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Showing posts with label fireside. Show all posts
Showing posts with label fireside. Show all posts
Thursday, November 17, 2011
Sauce-Sational: An Experiment in Applesauce - Fireside
Next up to talk about it the Fireside. Now, the Fireside’s are big apples and are a bit more tricky to get through my peeler, corer, slicer but I still managed! The Fireside is a very large fruit with sweet, pleasant flavor and fine-grained flesh good for fresh eating, salad, and baked apples. Good storage life.
I cooked the apples down in the miniature slow cooker for 3 hours. It was a sweet, chunky sauce. I did like it better than the Gala as far as flavor goes. I thought there was a lot of great flavor at first but it died off. It was decent but I could see that would add a fantastic sweetness if it were mixed with another apple or two.
Past apple tests:
Friday, September 26, 2008
Snow Sweet!...or empire?
Yesterday morning I drove our van over to the orchard. My husband and Cedi had picked a few bushels of apples the previous night and I had them in the back. He had told me that there was one bushel of snow sweets in the back. Now, keep in mind, this is only the second year that we have ever had the snow sweet trees produce any apples. So, three of the bushels 'looked' like Fireside, two cortlands, and the other ?...we assumed snow sweet (remember we've been busy and sleep doesn't come frequently in long stretches...).
Once the group of the day was over, Diane, figured she'd get the 'snow sweets' on the shelves. She sorted them and weighed them into 3lb bags (we're only going to have one bushel of snow sweet apples this year). We started to get more people in the afternoon so I started sampling them. One lady had already tried two apples and didn't have room for a third...so I tried it for her...wow, was it TART! Why would they call that a snow sweet? I sampled to others and I think one person bought a bag after trying a sample of the 'snow sweet'.
Here's where things get interesting. Frank and Jared got back from there second round of picking and the fireside are sitting in there designated pile to be sorted (they do this for me...I'm the one that usually gets the apples confused!) He looks at the bushel on the top and says, "These are not Fireside." After a few taste tests and confusion...we agree. I go in the store, take a closer look at our "snow sweet" samples and ask my husband if there had a been a bushel of empires in the van this morning. The answer, "Yes." Mystery solved.
So, after all of that, we (Diane) accidently sorted a bushel of empires, thinking they were snow sweets and put them on the shelves. Once we realized this we took them off, sorted the correct bushel and quickly fixed our problem. Now, I'm pretty sure that I only sold bags to people that had previously sampled the apples...but if you happened to get a bag of 'snow sweets' that look suspiciously like an empire, (deep dark red, with red stems) please let us know.
Once we figured out our problem we had to have a good laugh about it. Good thing Frank noticed that the 'fireside' looked a little off!
Once the group of the day was over, Diane, figured she'd get the 'snow sweets' on the shelves. She sorted them and weighed them into 3lb bags (we're only going to have one bushel of snow sweet apples this year). We started to get more people in the afternoon so I started sampling them. One lady had already tried two apples and didn't have room for a third...so I tried it for her...wow, was it TART! Why would they call that a snow sweet? I sampled to others and I think one person bought a bag after trying a sample of the 'snow sweet'.
Here's where things get interesting. Frank and Jared got back from there second round of picking and the fireside are sitting in there designated pile to be sorted (they do this for me...I'm the one that usually gets the apples confused!) He looks at the bushel on the top and says, "These are not Fireside." After a few taste tests and confusion...we agree. I go in the store, take a closer look at our "snow sweet" samples and ask my husband if there had a been a bushel of empires in the van this morning. The answer, "Yes." Mystery solved.
So, after all of that, we (Diane) accidently sorted a bushel of empires, thinking they were snow sweets and put them on the shelves. Once we realized this we took them off, sorted the correct bushel and quickly fixed our problem. Now, I'm pretty sure that I only sold bags to people that had previously sampled the apples...but if you happened to get a bag of 'snow sweets' that look suspiciously like an empire, (deep dark red, with red stems) please let us know.
Once we figured out our problem we had to have a good laugh about it. Good thing Frank noticed that the 'fireside' looked a little off!
Friday, September 19, 2008
Say Cheese!, Quilt of the Week Alternate & the Gala Dilemma
Hello All! It's been a few days since I've written. Of course, I had to have some internet problems...what would a busy season be without that happening! Luckily it's back up and working... and I have a few new stories to update you with!
