Our trip to the local organic orchard is always one of the sweetest days of the season. I'm not sure how many bushels or pecks we brought home, but I know we'll have delicious pear and apple sauce all through the winter.
Just under an hour away is Ferme Dagenais- a biodynamic farm in Embrun. Biodynamic farming is a more holistic approach to organic farming - you can read more about it here.
With apples & pears high up on the list of fruits & vegetables with the highest pesticides residues, making them the most toxic if bought conventionally)... we feel so fortunate to have a local, organic, pick your own option. Apples are usually grown with the use of poisons to kill a variety of pests, from fungi to insects. And scrubbing and peeling doesn't eliminate chemical residue completely. Similarly, conventional pears often have dozens of different types of poisons on them (and in them). Other fruits & vegetables on the list? Potatoes, strawberries, blueberries, kale, leafy greens, spinach and peaches. Scary stuff.
The farm also grows a wide variety of organic medicinal herbs and plants. We saw a huge, sweeping field of clover.
And saw lots of hints of fall...
Now does anyone have a wholesome apple pie recipe? Or should I dispense with my "wholesome" requirements for this pie and just make it?
How do you store your apple sauce? Do you freeze it?
ReplyDeleteHi Anne!
ReplyDeleteI can it in Weck jars, actually. I'm still going through some from last year but I use it a lot in cooking and baking, so I need to keep it hand: truthfully we all prefer to straight-eat pear sauce.
Lucky you! Those apples and pears look great.
ReplyDeleteIsn't it horrible what they do to fruit?
When I moved to Canada we lived in Meaford at Georgian Bay. Mostly orchards there and they spray all the time. I'm sure the groundwater is full of the stuff.
We were able to get our apples and pears from a huge piece of land that had not seen pesticides for over 40 years. It's an Army training area that had old orchards and homesteds. We found old apples types that reminded me of apples from Germany....
You know what the most interesting thing was? The apples from there had NO worms or other pests or fungi! We always got truck loads in the fall. We used some fresh, cut and froze some , dryed some(LOVE dried apples!!),made apple sauce and one year we had some apple juice made too.
Dang, I miss that! :0)
Enjoy your harvest!
Sue
So do weck jars work like regular canning jars? I'v never worked with them, but understand they are BPA free. Do you do a normal canning process of putting the apple sauce into the jar while hot? and then it's preserved? I was always told that apple sauce didn't preserve well, so make fresh batches about once or twice a month ( because like you we bake a lot with it) It would be nice to store some. Can you buy the weck jar's local? or do you order them? Sorry if I'm full of question's today, it's just something that may cut out some time in the kitchen! and we could all use less time in the kitchen :)
ReplyDelete& what a cute helper you have!
ReplyDeletebiodynamic u-pick?! what a dream. i think you can just adapt a traditional recipe with the ingredients that you prefer to eat. have fun!! fall is coming...
ReplyDeleteSorry Jen. Wholesome and pie are not allowed together in the same sentence!
ReplyDeletethanks, momma rae :) fall is definitely coming
ReplyDeleteliz - i think you're right! :)
sue - it is disgusting what they do to fruit. so glad you're figuring out a way...i haven't had dried apples - i should!
hi anne!
ReplyDeleteyes, the weck jars just like regular canning jars. we use our old canning pot with them, and they work fine. we follow standard canning process + the length of cooking time for the apple sauce in the jars in the canner completely covered with water... and then carefully let them rest for 24 hours without moving them, checking for proper seals. we add lemon juice to the sauce and we've never had a problem (lots of acidity). there must be some great canning books out there but I don't know any off the top of my head. good luck1
I'm in Ottawa, and I didn't know about the biodynamic farm in Embrun. I will have to check it out, looks like a great place. I've never been an applesauce fan, so I make apple butter in the crockpot...mmm so good. As for apple pie, I don't have a recipe, but I am craving it now :)
ReplyDeleteWe do use whole wheat flour for the crust...but plenty of butter. Also if the apples are nice and sweet and don't need to add too much sweetener - and you could use organic raw sugar for that - maybe just 1/2 cup or so.
ReplyDeleteI love the pictures and the fact that your family makes the effort to buy from an organic farm.
I am planning to make dried apple slices this year.