Well I guess it's no surprise that I just got tired of writing about rain. It has finally stopped, for now (and we are already holding our breath for winter and what all this precip would look like in white!) But if the rains did one thing right, it is that it grew our apples to a new level.
We've had apples since the day we moved in. The first weekend I was here, almost two years ago (as of 10/31, officially) I gathered apples and made applesauce. But the apples are not "pretty" and they were always small. This year, however, they are nearly twice the size, if not three times the size of that first year's crop. Don't know how sweet they will turn out to be. Rain = size...sun = sweet...but now I need to start getting some apple butter ready.
Well it's finally turned to Autumn here...at least temperature-wise. Precipitation-wise it's still monsoon season and I've just about had it. Can't get in the garden. Can't mow the lawn. At least the mosquitoes seem to have abated with the temperature. Leaf raking has entered the To-Do List. Not that it does much good...as soon as you rake up what's there, more fall with the rains.
But it's nice and cool, so what do we do? We pull out mom's beanpot and we bake beans, of course. Yellow Cap beans from Rancho Gordo to be specific. Big meaty beans. We used this opportunity to clean out a good part of the fridge, too...in addition to the normal ingredients we added mango hot sauce, harissa and boiled cider to the beans. And just for good measure, instead of using ketchup, we used Stadium Sauce (a secret Milwaukee ingredient, usually found on brats). Had some nice chunks of salt pork in the fridge, too. I'm rather excited about these beans.
B&B (Bo & Bill) Baked Beans
2 C beans
4 oz salt pork or bacon
1 onion, finely diced
3 T molasses
2 t salt
¼ t ground black pepper
1/4 t dry mustard
½ C ketchup
1 T Worcestershire sauce
¼ C brown sugar
I don't remember living any place that has had as much rain as we've had in the past month. Hurricane/tropical storm Irene
notwithstanding, there has been more rain that I have ever seen. That was the reason Irene was as damaging as it was here...there was, and is, simply no place for the precipitation to go. We were already having a record-breaking season for precipitation (following a record-breaking winter snowfall). So when Irene gently dumped her nine or ten inches, it just exacerbated an already tenuous situation.
It started raining late last night, around 10:00 p.m. and continued on and off through the night. A nice sound for sleeping, to be sure. But this morning it continues.
I'm tired of rain. Very tired of rain. The dogs are bored and looking at me like I can do something about it. And when they do get out, they come back all muddy (a nice rain rinse does wonders for Missy's coat, though.)
What's more...I am afraid of what this portends to the coming winter. If this rain was snow...!!
And did I mention how muggy it is?
Our weather has been wet wet wet...and still more wet. It is so muggy...more like July/August than September/October.
The garden is un-enterable because it so so muddy. We can't mow the grass because it never has a chance to dry out between the rains.
It's monsoon time in the Adirondacks!
Fortunately, our apple harvest is better than the last two years. Our Golden Delicious tree is infected with the apple-cedar fungus (pictured on these pages earlier this year). So it isn't doing too well. But the Cortland has always given us at least a small harvest (the first thing I ever cooked off our land the first year was some applesauce from that tree) and this year the apples are bigger and better than they have ever been! The apples look better (though they will never win any beauty contests) and are larger and better shaped than we've ever had. Oddly, the first batch of applesauce didn't turn the lovely blush color it has in the past.
So I put up several quarts of Apple Chutney yesterday. The nice thing about this recipe, from my perspective, this particular year, was it helped me use up some of the good tomatoes I had left. Didn't get to do much in the way of sauce or stewed tomatoes at all. First, we didn't have the right kind of tomatoes this year (all Romas, some red, mostly yellow) and the ones we had, as I said, all burst on the vine with the rains.
The recipe is quite explicit that I am not allowed to taste it now for another six weeks.
Mrs. Robinson’s Apple Chutney
[with a special thanks to Hilary Robinson, who calls this "my mum's chutney"]
3# apples
1 lb brown sugar
2 t salt
1.8 pints malt vinegar
8 oz sultanas
½ t ground cloves
1# ripe tomatoes
1# onions
¼ t cayenne
2 oz crystalized ginger, chopped (or 2 t ground ginger)
all spices are approximate – adjust for taste.
Had the nicest time with my brother Tom and his wife, Diane. They are on a nationwide wedding tour, starting with their own daughter's the end of July and with a new one practically every week thereafter it sounded like. It almost made me feel like I should propose to Bill and get married while they were here!
They arrived on Wednesday evening and left Friday afternoon. A nice relaxed visit...it rained one night and we stayed home. Ran around to the Pember and to Roy Egg's studio, down to Gardenworks and to Patty and Mark's where Patty graciously took Diane out for a carriage ride. The weather turned cool while they were here, which was nice.
Diane and I keep threatening to paint together, but there just wasn't time this trip. Hoping she comes back for a longer stay so we can do that.
My brother Tom and his wife are driving up from NYC enroute to a wedding this weekend in Connecticut. It's the first time they've visited us here, so I wanted to make a nice dinner. The menu:
Individual Cherry Tomato Tarts
Lemon-Garlic Marinated Chicken Breasts stuffed with Chicken and Spinach Sausage
served on a bed of
Creamy Stovetop Corn with Poblano Chiles and Creme Fraiche
Flourless Chocolate Cake with Gilded Raspberries
