Archive for August, 2010

Agape Table Gets Apples

Agape Table has been serving hot meals to people in the inner city since 1980.  It is able to provide this service through the support of the Winnipeg community.  Fruit Share is proud to share some of its bounty with this great organization.

Mike, a volunteer with Agape Table gladly takes in one of the two big boxes of apples we brought earlier this morning.

Come join us as we rescue more apples.  We have two locations for the morning of Wednesday, September 1.

Exact times and locations will be sent to all registered fruit picking volunteers.

Hope to see you there.

Apple Cake Recipes

My friend Kathryn sent me this link to two dozen apple cake recipes.

http://tipnut.com/make-apple-cake/

Now, which one to make first?

Drying Apples

Chris, another great FruitShare volunteer found a recipe for dried apple rings.

If you try this recipe, please let us know how it works.

Dried apples
Ingredients
4 medium tart apples
2 tbls. lemon juice
2 cups water


Preparation
Pre heat oven to 300 Combine water and lemon juice in a large bowl
Core apples and slice into 1/4 inch rings
Place apple rings in water, juice mixture and make sure to cover apple completely for 5 minutes. This will keep apples from discoloring.
Drain well and pat dry
Lightly spray 2 wire racks with cooking spray
Arrange rings on racks in single layer making sure not to touch
Set each rack on a baking sheet
put into oven one sheet on top oven rack and the other on the bottom rack.
Bake for 15 minutes
Reverse sheets in the oven.( Place the top sheet on the bottom rack and the top sheet on the bottom
Bake for 15 more minutes
Shut oven off and let rings dry in the oven without opening the door, about 3 hours.

Shaking Apple Trees

We had a great time picking apples on Tuesday night.  Gorgeous, delicious Goodland apples.

We picked as many as we could with our super tall step ladders.  But this was a very tall tree and we could only go so high.  In our eagerness to get every last apple, we did the only thing we could think of - we shook the apples from the tree.  We cringed as we watched and listened to them plummeting to the ground.  They landed pretty hard and most have big bruises on them now.  They’re still useable for applesauce and juice, but they’re not so great for eating, slicing or giving away.

Oops, maybe shaking the tree without a safety blanket to catch them before they hit the ground is not such a great idea.  Lesson learned – unless you intend to whip up a big batch of juice or applesauce right away, shaking apple trees is not a good technique for harvesting apples.

Since they’re in no shape to be given away, we’re researching the most effective way to turn them into juice.  Stay tuned as we find out what options are available to us apple shakers!

We have another apple picking session scheduled for 7 pm this Thursday.

Leave a comment if you’re interested.

Tuesday Evening Picking Scheduled

Another picking opportunity!

Join the fun and help us pick apples tonight at 7pm.

Register now to get all the details.

Maple Apple Crisp Recipe


From Aleta, one of our great Fruit Share Volunteers.

I made a big pot of applesauce and Maple Apple Crisp.  Here’s the recipe I adapted from one I found in my collection.


Maple Apple Crisp
Ingredients
6 cups apples – peeled, cored, and sliced
1/2 cup maple syrup
1/2 cup all-purpose flour
1/2 cup rolled oats
1/2 cup brown sugar
1 pinch salt
1/3 cup butter, softened


Preparation
Preheat oven to 375 degrees F (190 degrees C).
Place apples in an 8×8 inch baking pan, or a 2 litre pottery flat bottomed dish.
Toss apples with syrup.
In a separate bowl, mix together flour, oats, sugar, and salt.
Cut in butter until mixture is crumbly.
Sprinkle mixture evenly over apples.
Bake in preheated oven for 40-45 minutes, until topping is golden brown.
Serve warm or at room temperature.


Serves 4-6

Delicious Apples

It took two of us, three hours to pick 210 lb of delicious apples from this tree.  The homeowner was as thrilled to see her apples being harvested and put to good use as we were to have them. They’re perfect for eating right off the tree or turning into endless apple recipes (stay tuned for Aleta’s great Maple Apple Crisp recipe).

This morning, the kids and I delivered four big boxes (about 120 lb) to Winnipeg Harvest.

Picking, eating, processing and sharing all those wonderful apples brought us and many others a lot of JOY! To learn more about the JOY flower you see in this photo visit Deb-Dawson Dunn’s site – Get It Dunn .

Apple Picking Time Set

We’ll be on our ladders picking apples in the neighbourhood bright and early tomorrow morning.  Can’t wait to see what we’ll be getting.

If you’re interested in joining us, sign up now and we’ll send you all the details.

Stay tuned for more pictures!

Apple Butter Recipe

From apple sauce

to apple butter.

