty. But they’re pretty and warty and lumpy and bumpy. They’ll be perfect decorations for the season. And the other squash are very tasty, so it all works out.

  6. Flowerpower says:

    I am so jealous! Loved that farmers market. It looks huge and full of things that call to me. Nothing better than apples grown at home. The taste is just the best. Had I been riding with you…your apple box would have been slightly lighter when we got home! :happyflower:

  7. Miss Judy says:

    Yes I have apples…apple pie jam, apple raisin conserve, apple pie filling, apple pie, apple/ snickers salad, raw apple cake, apple butter,fried apples,baked apples,apple dumplings,chicken apple pecan salad,apple crisp,…
    I would love to go to the Charleston Farmer’s market.I envy you, Suzanne.It looks beautiful! I am afraid I would buy too much and wear myself out getting it all taken care of. I still have abt a half bushel of apples that needs put up. Oh well it will be wonderful this winter.
    Don’t you justlove this time of year?

  8. princessvanessa says:

    I love Harborfreight…and Loews…and Home Depot. I can wander around for an hour or more. There is a farmer’s market in Olympia that looks similar to “yours” except it is completely under cover. I don’t get there very often but when I do I, too, have to hold myself back.

  9. ibpallets (Sharon B.) says:

    Wow, I am in love with that farmers market!

  10. yvonnem says:

    Yes, Suzanne, I’d say you were in Cross Lanes. I grew up there. But it was nothing like it is now when my parents moved there in ’63…..there was no traffic. It’s hard to believe now, but it was like living in the country back then!

  11. kathy says:

    I so envy you all with or access to apples. Apples…sigh. There are no apple orchards in this part of Texas, maybe north about 3 hours. I paid $1.99 per pound (on sale) yesterday for a single red delicious (not so much) apple. Has anyone been to the Pike Place market in Seattle? Can you say WOW? Supposed to be more fall like here this weekend, but with rain. Miss Judy, what is a apple snickers salad?

  12. valeriekasnick says:

    Yes, please, can we get the Snicker Salad posted in the recipes? Thanks!!!

  13. mfish says:

    Where can I find the recipe for whiskey-raisin apple butter??

  14. joykenn says:

    I have APPLE ENVY. Like Kathy said there aren’t any apple orchards in the southern part of Texas so when I discovered apple orchards here in Illinois, I was IN LOVE :happyflower:

    Unfortunately this year with the freaky early spring weather followed by a freeze followed by a dought, no apples nearby. Sigh! They’re selling for $1.99 in the stores. Maybe I can see if the Farmers Market nearby has some canning apples…imported from OTHER states.

  15. Debbie Burgess says:

    I brought back two bushels of apples from Price’s Mkt. in Spencer when I was at the CITR retreat…those folks are so nice there. I highly recommend buying from them.

    So many great things to do with apples, and I’ve finally worked my way through them all. I never thought to save the peelings, though! :hissyfit:

  16. holstein woman says:

    Ya know Suzanne, I didn’t get to garden this year either and THAT JUST MAKES ME SO JEALOUS. I haven’t made the farmers market either and I actually live too far to make it just a drive now.
    I think that the market is wonderful and there is nothing like the really BIG beautiful ones like that one. You are very fortunate.

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