Tuesday 24 September 2013

Fruit Harvest Time



Mushrooms in hollow trees and as anklets around fenceposts.




 I shan’t be eating them, mind you.


Paul is picking plums.
He doesn’t know about the blog and has no idea
that he is making a personal appearance. 
I will certainly eat the plums.

I have already processed them for freezer (in flat packs - some stewed and a few pounds raw, cut in halves) and larder, with just a few punnets left to eat.

My thumbs are sore - and black - from de-stoning them and my tummy is sore from eating too many raw.






Apples next. Most of them are still awaiting processing. They are not very good, the trees are old; I expect lots will go to the birds. Or the compost heaps. But I will bottle the best as stewed apple for winter breakfasts and accompaniment to roast pork.


As every year, Beloved has picked elderberries for making wine. He already has several demijohns on the go . The berry harvest is so great this year that he has decided the birds can spare him a few more ounces and he is busy topping up our supply of gravy wine. I think home made fruit and berry wines import a gorgeous flavour to gravies and sauces. Personally, I don’t drink these ‘wines’, but I always have a lavish hand tipping them into stew pots.







It’s Our World Tuesday again.
This is my world today, for other bloggers’ contributions,
please click on the link.




44 comments:

  1. ja er komt een hoop werk op je af om de oogst weer te verwerken ,maar dan heb je er de hele winter ook plezier van.

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  2. It is definitely wind down time. We are dismantling our garden and letting her take a rest.

    The mushroom pictures are fantastic. I really like the first one!

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  3. I love love love the first mushroom picture! We had a bumper year of plums in France and my dear husband made the most gorgeous jam!

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  4. Lovely pictures!!
    Interesting pictures of the mushrooms. Plums? I would love to have a tree like your in our Guildwood garden. But raccoons and squirrels wouldn't leave any for me to pick.

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  5. Such fine looking mushrooms. I wouldn't be eating them, either. But the plums? You bet! My tummy would be sore right along with you. :-)

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  6. We are knee deep in apples. Haven't all the fruit and veggies been good and prolific this year

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  7. I love the idea of eating fruits that we've grown. Our apple trees are so old they literally only produce about 2 apples a year but it still seems like magic. And next year I plan to get the jump on the birds and the deer (and who knows what else) that consumes every peach on the tree in a 24 hour period. I've finally learned that even though they're much smaller than the grocery store ones, they're edible and quite good.

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  8. Love it. And using the bounty of the garden (cultivated and otherwise) gives me such a good feeling. And it tastes better too.

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  9. The mushrooms as anklets around fenceposts...a beautiful description, Friko. When I was a child, we lived in an area with many fruit orchards, and wild asparagus grew around the bases of the trees. I never thought of "anklets" then but I love the idea.
    I enjoyed this post thoroughly, and am glad to have found the answer to the mystery of your thumbnail photo on Our World Tuesday...those big jugs of wine in the making.
    I remember when we had many fruit trees. My mother and grandmother, and all the other mothers and grandmothers in our neighbourhood, would preserve the fruit for winter.
    Before I moved to Alberta, I lived alone and orchardist friends planted fruit trees for me. The peach tree was Lady Bountiful with leaves. The peaches were plentiful, delicious, and juicy. I had to stand over the kitchen sink to eat one. I miss that tree. Here, I've planted berries, which I leave for the birds. And in winter, the deer come to eat our ornamental crabapples when snow covers the ground. We even had two deer come for a snack this summer.
    It sounds as though you're feeling well. I certainly hope you are.
    Luv, K

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  10. It's too bad that you can't eat the mushrooms, because you have so many of them and they look like they are ready to be picked. Do you have any that you can eat? They are high in proteins, you know, and very good for you. Do you have any that we call here 'chanterelles?' We used to pick them when I was a kid and sauté them in butter. Mmm...good!

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  11. yum...i would not mind hitting those plums....
    we had a huge amount of mushrooms this year...and such unique shapes as well...probably because it was so wet...but was cool to see them...

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  12. Wonderful shots of autumn Friko. My favorite time of year :)

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  13. My favorite photo is of Beloved & the elderberries. We were walking in a City park this past weekend, and J spotted some. I've seen them often in the past but didn't know that's what they were. Fun to see them here in your photo on the heels of that. Putting things by for winter is so wonderful--we're just finishing off the last of last year's take. This year we only succeeded with our tomatoes, but we're happy to have them, at least.

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  14. Friko, this harvesting post has been a joy to read, and the photographs have added to the pleasure.

    I do like your mushroom anklets notion, and the pictures prove you are right.

    Plums, apples, etc. Each of this early autumn harvesting seems to have found a wise decision to land in your hands and kitchen. I do love the idea of using homemade fruited wine to deliciously amplify sauces and gravies.

    What a treat it must be to dine at your table.

    I do promise you an email tomorrow or the next day.

    xo

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  15. What a luscious post - full of good things to stew and eat!

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  16. What a beautiful harvest. I'll bet that wine makes for some yummy dishes.

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  17. The apples look very good in those baskets; shame they aren't that good, as you say. It all sounds like a lot of work, but definitely well worth it!

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  18. Autumn, such a giving season, lovely pics of your bounty Friko, I have given my apples away this year and will do fore ever more, not being allowed to eat much fruit, I had a couple to eek out over the week, unfortunately they are pretty high in carbs, fructose is just as bad for me as sugar. Lovely to see your harvest and makings though.

