Monday, October 6, 2008

Autumn Bounty

The Bag Lady had to take some time off from her kitchen duties the other day in order to stack some straw that a neighbour was kind enough to deliver. The Bag Lady's straw-stacking skills are sadly lacking, but she managed to get most of the straw unloaded before the bale fork BROKE! The neighbour rigged it up with a chain in order for the remainder of the straw to be removed from his truck, and the Cow Whisperer welded it back together the next day when he came home from work. Then he finished stacking the straw, bless his tired heart!


On Saturday, the Bag Lady went on a rare foray into town to a pie-making party. (Scenery along the way - click on any photo to enlarge):




Friends of hers have a little apple tree in their yard that produces an amazing amount of apples!

This little tree:

Produced three bags like this (not including the apples that were damaged or fell off the tree):

We processed them:



Put them into pie shells:




Assembly-line style:



And froze them:



For a sum total of 42 pies; 8 of which the Bag Lady brought home to her freezer. There were enough apples left over to make a huge apple crisp, and still have some for jelly or apple sauce, or just eating.

Then the Bag Lady returned to her own kitchen to deal with more tomatoes and peppers. And last night had a typical North American supper of fried chicken, mashed potatoes, coleslaw and apple pie with cheese for dessert.

24 comments:

Ann (bunnygirl) said...

A pie making party! What a great idea! Not for my tiny kitchen, of course, but I totally love it.

Dawn said...

I've never been to pie making pary but it sounds great. Bottling (canning) used to be a family affair but now it is usually just one woman on her own in the kitchen.

I can remember as a child sitting peeling and stoning boxes of peaches while my mother and friends did the bottling.

You are one versatile lady!

carla said...

And you thought I wouldn't notice you called him my FAVE nickname!

Oh and typical dinner?

Are we sure that wouldn't mean you were in your car @ the McD's drive through?


Oh that I were talented enough to whip up that 'typical' fare.

Happy Monday, BL!

Penny said...

Pie Party! Can I come? Damn, I missed it. I actually made a cake last night (a Battenburg - do you have them? It was hard!) so we definitely have to be telepathically in tune.

Dinner sounds amazing.

TA x

Unknown said...

Oh delicious delicious! Apple pie is my love.

We had a pizza making party on Saturday night. But an apple pie party sounds like such a great time. That must have been an enormous amount of apples you had!

Linda said...

Pie party would be fun! We had a kitchen cleaning party here.

"Cow Whisperer" teeheeeee!

Leah J. Utas said...

The pie party sounds like a lot of fun.

Missicat said...

Yum! I know there is one in there with my name on it, right? :-) Pie making party sounds great!

the Bag Lady said...

BG - it makes it more fun if the kitchen is small! We had a blast in that tiny kitchen of theirs!

Dawn - Oh, the good ol' days when folks did things together. Barn-raising, canning, pie-making!
I am always alone when doing most everything, so this was a fun experience!

Carla - that's what these particular friends call him, too! And that totally cracked me up about the McD's drive-thru. I guess I should have said a typical "old-time" dinner.....

TA - you made a BATTENBURG??!!! Wow, you're my hero! I've never been brave enough to attempt one. (Damn, now I have to try it!)

Sagan - a pizza-making party sounds like a ton of fun! We missed out on pizza parties this summer because my outdoor oven was broken. Next summer, for sure!

Linda - he IS a Cow Whisperer!! You should see him in action.
And a kitchen-cleaning party sounds like work! I need a "whole-house" cleaning party..... but around here, that generally means a party of one.

dfLeah - it was a hoot! (and would have been a lot more fun if I hadn't had to drive home again in the dark!)

Missicat - you bet there's one with your name on it. You can to drop by and pick it up anytime!! :)

Terrie Farley Moran said...

df Bag Lady,

Sorry about the Bale Folk and ain't he an amazing guy who put it back together?

I want you to know I took the time to enlarge every picture. Usually I just enlarge the scenery ones. but this time I enlarged them all and you are a great photographer!

Terrie

the Bag Lady said...

dfTerrie - aren't you sweet to say I'm a good photographer!! Thanks!

And yes, I don't know what I'd do without the Cow Whisperer! He can fix almost anything mechanical.

Reb said...

Wow, that sounds like a lot of pie! Great photos Sis, I love Garfield sitting under the tree there!

Geosomin said...

Great minds think alike...I too made apple pie this weekend. Yum.
We put Gjetost in ours...an experiment that turned out delicious...
I had flashbacks of working as a baker during university when I saw all those pies. I don't think you could fit more people than me in my kitchen for a pie party tho - I kept shooing J and my friend out of there so I could finish it. :)

the Bag Lady said...

Reb - it was a lot of pie! And Garfield seems to like it there!

Geo - the kitchen we were in was pretty tiny, too - I took most of those photos while seated at the table! Good thing we all got along well!

Anonymous said...

A pie-making party sounds like a lot of fun.

It's true that no one does things together any more...that was a theme that helped inspire "fight club".

That dinner sounds yummy.

the Bag Lady said...

Tricia - in the "good old days", especially in the country, all the neighbours would get together to do all kinds of things - from barn-raising to berry picking. In our modern society, although people live practically in each others' pockets, everyone does their own thing.
One wonders sometimes if this is really a good thing.....

Anonymous said...

Oh, boy, my kind of party!
That's a lot of apples. I was planning to put in two apple trees, but maybe I should think again. I know I can deal with the cherries from two trees, but that's an awful lot of apples!
About people working together: about 90 years ago my great-grandfather sold the farm where my father was born (he was always buying and selling land, since his main trade was milling) to a man from nearly a hundred miles away, whose most notable act was to tear down the antebellum brick house my father was born in and replace it with an ugly frame house right up on the road, so that even now that the road is paved it still has dust blowing in the windows. Even before he did this, he was so little liked that _no one would trade work with him_! After a few years he gave up and moved back where he came from, where I suspect people didn't like him any better.

Mary Anne in Kentucky

JavaChick said...

I remember doing the apple pie assembly line with my family when I was a young'un. Nothing like being able to pull a homemade apple pie out of the freezer!

the Bag Lady said...

Mary Anne - some people just don't have any sense. I'm shaking my head over that story!
As far as apple trees go - I don't know if this little tree is exceptional, but it certainly is a producer!

Javachick - you are so right - there's nothing like home-made apple pie! And having a supply on hand is terrific!

Maggie said...

Pie party sounded and looked like a blast. Do you all sell them? Wish I could do stuff like this.

I love those "typical" type of dinners. Yum!

Brianna said...

You're making my mouth water!!! Apple season is the best. We should just rename autumn - call it lucious apple season.

Yum, yum!

the Bag Lady said...

Maggie - we DID have fun! No, we freeze them and use them throughout the year.

Brianna - that's a great idea! From now on we can refer to autumn as luscious season....oops, luscious apple season!! :)

Hilary said...

Sounds wonderful. Two of my cousins and I did an apple pie bake-off kind of like that a couple of times. We'd end up with 6 or 7 pies each. Freezing them unbaked makes more sense though. Yum!

the Bag Lady said...

Hubby is loving them - we're already halfway through the second pie!