Foraged Crabapple Jelly

During a bike trip with Huxley last year we came across a small public park in a nook of town where I didn't expect there to be one. At the edge of the park where two trees heavily hung with what I thought where plums. I didn't have a chance to excamine them at the time as I had a very tired, sad little boy on my hands. I did however, mark the spot in my memory with the intention of returning this year to harvest some of this "wild" fruit.

So this year, I drove by to check out how the plums where doing, just to realize that it wasn't a bumper crop of plums that was ready for the picking, but a wonderful variety of crab apples, yet just at the end of their prime. A couple of days later Huxley and I took a small step ladder and went harvesting/foraging.

I will have to make a note in my calendar to start checking on the fruit earlier next year, as it was really just the very end of the season, with the majority already having enterend the next stage of their purpose – to go soft so that they could distribute their seeds.

 

Crab-apple-bag-drip

 

Crab-apple-bag-drip

We still managed to gather about 4 kg.

After triming off the bad bits and using the really bad ones for tossing practice into the corner of our yard (which was a lot of fun for my 8 year old). I ended up with a large pot of usable fruit.

Crab-apple-bag-drip

 

I washed the fruit and returned it to the pot, covering the fruit with just enough water to have it bop a bit. 

Crab-apple-bag-drip

I gently boiled the fruit until it was mushy.

 

Transferring the fruit to a large cheesecloth, I hung it over a broomstick to drain all the juices overnight into a large bowl. (look at that lovely colour). 

Crab-apple-bag-drip

I measured the resulting fruit juice and oogled its amazing colour. I used about 75% of sugar to the amount of juice and boiled it in a pot until it reached just about 220 degrees fahrenheit. Filled it into steriliesed canning jars and voila! My first ever crab-apple jelly. 

Note: I learned that it is best to make jams and jelly's in smaller batches, so I made the jelly in 3 batches of each about 1.2 liters of juice to about 800 grams of sugar. It jellied perfectly – thanks to the wonderful high-pectin content of crab apples.

Crab-apple-bag-drip

The half-full jar in the middle was our immediate consumption jar. I love the slightly tangy flavour of the jelly. It is particularly yummy spread on a toasted bagel, then topped with extra old cheddar cheese.

I used some of the fruit mush to make a zucchini-crabapple bread. It tasted great and I will have to make note next time around to the exact ingredients. I started a bad habit of just trowing things together without exactly measuring them – so they are a tad hard to reproduce.

This time of the year I feel a kindred affiliation to squirrels. This year I've been able to put by Strawberry freezer jam and blueberry jam. There is frozen rhubarb and blueberries and a couple of bags of sour cherries to make swiss-type fruit quiche during the winter. I've made pickles for the first time and will be able to taste them in about a weeks time. I've also made elderberry jelly from foraged berries. Sadly when trying to make peach sauce, I ended up scorching a huge pot of them and didn't have the opportunity to purchase more peaches – lack of time. I've also dehydrated strawberries and peaches for use in nut less trail-mix for school snacks. There is a rum-topf downstairs awaiting some new fruits. 

Two bushels of tomates have been turned into frozen, ready sauce, as well as some frozen slow-oven roasted tomatoes. Last saturday I picked up another two bushels of tomatoes, although as it is at the end of the harvest, they are rather sad looking and I have to pick through them to pick only the nicest ones. My freezer is full, so I will put them by as whole bottled tomatoes and as passata (passata [pəˈsɑːtə] (Cookery) a sauce made from sieved tomatoes, often used in Italian cookery [Italian] – thanks wikipedia).

 

 

 

 

What we did…

… finally some pictures of the first part of our March break outing as promised. We went north in the search of snow. We found some, although not the copious amounts what we had hopped for. Living within the seasons has been very challenging when the seasons don't play along.

I take our winter books up from their storage downstairs at the beginning of December, together with the Christmas and Solstice books. After the holidays, usually January 7 when we put the Christmas tree away, all, except the Winterbooks go back downstairs. At the same time we also turn our nature table into a winter scene. This year we had used both shelves on the little sidetable that we use for a nature table – upstairs was King Winter in his winter wonderland, on the bottom shelf Huxley put Mother Earth and her children by creating a wonderful cave for them. 

Here is where it becomes challenging. Waiting for winter, for snow, for activities as they happen in the books that talk about winter. I think it is high-time that some books are written that show our winters as they are and also suggest some activities to do without snow. I have a gander that we will have more irregular weather like this ahead of us (smile). 

To try to find some winter, we planned to visit my dear friend Mary and her family in the north (from us it's about 2.5hrs due north) in Bracebridge, Ontario. We stayed there for a few days and had lots of fun. Here some pictures to share.

Bleached-leaves

Bleached leaves – wonderful colours and gorgeous shapes.

Bleached-leaves

Cadmun, the family german sheppard, black lab mix. She celebrated her 1st birthday while we visited. 

Bleached-leaves

Resting.

Bleached-leaves

Marys' youngest – full steam ahead!

Bleached-leaves

The path behind Mary's house – this is the snow we found and glorious it was.

Bleached-leaves

Mary with two of her three Children, Pauline (who teaches at the same school as Mary) with her children.

Bleached-leaves

Funghi growth on a dead tree trunk.

Bleached-leaves

On the second day of our visit it was so warm outside that the children played on the deck with only their shirtsleeves on. 

