Each Fall, John and I make the pilgrimage to Reed Valley Orchard
near Paris , Kentucky
First, I pick through the pile and save the best apples for
eating. I put these in an airtight bag
in the vegetable drawer of the fridge and they last several months. I was frightened to learn at the orchard that
most of the apples you purchase in the grocery are actually over a year old, so
if kept cold apples last quite a while.
The pears do not last as long because they keep maturing after they have
been picked, so I pick a few of those for eating and put out for everyone to
see. My favorite thing to do with apples
and pears is make a salad. I love
Waldorf salad with raisins, sharp cheese and walnuts and I love pears in a lettuce salad
with goat cheese and walnuts. But, my
new favorite is this recipe I found in a magazine last year. It is quite easy
but takes a bit of slicing time.
Green Apple Slaw
2 T. cider vinegar
1
T. olive oil
1 ½ tsp. sugar
¼
tsp. kosher salt
¼ tsp. pepper
1
large thinly sliced fennel, parsnip or rutabaga
¼ c. fresh chopped parsley
¼
c. slivered sweet onion
2 c. thinly sliced Granny Smith or other tart apple (like
Gala or Sweet 16)
Combine vinegar, oil, sugar, salt and pepper and stir until
sugar dissolves. Add fennel, apple,
parsley and onion. Toss to coat.
Once I’ve exhausted salads, it’s time to start canning. With the pears, we made jam and aigre-doux. We made the apples into sauce. We simply used the pear jam recipe that comes
with the Ball pectin. Following the
advice of the orchard staff, we made two batches of the regular jam and two of
the low sugar and mixed them together.
The only complaint is that it made a pint less than they said on the
packet. The first double batch I made by
chopping the pears into very small cubes.
The second batch I decided to grate the pears which I think did a better
job of distributing the pears since they weren’t too ripe. See the jar in the middle.
Then, we got fancy and made Pear Vanilla Aigre-Doux. If nothing else, this sweet sour fruit is stunning in the jars. The recipe comes from the best canning book I’ve ever seen, A Preservation Kitchen. If you are at all interested in preserving foods, run, don’t walk to get this book.
Pear Vanilla Aigre-Doux
1 ¾ c. white wine
1 ¾ c. champagne vinegar
¾ c. + 1 T. honey
1 c. sugar
1 tsp. salt
2 vanilla beans, split with the seeds scraped out
5-7 pears, peeled, cored and cut in pieces
2 tsp. peppercorns
Boil wine, vinegar, honey, salt and vanilla beans with
seeds. Then keep at a simmer. Prep jars.
Add ½ tsp. peppercorns each to four pint jars. Pack each with pears. Add a vanilla bean pod to each jar. Pour liquid over leaving ½ inch head
room. Screw on lids and process in
boiling water for 15 minutes.
For the applesauce, we made four batches of this easy
recipe:
Applesauce
8 apples, peeled, cored and sliced
½ c. sugar or honey (I used Splenda brown sugar)
1 cinnamon stick
Cook all over medium-low heat in heavy pan about 45
minutes. Remove cinnamon stick. Chill and serve or seal in jars and cover in
boiling water for 10 minutes to seal.
Believe it or not, we gave away fruit and still had more
than we knew what to do with, so I decided to freeze the last in plastic bags
in order to make pies in the Fall and Winter.
Freezing Apples and Pears
Apples or pears, peeled, cored and sliced
Sugar
Blanch apple slices in boiling water for about 3
minutes. Remove from hot water and
measure into plastic bags in amounts for your favorite recipes. Freeze.
With pears, it is a little more complicated. Blanch the pears in sugar water that is 2
parts sugar for 3 parts water, then follow as above, freezing the pears in a
little of the sugar water.
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