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  19. Aren't the apples a little green? Mind you, I don't know the first thing about apples, they don't grow down here in the tropics, but I always thought they were picked when bright red. A beautiful harvest Friko.

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  20. The mushrooms round the posts are lovely photos and I love the personal photos - I am excited to learn you have plums, n such bounty growing in your yard - we just had a Harvest Moon - and I am thinking about your bountiful harvest - appropriate time of year, Eh. How lovely to wake up on a cold winter morning for me and add a handful of blueberries I picked to my oatmeal or other cereal. Or, perhaps on a Friday, I will take one of those shad, mackerel, trout, wild salmon, piece of deer, moose meat, etc out to prepare for supper. The way I see it, most people round these parts are going or have gone back to the land, forests, lakes and ocean to prepare for the upcoming winter. I enjoyed this post very much Friko - thank you for the time it took you to prepare this for us to take a virtual trip to your garden in the process of picking n planning.

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  21. You are keeping busy - lovely seasonal activities and just what I would like to be doing at this time of the year, if only I could focus on one thing and stop trying to do everything! Enjoy your produce - it all looks wonderful.

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  22. I'd like to have some fruit trees but most the available space where they would get enough sun is where the drain field for our septic system is.

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  23. Great idea to add wine to stew. Lucky you with fruit trees. Love the mushroom anklets. Dianne

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  24. A most delicious post, Friko. A good deal of work, but, oh the rewards.
    Gravy wine! Oh, the have a stash of that. I always use wine in my roasts and stews. We just finished off a hearty pot roast that was all the better for the wine it drank.

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  25. I've never known that elderberries are eaten! Here nobody use them for food and neither make wine. I have some elderberries and will try them! Friko, I love your plums, look very delicious, think the plum jam is sweet and smell nice!

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  26. Harvest time! A lot of work, but wow! :)

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  27. Stopping by from Terra's. Living in the middle of New York City I don't get to see many gardens. Really enjoyed your pictures.

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  28. Enjoyed your beautiful photographs and lively commentary !!

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  29. What satisfying autumn harvests, and the mushrooms look so perky in your first photo.

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  30. Hallo Friko,
    Herbstzeit - Erntezeit, eine sehr schöne Bilderreihe. Wir sind auch schon Tage mit ernten und einmachen beschäftigt. Die Freude darüber haben wir dann auch im Winter.
    Schöne Grüße aus den "Bayerwald Bergen!
    Luis

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  31. You must be so proud of your graden, Friko. Seeing these lovely pictures makes me feel like a bumble bee! So beautiful, the plums in particular.

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  32. You have plums!! Nobody here has them this year! It was icy in April and pollination didn't happen. The Gloucestershire plum harvest was non-existent this year. Every year i make 10+ gallons of plum wine. This year not a drop! But the elderberries and blackberries are indeed profuse. Why do you not drink the wine? Blackberry can be glorious. It will be this year after such a lovely summer.
    But I confess to plum envy.

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  33. I make apple bread with those kind of apples, with sour cream, so good. Lovely pics and love the idea of gravy wine, lol.

    I'm like with the mushrooms, love them but never certain if they're safe. Books don't seem to be informative enough.

    XO
    WWW

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  34. Even not very good apples are wonderful for Dorset Apple Cake. I suggest it as a way of using windfalls up. Then you have to freeze the apple cake, but it is truly wonderful! I have just made it for the first time in years and wonder why I haven't done it for so long.

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  35. Hi Friko - there's so much fruit around this year .. it is just wonderful. Your plums look exceedingly delicious .. being picked, frozen or bottled .. plum crumble - what could be better. Apples too - and I love apples with pork .. in fact I've started using more fruit with my main courses .. not sure why - but it's a change.

    Elderberries are drooping everywhere, as are the blackberries - bet Millie likes those as she chunters around your fields past the hedgerows ...

    Wonderful husbandry .. cheers Hilary

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  36. So comforting to have laid down all those treats for the winter !

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  37. Love these visits to your world. Do you ever cook onions with your apples as an accompaniment to roasted pork? I, too, like fruit flavored meat gravies. My Mama used to bake a fruit pie over the Sunday roast and the drippings would be stirred into the gravy. I never could seem to make a roast as good as hers till I started baking pies on the upper rack!

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  38. That all sounds good - and like a lot of work!

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  39. How divine! Plums and apples -- oh, the delightful things you can make. I don't think I've ever had an elderberry, but I'd give Beloved's wine a good taste! I do love the fungus and mushrooms. I'm starting to see more up here at the lake and they make me smile. Fairy houses!

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  40. Dear Friko, autumn is my favorite time of year. There is something so satisfying about reaping and harvesting, canning and freezing. Fruits of labor I suppose. I don't have a garden this year and so the extent of my freezing activity has been with peaches. Missouri has wonderful peaches--as good as Georgia which is noted for its fruit. And they frozen peach slices, once thawed will taste wonderful in Greek yogurt during the winter.

    As to wine in stews. Yum! Yum! I always put some in my ratatouille and the flavor is delicious. Peace.

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  41. Oh, your gravy must be to die for. The apples may be "bad", but in a basket, what lovely photos they make. Smiled at the description of "mushroom anklets" and I really like you stone fence backing up your garden! Such beauty.

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