Bleached-leaves

Muskoka at its best!

Bleached-leaves

Woodpecker geometry. 

 

Thank you again Mary for putting us up for a few days!

 

A little taste of home

This time of the year is when we eat traditional Fastnachtschuechli at home in Switzerland. They are sold in all the local grocery stores and are only available in February and March (if my memory serves me right).

Fastnachtschuechli are to celebrate carnival Swiss-style. I miss this time of the year very much, as Halloween just doesn’t capture my heart the same way. I loved the lightheartedness of the Swiss celebration.

This year I decided to start a tradition of making the Fastnachtschuechli (can you tell I love saying it… Giggle), on family day , our mid February statutory holiday.

Yummy….

A little taste of home

Happy Day of Love

We have started a new tradition around our meals: recounting our favourite thing of the day. 

Today I had a most definite favourite: 

Huxley got up at 5:30 to tape about 50 heart cut-outs onto the walls of the kitchen and the bunny-room door, he made us breakfast (toasted bagels and cream cheese) and taped some hearts underneath our plates. He also put his lovely hand-made cards under our plates. 

 

Spending a few minutes before our family dinner every night to focus on good things has brought much happiness to our days. At first, Huxley always wanted to mention bad things too – I encourage him to focus on the good things before dinner and then we could talk about the bad things afterwards. Being Thankful, a small gesture, a few minutes of time and a huge difference.

Huge Huggles to you all! and may your lives be filled with love of all kind!

 

“Guetzle”

Having left the country of my birth – Switzerland – at the young age of 19, most of the traditions that I crave are traditions of my childhood. Sadly though, many of these can't be replicated here in Canada. Mostly due to the fact that you need crowds of people celebrating together – the Swiss are not culturally inclined to congregate in groups outside of Switzerland though, so I am missing out on much.

Some of the festivals that I really loved where the National Day celebrations on August 1st – big bonfires, rockets, crackers, sausages over the open fire (veggie sausages i.e. Quorn sausages would do quite well for that too). I also love Advent celebrations. Ah.. the memory of the smell beeswax candle dipping that was open to the public during late November and early December still brings a smile to my face. Somehow though, Advent is just not activily celebrated here. I am also in my most busy Olive Sparrow time during the fall and Advent, so mostly I also lack the time to fully immerse myself into the quiet time of preparing for the bit day.

The one tradition that I insist on honing here is to "Guetzle" (this comes from the word "Guetzli" – which is swiss-german for cookie) – so "Guetzle" is specifically used in Advent when one is baking a myriad of different Christmas cookies. My hips don't need a lot of cookies to keep their svelete shape, our family is small, I work by myself – yet "Guetzli" baking I want to do. I usually make upwards of 15 + different types.

About 5 years ago, my husband and I started to give my home-made cookies to his clients as a small gesture of thank you. We also gift neighbours, friends, my galleries that are in town, a few of the people in the public housing complex in our neighbourhood and often a spontaneous selection of people dropping by our house over the holidays. 

This year I made 50 baggies of cookies, each weighin about 1/2 lb. So this years output was around 25 lbs. Plus about 2 lb for us to have at hand for guests staying here. 

Cookies-all

Many of the recipes I use are very old, traditional swiss cookies, combined with a few new ones I just like trying out. I also make some chocolate truffels every year, this time around I gave white chocolate ones a go – they are okay, but I don't think I will attempt them again for a while because the chocolate didn't firm up properly and I had to improvise with additions of cashews – they taste okay, but are not what I had in mind.

Another favourite is the Basler Läckerli – a ginger-bread-type with lots of dried fruit and candied peels – this year I added some of the sour cherries from our tree and I love the bit of tartness amongst all the honey sweetness. Nidelzältli are my sons favourite – cream, sugar and a bit of vanilla – essentially a soft granular fudge. There are also Brunsli – chocolate and almonds with eggwhites, rolled in sugar when rolling out – yummy… Chräbeli are my best friends grandmothers recipe – a traditional Anis cookie and the same dough that is used for Springerle (which I make with a lovely angel mold). Nusspraline – walnuts, coffee and icing sugar, not baked, but left to dry, then glaced with more coffee and icing sugar. 

The essential Swiss Christmas cookie is the "Mailänderli" (Milano cookie) – a shortbread cookie with an egg-wash

Mailanderli

Here is the recipe from my mothers home economics cookbook from 1948:

500 gram all-purpose flour (but you can also put part spelt or whole wheat in it)

250 gram sugar

250 gram butter

3 eggs (+ 1 egg yolk)

finely grated peel of 1 organic lemon

___

Put flour, butter, sugar, eggs and the lemon peel into a large bowl and knead well, but not too long (so that not too much gluten develops).

Put dough into fridge for a few hours or overnight

roll out on a little bit of white flour

use your favourite cookie cutters to cut out shapes

transfer shapes to baking sheet (I always use parchement paper, not buttered)

brush egg-yolk onto each cookie

bake at 350 fahrenheit for about 12 – 15 minutes until the egg yolk has gone a beautiful colour.

Let cool and enjoy!

I love cutting out tiny cookies, so that each one is one bite. Takes a bit more time, but looks so pretty. As children, this was our standard cookie that we could help with. (the dough also tastes amazing – my son says so as well.)

On that note, I am now going to work on a few more dolls that have to be finished in time for Saturday.