The most beautiful show of fall colours I've
seen since I was 10 years old, now lies on the ground on the
forest floor.A soft carpet of yellow and gold rustles underfoot
as Kate and I walk each morning.
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VIKI MATHER |
The glory of autumn recedes into our memory,
and the reality of the approaching winter kicks in. It is time
to bring in the harvest for winter.
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We managed to get a few apples from our
scrawny trees here in the forest.- A dozen or so that grew in
the orchard disappeared in the middle of September. The two
that remained were delicious.- Another two dozen grew happily
on a wild tree in the front yard.- We found most of them on the
ground one morning, with raccoon teeth marks.- I picked the
last six apples from the tree.
Elsewhere in Ontario, it has been a great
year for apples. While visiting friends in Duntroon, they gave
me a big basket of wonderful red apples from their orchard
their first big harvest ever. Then I went to a pick-your-own
orchard and got four bushels of six different kinds of
apples.
I was half-way through processing the first
bushel when I got a phone call from a friend on Manitoulin. He
had pruned a neighbour's ancient apple tree last year, after
several years of dormancy. This year it produced nine bushels
of apples.
The neighbour gave my friend two of these
bushels, and he passed one on to me. Suddenly, we have more
apples than we could possibly eat in a
year. I got out another large pot and began
to cook.
Applesauce, apple jam, apple juice, apple pie
and dried apples, what else could I make? My memory goes back
to my grandma's kitchen, and the aroma of cinnamon in the air.
The cool days of autumn lend themselves to pots simmering on
the stove for hours, as the apple butter burbles away.
Apple butter is simply applesauce that has
simmered on the stove long enough to drive off half of the
liquid. Add a little bit of sugar, and a lot of cinnamon. Keep
it on very low heat, stir often. That's the whole recipe. When
it is very thick, spoon it into sterile jars, then seal with
new lids and place in a boiling water bath for 10
minutes.
I'll make two dozen jars of this yummy treat,
and give half of them away at Christmas. The others will grace
our table at breakfast to be spread thickly on toast.
With the apples simmering on the stove, I'm
comforted confident that when winter comes, we'll be
ready.
Viki Mather lives by a lake near Sudbury.
