Autumn

Do you feel the same? Although the days are wonderfully sunny, the mornings and evenings are getting quite chilly already. The air smells of fading blooms, trees are loosing their first leaves, the last fruits are to be harvested.

It is autumn!

The pears are picked and stored in a cool and dry place.

Most of the apples have become victims of the wind. More apples have fallen down than there are hanging on the tree. In one way this is a shame as there will be hardly any left for the winter month. And the question is always what to do with the windfall ones. This time I decided to make 'Apfelmus' or applesauce:

Cut the apples into smallish junks, mix them with cinnamon, a little bit of light brown sugar and a tiny amount of water. Then simmer it for a few minutes till the sauce has the consistency you like. I like it when it is not entirely smooth :-) . I always use a French Jam Pot (Bassine a Confiture en cuivre) for this process. It is fabulous!
When I was a child, my grandma used to eat applesauce with maccaroni and fried bread crumbs, I loved it. These days I like the applesauce best with yoghurt - although thinking about it, Peter likes it best with some nice piece of pork.

And then the last blackberries.

They are now very very sweet and tasty - yummy. But what to do with them. Jam, Freezing, ... quite boring so I went for some delicious little blackberry cakes.



... picking, preparing and adding to the dough ...



... fill it into cupcake cases and bake ...



... the result - even better with a little dusting of icing sugar ...



Yummy! Have a good start into a new week. Petra.

Summer harvest

It is summer time. Warm and sunny. The bees in the garden are extremely busy collecting the pollen from various flowers. And the wasps are very busy to eat my apples and plums! Luckily there is enough for all of us.

Last weekend and almost every evening last week I picked plums and either froze them or made 'Pflaumenmus'. This is quite German/Czech:

Plum Jam (Pflaumenmus)

This is a Czech recipe for all those who find normal plum jam too sweet.

Czech in the sense that it originates from the German settlers in Bohemia.

(C. Dannemann)

The plums are cut into pieces, spiced with cinnamon, gloves and anis. If the plums are very sweet (not this year though), I don't use any sugar. Then it is possible to eat it as jam but also with cheese. The mixture needs to simmer on the oven for 4 to 6 hours depending on the amount until it is very very thick. I then fill it into jars and close them immediately with twist-off lids.
The result is absolutely yummy .......... :-) Petra.

Victoria plums ----------- Plum jam on pancakes