After making tons of apple sauce, apple juice and apple deserts, I thought it was time to try something new – Apple Butter.  I found an easy, fool proof crock pot recipe for Apple Butter.

Turns out I am a fool and messed up this great recipe.  My first mistake was using cider vinegar instead of apple cider (oops!).  After the first 15 hours the acidity wasn’t fully cooked off.  At that point I hadn’t realize my cider/vinegar mix-up yet, so I figured it just need a little more time.  My second mistake was leaving the mixture to cook for an extra night (oops!).  The next morning the apple butter was no longer acidic but it was too burnt to eat.  What a waste.
Later that week, after finally realizing what I had done, I decided to try it one more time with another batch of homemade applesauce.  This time it worked – even after I reduced the amount of honey and omitted the cloves!

We use our apple butter on toast, pancakes and waffles.  It’s a thick, fruity alternative to syrup.

Apple Sauce and Apple Juice

Peeling and coring apples, whether they’re crabapples or the larger applecrabs, is tedious and time consuming.   Luckily, making apple sauce and apple juice don’t require those steps.

Basic Apple Sauce Recipe
Start with this basic recipe.  After you have the basic sauce, you can add whatever flavours (sugar, cinnamon, nutmeg, allspice, honey, etc.) that you prefer.  You can also use it in other recipes or freeze it for future use.
Ingredients
Apples
Water

This recipe works for whatever quantity of apples you have.

Preparation
Wash apples and remove any leaves.
Quarter apples.
Place 1 inch of water in a large pot.
Add apples to the pot. Cover.
Bring to boil.
Turn heat to low and let apples simmer until they are soft and mushy (30 – 60 minutes).
Stir every 10 minutes and add more water if mixture is too thick or dry (consistency will vary depending on type of apple).
Take off heat.
Separate cores, peels, and stems from the sauce with a food mill or by squishing the mix through a strainer.
Enjoy your applesauce!

Basic Apple Juice Recipe
The juice from this recipe is cooked and ends up thick and opaque.  We like to dillute it with sparkling water or club soda for a refreshing drink on a hot summer day.  The kids prefer mixing it with Sprite for added sweetness.  



Ingredients

Apples
Water

This recipe works for whatever quantity of apples you have.

Preparation (similar to apple sauce recipe above)
Wash apples and remove any leaves.
Quarter apples.
Place 1 inch of water in a large pot.
Add apples to the pot. Cover.
Bring to boil.
Turn heat to low and let apples simmer until they are soft and mushy (30 – 60 minutes).
Stir every 10 minutes and add more water if mixture is too thick or dry (consistency will vary depending on type of apple).
Take off heat.
Separate all the pulp from the juice by placing the whole mixture into a cheesecloth or super fine strainer like the one pictured (Lee Valle fruit strainer).  
Allow to drip for 4 hours.  
Enjoy your juice!
This juice can also be used for making apple jelly. 

Apple Oat Muffins

Apple Oat Muffins 

Based on a recipe from Canadian Living Test Kitchens.


Ingredients

1 cup (250 mL) large-flake rolled oats
1 cup (250 mL) buttermilk (milk and lemon juice alternate)
1 cup (250 mL) whole wheat flour
1-1/2 tsp (7 mL) baking powder
1/2 tsp (2 mL) baking soda
1/2 tsp (2 mL) ground cinnamon
1/4 tsp (1 mL) salt
1/3 cup (75 mL) liquid honey
1/3 cup (75 mL) vegetabIe oil
1/4 cup (50 mL) packed brown sugar
1 egg

3/4 cup (75 mL) diced apples 
1/4 cup chopped walnuts (optional)
Topping
2 tbsp brown sugar
1/2 tsp cinnamon
1 tbsp chopped walnuts


Preparation:
Lightly grease muffin tins.
In large bowl, stir oats with buttermilk; let stand for 15 minutes.
In separate large bowl, mix together flour, baking powder, baking soda, cinnamon and salt.
Whisk honey, oil, sugar and egg into buttermilk mixture; pour over flour mixture. Stir just until dry ingredients are moistened.
Add apple and walnuts.  Stirring just to mix in.
Fill muffin tins. 
Mix topping ingredients and sprinkle over unbaked muffins.
Bake in centre of 375°F (190°C) oven until tops are firm to the touch, about 17 minutes.
Let cool in pan on rack for 5 minutes. 
Remove from pan; let cool completely.

Siloam Mission Gets Apples

On Friday, the kids and I loaded the van and took a huge load of apples to Siloam Mission.

Once we got there, a group (they call themselves “Assassins”) from Elite Performance, who were there to help serve lunch, came out and within seconds unloaded the apples.  Thanks Elite!