Our little heirloom apple tree

Last fall, after watching Michael Pollan's Botany of Desire I decided it was time to add an heirloom apple tree to the mix.  So with some twitter followers goading me on, I found an orchard, made some inquiries and had placed our order by the time the documentary moved on from apples to marijuana. 

If you haven't seen this documentary, please do (you can stream it from PBS here) and if you have, PBS also has some great extra videos on their site from Michael Pollan.  He talks about heirloom apples and really sums up my personal philosophy quite nicely by describing them as "The extravagance of nature that really made life worth living".  Warning, these links will make you hunt down and plant an heirloom apple tree.

With some very helpful guidance from the folks at Siloam Orchards we decided on a Spitzenburg.  Its a fairly disease resistant heirloom apple from New York, that makes both a good eating and cider apple and really, if it was good enough for Monticellio, its good enough for us. 

Well the call finally came last week; spring is here and so was our 1 year old "whip", basically a branch with roots and we needed to come and pick it up.  

So we spent what should have been a lovely day driving around gorgeous Ontario Farm Land looking for Siloam Orchards with a very grumpy toddler. We barely made it in time for their 3pm close, but had a great visit once we arrived.  Rebecca ran through the orchards and poked things with sticks and I bought pies. We'll be back for apple picking in the fall.

Hey little apple blossom...

what seems to be the problem? 

picking clover?

She's going to work on a tractor now.  Becca is wearing her new tree planting skirt for the occasion; A gift from the fabulous Sarah over at Bohdi Handmade on Etsy.  I think I want everything from her perfect little shop.

:::Sigh::: Ryan says no more fruit crates are coming into this house.

Not grumpy now that she's out of that terrible car seat.

Never getting back in that car seat unless you give me apple chips.

We also saw a brand new calf, all wobbly and proving that all is right in the world.

We got home just in time to plant our little Spitzenburg and all took a turn watering it.

All in all, it's basically a very good day if you have really dirty feet by the end of it.

Please take a minute to click through some of the links as there are some very interesting things out there on the internet.  Apple Photo Credit: Oysters4me under flickr creative commons licence.

Recipe: Pickled Beets are Delicious

Beets are one of my favourite vegetables.  They are so easy to grow, grow beautifully in a container or in the garden, come in so many colours and shapes and even striped.  I also enjoy that the entire plant is edible, the tops are great steamed with vinegar and butter, and although a roasted beet is a delicious thing what I really crave is a pickled beet with lots of cloves.

This recipe is very versatile.  I will give the small batch amounts, but know that you can scale this recipe up quite easily.  This round I have processed 4 times the amounts listed so you might just get a jar of beets for Christmas.

You will need:

10 medium beets; about 3 ½ pounds

1 ¼ cup sugar

1 ¼ cup of water

1 cup of vinegar

1 tsp salt

1 tsp of cloves

To prep your beets, give them a good wash and cut off the tops, save them for dinner.  Boil beets for 45 minutes, this will cook them and make it easy to remove the skins.

While they’re boiling it’s a good time to prep all your jars by cleaning them and starting a few of them boiling up in a big pot.  Start heating up all your lids and rings in a smaller pot on medium heat.  Do this on your back two burners, as you’re about to have all four going at once.

Its also time to make your brine.  Combine vinegar, water, sugar, salt and cloves in a pan and boil until sugar and salt are dissolved.  You’ll need to strain out most of the cloves or put them in cheesecloth or a tea ball.  Keep it going on low heat.

After 45 minutes, plunge your beets into cold water.  You should now be able to rub the skins off with your hands.  Do this under running water or in a full sink and your hands won’t stain.  Not that there’s anything wrong with purple hands.  Have a knife and peeler on hand to get rid of any rough spots.

Cut the beets into slices or wedges.

Now pack your boiled jars with the beets and cover with brine.  I like to throw 1 or 2 cloves in with each jar.  You need to leave ¼ inch of room at the top and make sure the jar lips are clean.

Put the lids on, finger tight, and heat process for 10 minutes.  

Then find a nice cool place out of direct sunlight to store them.  This recipe is nice because you can eat them almost right away, or wait a few weeks and they’ll get even better.

I really like these short jars as they fit just enough to finish at one meal, therefore perfect for a potluck. They are 8 oz wide mouth Ball elite jars.

Stay tuned; I think I have enough touchstone golds left to make one jar of yellow beets.

As with all canning recipes, please follow safe canning practices.