Apple Harvest Time!

Happy Harvest!

Boy, it sure is that time of the year. Packed & stacked refrigerator and freezer, bags of beautiful, just-picked organic fruit on the counters, busy-busy-busyness getting it all put up for the winter. It’s a rush against nature’s unforgiving timeline…trying to eat, freeze — and occasionally can — the bounty before it begins its process of ‘going back into the earth’ right there on the refrigerator shelf. Busy, yes, but I love this time of the year!

The weather here has been glorious, and on Friday I had a lovely time picking apples from my parents’ Red Delicious tree in their backyard. Between the squirrels and the coddling moths, there weren’t many apples left for us, but I found a clutch of nearly perfect ones hanging over the porch roof. With each impossibly juicy, crunchy bite, I remember how grateful I am that I can grow my own food. It’s a good, satisfying feeling. I think that’s the way we’re meant to feel about the food we eat — filled with pride and appreciation that can only come from watching your food progress from seed to blossom to bearing.

And did you know that apple seeds taste like little bitter almonds? I’ve never eaten the seeds before, but they’re really quite a taste sensation. But this would make sense, since they’re in the same family (Rose) as almonds. Try them sometime!

And here’s something else to try sometime. I dreamt up this snack over the weekend to use up some of our beautiful apples, and WOW! Yum.