Sunday, October 04, 2015

Apple Time


It’s that apple time of the year.  Freshly picked apples in the stores, at the apple orchards, at the farmers’ markets, at the roadside stands.  As a kid, I looked forward to this time of the year as I am a great apple lover.  Few things taste better than a big, bright red apple.  The kind that when you bite into one it crunches a little and apple juice runs down your chin, mixing it up with your smile.

We had a small orchard on the home farm, a half dozen trees or so—Whitney Crab, Jonathon, Northwestern Greening are some of the varieties I remember.  We never pruned them, never sprayed them, mostly ignored them—until this time of the year.  Apple picking time.  My mother made apple pies, canned applesauce, and made apple pickles to store in the cellar and eat during the cold days of winter.

We stopped at an orchard the other day and bought a half bushel of Cortland and a half bushel of Macintosh.  Ruth is making apples sauce, and preparing apple pies.  Here is one way that she prepares apple pies for later baking.

FROZEN APPLE PIE
--Mix your favorite apple pie filling together in a bowl. She uses tapioca for thickening.
--Line pie pan with heavy duty foil, extending foil 5 inches beyond the rim.
--Put pie filling in foil lined pan
--Fold foil ends loosely over filling
--Freeze until apple mixture is firm.
--Remove foiled covered pie filling from pan.  Cover filling tightly and put pie filling including the foil covering in a freezer bag, labeling the size of the pan used.
--When ready to bake a pie, remove filling from foil.  Do not thaw.
--Place frozen filling in pastry-lined pan.  Dot filling with butter.
--Cover with top-slitted crust.
--Bake at 424 degrees until syrup boils with bubbles that don’t break.  About one hour.
Enjoy!

THE OLD TIMER SAYS: An apple day is—a good idea, no matter what the doctor says.

UPCOMING EVENTS:
October 7, 6:30 p.m. Reedsburg Library, Whispers and Shadows

October 11, 10-12:00 a.m.  Heartland Forum, Chicago.

October 11, 3:00 p.m. Old World Wisconsin-Wisconsin Ag. History

October 12, 6:00 p.m. Coloma Historical Society.  Limping Through Life

October 15, 6:30 p.m. Prairie du Sac Library, Whispers and Shadows

October 17, 9-4 Teaching writing workshop at The Clearing, Ellison Bay, WI

October 17, 4:30-6:00 p.m. The Clearing.  Book signing, Whispers and Shadows, Wisconsin Agriculture: A History.

October 23, 10-11:00 a.m. Wisconsin Historical Society Museum (on the square). Whispers and Shadows.  Wisconsin Book Festival.

October 23, 3:30 p.m. Wisconsin Historical Society Auditorium (On UW Campus) Wisconsin Agriculture: A History.  Wisconsin Book Festival.

October 25, 2:00 p.m. Schlitz Nature Center, Milwaukee with Boswell Books.  Whispers and Shadows.

October 29, Brown County Library.  Premier of TV Documentary,” The Land With Jerry Apps. “ Book signing, Whispers and Shadows.

November 1, 2:00 p.m. Gard Theater, Spring Green. Ag History and Wisconsin Place Names (a Robert Gard book).

November 5, 7:00 p.m. Baraboo Library, Whispers and Shadows.

November 7, Edgerton Book Festival, The Land (TV documentary) and Whispers and Shadows

November 10, 6:00 p.m. Wausau Public Library, Wisconsin Agriculture: A History.

November 12, 7:00 p.m. Bellville High School Auditorium with Bellville Public Library.  Wisconsin Agriculture: A History

November 14, 9:30 -11:30 a.m. Sheboygan County Historical Research Center.  Wisconsin Agriculture: A History.

November 15, 9:15 Midvale Lutheran Church, The Land (TV documentary)  plus discussion of Whispers and Shadows.

November 17, 7:00 p.m. Hotel Red (1501 Monroe Street- corner of Regent and Monroe, Madison.)  “Wisconsin Agriculture: A History, a discussion with Doug Moe. Sponsored by Mystery to me Bookstore.  Book signing to follow.

November 18, Preview of TV Documentary, “The Land With Jerry Apps” Wild Rose High School Auditorium.  Whispers and Shadows book signing. (Time to be announced)

Purchase Jerry’s DVDS and his Books from the Patterson Memorial Library in Wild Rose, Wisconsin (a fund raiser for them):

The library now has available signed copies of Jerry’s DVDs, Emmy Winner, A Farm Winter with Jerry Apps and Jerry Apps a Farm Story.
Also available are several of Jerry’s signed books including The Quiet Season (on which the DVD A Farm Winter is based), as well as Rural Wit and Wisdom and Old Farm, (which are related to the DVD Jerry Apps a Farm Story). Also available is Jerry’s new novel, The Great Sand Fracas of Ames County as well as Whispers and Shadows and his newest nonfiction book, Wisconsin Agriculture: A History.

Contact the library for prices and special package deals.
Patterson Memorial Library
500 Division Street

Wild Rose, WI 54984
barnard@wildroselibrary.org
www.wildroselibrary.org
920-622-3835

1 comment:

Don R said...


Hello Jerry,

My Dad had a small apple orchard along with his cherry orchard in the 50's and 60's here in Door County. I'm trying to remember all the varieties we had: Red Delicious, Winesap, Cortland, Macintosh, Greening, Duchess, Wealthy, Hislop and Whitney crab, and my personal favorite, the Famuese, or Snow apple. I sure would like to taste a Snow apple again.