Foraging

 

Yesterday we went with our daughter to pick chestnuts.  Our Elizabeth loves them roasted so much she will eat a hot bowl of them like popcorn.  

Picking might be a term you can't use for chestnuts, though.  It's more picking them UP from the ground because on the tree they protect themselves very well.

The outer casing, those burrs are PRICKLY

When they are really ready, start opening, looking like a Muppet mouth,

they fall and you want so badly to just pick them up from the ground and open that casing.

But they are very protective and needle sharp.

But if you want those beauties that are still protected, you have to use your shoes. One on each side you slide the casing off.

For the most part, you just walk along the ground and pick up the ones that have fallen from the outer casing 

It's not picking, it's picking UP, step and bend, step and bend.

In our daughter's family THIS is the sign of autumn.

We picked 18 pounds and it didn't take anytime at all 

This should be enough for Elizabeth, but she would say "only just!"

It was a fun time topped off with a visit to a farm stand heavy with pumpkins and squash and mums and donuts and a small country diner for lunch.

 

I Need Your Help

 

I need your help.  Truly. 

I've had this fabric for many years, like probably over 10.  I loved it at first sight and thus didn't want to cut into it unless I could find a way to make it the star. And so it sat.  Every time I looked at it hiding under something as the stash grew I'd stroke it and tell it someday....

I am working out of my stash and want to use this before I die. I'm not planning on that anytime soon but the horizon is a lot closer than when I bought this.  I'd like to use it.

It occurred to me this morning that I could ask you all.  If I was there I'd go to Scrub Stitchin' and get lots of help.  This is the next best thing.

It is not directional, like birds and trees, the design goes every which way.  This is a good true color representation.   I just want it to be not so cut up that it gets lost. I absolutely love this and don't want to ruin it. 

As a background for an applique?  Large pieced design?  I want it to show.  There are 2 yards.

Any ideas? 

Exhausted

Saturday was spent bent in half. 

I had three quilt tops I was desperate to get layered and ready to be quilted. I needed to get them to this stage in the process of being born to just get them off my mind. 

Layering for me isn't easy.  I have to put PH's puzzle table up against the dining room table and they aren't as long as each other.  Close but no cigar.

The Liberty circles was started during covid.  Friend Barb and I decided to do this together.  Well, she  finished several circle quilts while I struggled with the boredom of circle after circle.  But finally it was done, and this one is definitely going to get quilted soon.  Too much has gone into it, including for the most part buying these fabrics in London.

I know it looks like a mess of mish mash but I really like this blue and green quilt.  It was the easiest to layer because it fit on the two tables with no overlap.

This was one Friend Marilyn started and abandoned. The pieces were found in her stuff and she didn't want it. I liked it enough to work on it. It was intended as a Christmas quilt.  I added two rows to brighten it up a bit but still using the fabrics she had stored with it, the second and fifth rows to make it bigger than a table cover.  This was the last one to be pinned and as you can see, the corner overlaps the table sizes.  By now I was exhausted.  It was a hot day, batting had to be pieced, and I was physically done.  But I was also this close to finishing the three so kept going.

I've never layered three quilts in a day.  Anything I work on now is going to be small!!  In face I'm thinking of using even more scraps for some little quilts, not placemats but Kathleen Tracy doll quilts. 

Today is going to be a book day.  No needles, scissors, pins.

 

I Like Old Things

 I like old things. When I used to frequent estate sales, I'd head first to the bedrooms for the linens, pillow cases, etc. then to the kitchen for the tools someone else used to stir, mix, mash with.  Very few of my kitchen utensils are new.  

I like old food.  Years ago I was talking with a chef and he ended by saying, "you're an old world cook."  And he's right.  Not necessarily healthy in this day and age, but I cook like my grandma did and the foods she made.  

So it's only natural I search out old or heritage apples. They fascinate me.  There used to be about four orchards in Michigan where growers nurtured the old varieties but they've gone now.  There is only one very near me that has some and they are so fun to try.  Some varieties date back to the 1700s and as they ripen I go get more and more.

We had heard of an area of Michigan (the tip of your little finger as you look at your hand representing Michigan) that was settled in the 1850s but is now part of the National Park system.  The National Park system took over the area to protect it from development, it is a very sensitive area and needs to be protected from huge developments.

From October first through the month they allow people to pick the apples from the abandoned farms.  People here didn't grow the apples for commercial purposes, they grew them for their own use as food and cider.  

So we went.  Turned out to be a beautiful drive in beautiful weather to a beautiful place but disappointing in apples.  We found out that people had been going into the area picking for two weeks prior so what could be reached had been picked.

The red dots are the abandoned farms

We didn't get many and they were in the condition we expected, pitted, pocked, bruised because the Park service doesn't spray or tend to the trees.  The farm area is being stabilized but not overly preserved.

I got three pints of applesauce from the apples.  I baked the sauce this time.  Peeled, put in a baking dish and into the oven.  I don't ever season applesauce, I just cook them down.  No sugar, spices, nothing.  

This one, though, I got from the orchard I am frequenting near home.  I can't remember the name of it, Red something.  But look at the flesh.  It's as red as the skin.  It really wasn't the texture I like in an apple but I wasn't planning to eat it out of hand.  This is a heritage variety.

Here it is cut

And here's the applesauce.  I didn't buy many so got two pints and one small container.

I also don't hot water process them.  My freezer is my best friend so everything goes in the freezer. 

As I'm collecting different varieties from this orchard I plan on a pie.  Using all different kinds, textures and tastes makes the BEST pie!