A Little Color in the April Garden

A bright blue sky on a sunny and cold April day beckoned me into the garden to see what was growing. Although it's mostly brown around here right now (the forsythia hasn't even started blooming), there are patches of green and other colors from the boldest northern plants.

Here are a few snapshots from my April garden wander: 

Rugosa rose hips spread over a bit of the garden that had been taken over by a gregarious honeysuckle bush that I cut back in the fall.

Looks like I missed a few garlic cloves when I harvested last summer. Oops! It's a good thing, though, because I didn't get around to plant new cloves last fall.

Look at these perfect dandy plants!

Strawberry volunteer. We don't even grow strawberries.

Second flowers are up, after the snowdrops.

These crocuses started to bloom before the latest cold snap, and then the unopened buds sat patiently for over a week, waiting for a sunny day.

This mess of brambles and old grape vines is my next project. I'm going to cut back the vines, rip out the brambles, and hope for the best.

a beautiful birch

Valerian emerging

Nothing But Apple(sauce)

I love apples. I LOVE apples. When I was a child, if you offered me either an apple or a cookie, I would choose the apple. I store them to eat fresh, I dry them to snack on, and I can applesauce. Usually, all of my apple preserving is done in the autumn, but last year, I ran out of time and was only able to make a small batch of applesauce from a neighbor's tree. I have been savoring each jar all winter.

By March, storage apples are usually losing their vigor and very few varieties are still good for fresh eating. So, I was pleasantly surprised last week to see 25lb bags of apples for sale from our local orchard for $5.99. How could I resist? As you can see from the picture, I also couldn't resist a new hatchet to tackle some small felling projects this spring.

The apples themselves are battered and worn, but still firm and more than good enough for a few quick batches applesauce. Applesauce tastes the best when you use more than one variety of apple, and I prefer to use mostly red apples to get a pink sauce, but as long as the apples aren't rotten, you really can't go wrong. Here is a close-up of the apples I used this time:

To prep the apples, I soak them in water, then take one apple at a time, cut off any rotten or diseased parts, cut into eighths, and toss in a large pot. Into the pot I also put about a cup of water. The water helps to prevent the apples from burning as they soften. Working in 8lb batches, I filled my first pot. Be sure to leave enough space to stir the apples as they cook. I didn't leave quite enough space this time, so I covered the pot for the first 5 minutes of cooking and lowered the heat to prevent burning.

A note about prepping apples: I use a food mill to make applesauce. It separates skins and seeds from the cooked applesauce. If you do not have a food mill, you must peel, core, and slice your apples before heating them (try using an apple peeler/corer/slicer). If you have red apples and want a pink sauce, you can still put a few red skins back into the applesauce as it cooks, to color the sauce, and then just remove the skins by hand before filling the jars.

Once the apples soften slightly, stir them carefully every few minutes to prevent burning. I cannot stress this enough: you must stir. Apples have a lot of sugar in them, and they will burn if you turn your attention elsewhere for too long, and a burned apple ruins the whole pot! Here's a picture of the apples about halfway through cooking. They are soft and turning into applesauce. The house smells delicious now!

When the apples are all cooked down, and the pot looks like applesauce with skins in it, remove from heat and put through a food mill with the smaller holed disc. See how smooth and delicious the applesauce looks coming out the bottom of the food mill? Yum!

Once the applesauce has gone through the food mill, return it to the pot and bring to a boil before filling jars. At this point, some people also add sugar and spices to their applesauce. I never add sugar, as I've never had apples that need it, and I've found that I prefer canning plain applesauce. If I want cinnamon or other spices in my applesauce later, I can add it when I open the jar.

I preserve most of my applesauce in jelly jars because I love eating them in single servings for dessert or a snack. Ball recommends water bath canning applesauce in pints and quarts for 20 minutes. I process my jelly jars for 20 minutes as well, just to be safe. The extra cooking time doesn't effect the quality of the sauce because it has already cooked for so long before it is canned.

How much applesauce did I get from 25lbs of late-season apples? 30 jelly jars! Given the great price I got on the apples, each of these one-cup servings of applesauce cost just 20 cents. It doesn't get much better than that, and now I don't have to covet my few remaining jars from the fall. After this great experience, I plan to do all of my applesauce canning in the early spring with old storage apples. A great price and all the time in the world to make applesauce as I wait for the gardens to wake up!

This variety of apple didn't make much of a pink sauce, but it's still so, so good. Now, where's my spoon...?

Hawthorn Love: Easter Sunday pruning

After an early dinner with neighbors to celebrate Easter, the sun came out and the air warmed up, and the yard was calling our names. My favorite little hawthorn tree, which sits between the garden and our stream and is surrounded by comfrey, always needs a little love this time of year. The wild grapes and Virginia creeper and wild cucumber all love to climb onto the low branches of the hawthorn and quickly engulf the small tree. During the summer, I cut the vines off from the ground, but leave the remaining vine up in the tree to avoid ripping down too many leaves. Each spring, I carefully pull out the dead vines to give the hawthorn a fresh start...a little ahead of this year's vines.

This year, I also pruned two small branches off the tree that were growing cross-wise. The overall shape of the tree is just darling, so I was careful not to go crazy pruning away branches, as it's easy to do once you get the loppers out. Just as if you were painting a portrait, it is very important to take a step back and look at your work while pruning a tree, or you might just go overboard. 

While I was out in the yard, I also pruned a few branches off of a forsythia bush because I love to force them into bloom in the house this time of year. I'm trying to force the hawthorn as well, and took a small branch from our apple tree because the blooms are so pretty. Stay posted for a blog about forcing forsythia soon. For now, here's a picture of all the branches sitting in warm water in a sunny window, starting to wake up:

twigs soaking in warm water

In the garden near the hawthorn, the horseradish roots are just starting to sprout. I haven't harvested them in a few years, so this year will definitely be a horseradish year (get out the goggles!).

horseradish sprouts

It's such a wonderful time of year, as everything wakes up to greet the warming sun. Happy Easter/Ostara, everyone!!!