Wednesday, September 29, 2010

The Lord's Bounty: Apples!







We are blessed to have two apple trees, a small grapevine, a small blackberry bush, and a pear tree that we inherited when we bought our home several years ago. The pear tree, grape vine and berry bushes tend to feed the birds before us, though we do scramble for a few pickings. This year was especially bountiful, our one little blackberry bush gave us berries daily for a couple of weeks. We were able to rescue a few grapes from the birdies.
But our apple trees, despite a mishap with one of them in a storm early this year, have provided us with the best apples thusfar.



The bounty:



Organic, unsprayed, untreated. Less beautiful than store bought, but just as delicious, and FRESH PICKED! In our own yard!
Still more to pick:





What a gift! Yesterday I made one of my favorites, apple crisp. I love Betty Crocker recipes, especially the older ones. This is the recipe I've always used.

4 medium tart cooking apples, sliced (4 cups)
3/4 cup packed brown sugar
1/2 cup Gold Medal® all-purpose flour
1/2 cup quick-cooking or old-fashioned oats
1/3 cup butter or margarine, softened
3/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon
3/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg
Cream or Ice cream, if desired


1.Heat oven to 375ºF. Grease bottom and sides of 8-inch square pan with shortening.
2.Spread apples in pan. In medium bowl, stir remaining ingredients except cream until well mixed; sprinkle over apples.
3.Bake about 30 minutes or until topping is golden brown and apples are tender when pierced with a fork. Serve warm with cream.
Makes 6 servings


I do adjust this recipe for size. We generally fill a 9X13 pan to heaping with the apples, then double the topping. We gave away a huge pan of apple crisp, saved one for ourselves. We had the crisp for dessert after dinner last night, and then again this morning: The breakfast of champions!




This post is linked to Rednesday at It's a Very Cherry World

16 comments:

Anonymous said...

Oh my goodness, Lily, what a blessing! Sounds like a great recipe too. I cooked up some apple pastries earlier this week. Post titled "Hungry?" I think I'll give yours a try.

Happy Rednesday!

Stacy said...

What a bounty!! We had grapes and plums at our first house...and now we have nothing but pine needles and acorns. *sigh*
Stacy

Sally Annie Magundy said...

How wonderful to have your own apple tree! And gosh, your crisp looks so yummy!

Happy Rednesday,
Sally

★Carol★ said...

You're lucky to have so many fruit-bearers in your yard! I love blackberries, and I really love apple crisp. Thanks for the recipe, and I'll give it a whirl since it's finally cool enough to turn the oven on!
Happy REDnesday!
Carol

Manzanita said...

Lily, Thanks for stopping by. I had meant to look you up and be your follower and now I did.
Apples are such a blessing. They keep so well in the winter. I would love a tree but no go. Costco now has organic apples..... occasionally. I stock up when they have them. When I don't turn the heater on in my garage it's about the right temp for a fruit cellar. But it's a poor second to your apples in your own yard.
Manzanita
Wanna buy a duck

Alexandra said...

Those look so good! My apple tree is about four years old. It produces enough fruit to feed the animals(squirrels, etc.), and that's it.

Abramyan Avenue said...

I am sooo jealous! I have always wanted an apple tree. It is so beautiful! And that recipe sounds delicious! Thank you so much for sharing!!
I can't wait to try my hand at it!
-April

Angela said...

my favorite..yum yum..too funny that you would do a post since I just got me a whole bag of apples on Monday when we went to see Asher's new Dr.....Believe it or not, it took me 10 minutes (that is even painting it and hanging it up), for that picture on my REdnesday post lol

Felicity Grace Terry said...

Yum, sounds wonderful. My favourite was always apple crumble, I was so sad when the apple tree of my childhood died.

Unknown said...

Yum!!! I had pears from my pear tree for the first time this year! What a bountiful blessing!


I wanted to let you know that I have passed a blog award on to you! You can see the details here: http://crzycatladyslibrary.blogspot.com/2010/09/september-awards-for-crazy-cat-ladys.html

Hugs~

Crazy Cat Lady
ccllibrary(at)aol(dot)com
http://crzycatladyslibrary.blogspot.com/

Dena E's Blog said...

Beautiful Apple Trees Sweetie and WOW,, the crisp looks DeLiGhTfUl too!!! Just as your blog does.. Thanks for the note yesterday..
May you feel wrapped in the Presence of Jesus as you look to Him~~~Hugs Dena

Shawn said...

New follower from the 40+crowd!!!

The apple crisp looks yummy!

www.coloradobeckers.blogspot.com

Unknown said...

Yum! Thank you for sharing this dee-lish recipe! So glad you dropped by my blog to visit.... you asked how I got the different font on my blog...I went to scrappinblogs.blogspot.com and just followed the directions. It was kinda simple. :) Hope that helps.

~Liz

Anonymous said...

Hi Lilly, thanks for stopping by and saying "Hi". How lucky are you to have those apples trees. Wish I could taste your apple crisp because it looks absolutely delicious! Happy Friday!

Ellie said...

We have an apple tree in our yard that never produced much worth writing home about the last few years, but this year, it took off! We had buckets and buckets of apples.

Do you can? I hadn't before much, but this year, I did apple pie filling (can be used for apple crumble, too), apple jam, applesauce, and apple butter (easy with a slowcooker!). Now all winter, we can enjoy our own apples anytime we want.

There is a delight in looking at the basement wall shelf full of rows of jars from our own garden.

Debbi Does Dinner Healthy said...

Love the apples!! Great pictures! I can't wait to go apple picking this year, thanks!