We went out with the apple picker yesterday and managed in five minutes to get this little lot, a total of 8 kgs of lovely Bramleys. Which according to mysupermarket.co.uk would have cost us an average of £1.75 a kilo, which means our five minutes of fun with the apple picker stick thingy saved us a grand total of £14.
We had lots of fun because the trees are tall and the apples are still firmly attached, and the only way to get them down was with the pole at full stretch and whacking the apples with the end of it. Meaning of course, that the person doing the picking up of the apples off the grass had to duck and dive to get out of the way of these falling missiles.
I'll be processing them later today into some more jars of chunky apple sauce, which can be used for pies, crumbles etc throughout next year and a few Apple Turnovers to pop into the freezer, as I have a packet of pastry in the fridge that needs using up.
We had lots of fun because the trees are tall and the apples are still firmly attached, and the only way to get them down was with the pole at full stretch and whacking the apples with the end of it. Meaning of course, that the person doing the picking up of the apples off the grass had to duck and dive to get out of the way of these falling missiles.
I'll be processing them later today into some more jars of chunky apple sauce, which can be used for pies, crumbles etc throughout next year and a few Apple Turnovers to pop into the freezer, as I have a packet of pastry in the fridge that needs using up.
Over the weekend we had a couple of salady style meals and instead of serving them with 'normal' mayonnaise I decided to pep things up a bit with some garlic mayo. Totally cheaty and easy to do with a squirt of garlic paste stirred into normal mayonnaise
We also on occasion have 'chilli mayonnaise' by adding a squirt of Sweet Chilli Sauce. Mayonnaise can also be mixed with tomato ketchup to make 'Marie Rose' sauce, just mix it to taste.
After all why have lots of different flavours of mayonnaise opened in your fridge at once when you can simply have one jar of mayo and use the condiments in your storecupboard to pep things up from time to time.
Buying any of these variations ready made will cost you more than the total sum of doing it yourself and you don't take up extra space, or risk things going out of date in the fridge.
I simply buy whatever Hellmann's mayonnaise is on offer at the time, sometimes it's the squirty bottles but it's usually I try to stock up with the big jars which are so much easier to get every last little bit out of ... and of course I get the jar to keep for preserving.
Of course I could make my own mayo, but with all the busyness of harvesting and preserving that has been going on here just lately I have completely gotten out of the habit of doing it. Although it doesn't take long, just a couple of minutes to gather together your ingredients and then whizz up for 10 seconds with a stick blender .... if you follow the recipe that is on my 'Recipes I Use Regularly' page at the top of the blog.
Sue xx
brilliant idea with the mayo! i have started buying handmade sauces from our markets & have some store bought mayo in the fridge i can do this with, thanx for the idea
ReplyDeletethanx for sharing
Wow your apples did work out cheap! I made a very large apple pie yesterday as we had family for dinner. I used 2 bags of supermarket bramleys each containing 5 smallish apples at 1.50 a bag plus 4 huge ones off the market for £1 (Market a lot cheaper and bigger fruit). I had enough pastry left to make an apple pasty as well. Note to self: must plant a cooking apple tree! Love your mayo tip!
ReplyDeleteHere we shin up the ladder or climb into the tree to pick as many as we can reach. That way we can put them in boxes down in the old Dairy and they will keep until the New Year. We have 6 apple trees, although 3 are resting this year, so we always have more apples than we know what to do with! and still plenty of bird-pecked ones for the birds to finish off. Blasted Jackdaws!
ReplyDeleteAlthough the apples seem firmly attached to the branches the trees are very old with long strangly branches and we cannot climb up at all. We are hoping to give all the apples a good prune this year and assess the safety of the trees once they have stopped cropping.
DeletePerhaps ours will rest next year after being pruned, so I will get as many, and process as many apples as I can this year to be on the safe side. Thank goodness for the freezer :-)
A perfect time of year for apple picking. My brother makes a killer apple cider, and my sister-in-law makes the most wonderful apple pies.
ReplyDeleteOur Bramleys are red like Cox's. I think it must be the extra heat that changes the colour; they are also slightly less acidic than when grown in England.
ReplyDeleteIt doesn't take long to whip up mayo with a machine and really, not that long by hand. I'm surprised you buy yours. I used to buy mine but then we didn't eat enough of it in time so now, it's one or two eggs that I'll whip up.Lovely apples.
ReplyDeleteThere is nothing quite like a Bramley however you use it is there? We love baked apples stuffed with raisins. My mouth is watering just thinking about them.
ReplyDeleteLol , the image of you trying to avoid being knocked on the head by flying Apples xxx
ReplyDeleteI used to love Bramley apples when I was living in the UK. Make the best apple pies.
ReplyDeleteGreat ideas with the mayo.
I don't normally flavour my mayo, but will definitely give your suggestions a go!
ReplyDeletejealous of those home grown apples :) grin
ReplyDeletewould love to have a tree, but the neighborhood kids would never leave them alone,
ask my neighbor who gave up and cut down all his fruit trees why!
thank you for the mayo tip, they sound great!
Happy to see the home made apples. It is full of organic. Now a days it has been very difficult to get organic vegetables and fruits. We can make many dishes with the apple. Also home made apple dishes taste good...
ReplyDeleteWhat a treat! Homegrown apples. Apple crumble and custard is a favourite on a crisp Autumn day :)
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ReplyDeleteLove the very hi-tec name for your " apple picker stick thingy".LOL
ReplyDeleteThose apples look lovely, I was given 2 carrier bagfuls by a friend who said this was the best harvest they'd had for years.
We do the same with the mayo. Can't see the point of so many jars and bottles for thing we use once in a blue moon