Pat Fischbeck, from the Speckled Hen Inn Bed & Breakfast in Madison, WI, visited our orchard this past week. She took some beautiful pictures of the orchard, picking and some of the fun things we offer. She uses our apples regularly at her Bed & Breakfast for snacks and in the breakfasts'. She was kind enough to bring us a few apple scone things she made...they were delicious! Diane and I had two before Frank even got home from picking! Thanks, Pat, it was a great pick-me-up for a long, busy day! To see more information about her bed and breakfast check out her website: http://www.speckledheninn.com/
I also do realize that I have not posted a 'Quilt of the Week' this week. I should really put one of Diane's up but I haven't had anytime to re-type her stories yet. So, instead of featuring a quilt I'm going to feature the upcoming quilt retreat! Diane and her sister, Barb, are holding a quilt retreat this November at Camp Wawbeek in the Wisconsin Dells. They still have some openings for the weekend of November 14, 15, and 16th, 2008. It's an overnight retreat and every year, one or two of the attendee's do stay up all night quilting! It's a really fun time, Diane and Barb are experienced and knowledgable teachers who also like to have a good time. I have gone to three retreats and have enjoyed myself. To learn more about the project for this year check out the details at http://www.quiltsbybarb.com/quiltretreats.htm. Hope to see you there!
And last but not least...a bit of sad news. The gala's are quickly running low in supply. We underestimated the age of some of our gala trees and did not replant quickly enough to avoid a dip in our supply. Our older trees produced tiny, tiny apples. Our newer trees produced big, beautiful, delicious apples...just not enough to satisfy the high demand (it is my favorite apple!). What this means is that we will be running out of gala's soon, probably this weekend, but hopefully, if everything goes well, we will have a continually increasing supply in years to come.
New apple out this week: Fireside! A yummy, sweet apple alternative to the gala. Also known as a Connel Red!
Hope you stop out and see all the new fall decorations we've been putting up around the orchard.
Pat Fischbeck, from the Speckled Hen Inn Bed & Breakfast in Madison, WI, visited our orchard this past week. She took some beautiful pictures of the orchard, picking and some of the fun things we offer. She uses our apples regularly at her Bed & Breakfast for snacks and in the breakfasts'. She was kind enough to bring us a few apple scone things she made...they were delicious! Diane and I had two before Frank even got home from picking! Thanks, Pat, it was a great pick-me-up for a long, busy day! To see more information about her bed and breakfast check out her website: http://www.speckledheninn.com/
I also do realize that I have not posted a 'Quilt of the Week' this week. I should really put one of Diane's up but I haven't had anytime to re-type her stories yet. So, instead of featuring a quilt I'm going to feature the upcoming quilt retreat! Diane and her sister, Barb, are holding a quilt retreat this November at Camp Wawbeek in the Wisconsin Dells. They still have some openings for the weekend of November 14, 15, and 16th, 2008. It's an overnight retreat and every year, one or two of the attendee's do stay up all night quilting! It's a really fun time, Diane and Barb are experienced and knowledgable teachers who also like to have a good time. I have gone to three retreats and have enjoyed myself. To learn more about the project for this year check out the details at http://www.quiltsbybarb.com/quiltretreats.htm. Hope to see you there!
And last but not least...a bit of sad news. The gala's are quickly running low in supply. We underestimated the age of some of our gala trees and did not replant quickly enough to avoid a dip in our supply. Our older trees produced tiny, tiny apples. Our newer trees produced big, beautiful, delicious apples...just not enough to satisfy the high demand (it is my favorite apple!). What this means is that we will be running out of gala's soon, probably this weekend, but hopefully, if everything goes well, we will have a continually increasing supply in years to come.
New apple out this week: Fireside! A yummy, sweet apple alternative to the gala. Also known as a Connel Red!
Hope you stop out and see all the new fall decorations we've been putting up around the orchard.
Labels:
bed and breakfast,
Camp Wawbeek,
fall,
fireside,
gala,
pictures,
quilt of the week,
quilt retreat,
quiltsbybarb.com,
Speckled Hen Inn,
Wisconsin Dells
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