The Harvest

“The fields are ready to harvest and we have come.” I mean, I didn’t actually say that, but I wanted to when the man, who’d been on his smoking break moments before, asked if we were there to pick apples.  In truth we’d driven the 40 minutes to Walter’s Fruit Farm to pick peaches. I’m not sure if our timing was just off, or if the dry warm summer led to an earlier peach season, but all the peaches had been picked a few weeks earlier; so apples it was.

I’ve never been much of a dieting fanatic—in fact, if it isn’t medically relevant I’ve felt any diet is extreme—and really not much has changed, but getting married, having two children, and living hundreds of miles away from the nearest relative has made Elise and I much more aware of the adult responsibility to keep the pantry full. This, along with the enjoyment of eating seasonally and unprocessed led us to Walters'. Our goal was to pick and purchase enough fruit to eat and can (I guess home processing is different, more affordable at least) for the coming winter. Our bounty on the day consisted of a box of late season peaches, a box of pears, a box of Paula Red apples (absolutely the best tasting apple I’ve ever had), four pumpkins, and bunches of beets and pickling cucumbers.

We haven’t yet bottled the fruit, but Elise made some homemade pickles the other day. This was the recipe she used.

Ingredients:

1-quart of apple cider vinegar

2-quarts of water

1 cup of non-iodized salt

A bunch of pickling cucumbers

A bunch of garlic cloves

A few sprigs of fresh dill

½ tsp. of alum

In a Mason jar put the cucumbers, garlic cloves, fresh dill, and anything else you want to add, into the jar. Then you add ½ tsp. of alum to keep the cucumbers crunchy. In a saucepan boil 1 quart of apple cider vinegar, 2 quarts of water, and 1 cup of non-iodized salt. Non-iodized salt keeps the mixture clear. Then you pour the boiling liquid over the top of the cucumbers into the jar. Put the seal lids on, turn the jar upside-down, and two months later your cucumbers will have become pickles.

Hopefully the pickles taste good. We’ll find out in a few months. Oh, and did I forget to mention that Walters' Fruit Ranch makes some of the best gyros around?