Chronicles of the Long Shot Farm

Fruit

Time Changed – and more Apples…

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We successfully processed over 20 bushels of apples this weekend – the final tally was 38 quarts of canned apple sauce and 40 gallons of cider.  We’ll can about half the cider and then make wine from the rest this week.

The time change this weekend marked the end of the produce stand season and the beginning of winter “fairy” lights.  We completed the shut down of the produce stand, took down all the signs and planted the remaining mums in various flower beds.  We are still using the pumpkins for fall decorations together with the bunches of Indian corn.  Whatever apples were left ended up in the cider press.  It’s a bit sad to see the season end.


Anja and Leif were visiting this weekend and Leif was a big helper with our fall decorations and plantings!

The early dusk this evening prompted us to plug in our winter lights on the barn side of the farm. The fence is lit up, and the barn windows have welcome candles – on timers.   And we made hot mulled cider.

Apple Cider Time Again

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We pressed a “bin” of apples this weekend – roughly 25 bushels.  Fortunately, the apples we got were really nice and large.  Apparently the bin had been dropped, causing some bruising, which automatically turned the apples into “juice grade”, which was lucky for us.  It only took a few hours to run the apples through the cider press – it seems that every year we get more efficient with this process.  There is nothing as good as fresh pressed cider!  Though some of the juice ended up in a fermenting tub as well 🙂

Wine Supplies and Pears

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After measuring all the “vital data” for our newest batch of wine, we realized that our Total Acidity reading were a bit high, and decided to try for malolactic fermentation this time.  Of course we should have anticipated this option much earlier and ordered or bought the necessary bacterial culture.  Unfortunately, the local wine supply store did not have what we needed, and we only had a short window of time to add the bacteria (toward the end of the yeast fermentation). The closest store we could find that had it in stock was in Bethlehem, PA.  While Tina made the trip to buy malolactic bacteria, Jeff and Lars went to a friend’s farm to pick pears:

 

All in all it turned out to be a productive weekend, we got 9 bushels of pears, and we were able to inoculate our fermenting chambourcin grapes with malolactic bacteria.

Pears!

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We did not intend for any fruit to set on our young pear trees this year, but we obviously missed some of the blossoms earlier in the spring.  We actually “harvested”  a few pears from different trees, including a few Asian pears this evening.  Just enough to taste the varieties – don’t think it hurt the trees any either.  They were definitely ripe enough to pick: still firm, but full of juice.  Someday, these will make beautiful wine!

Strawberries and Cupcakes

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We spent a lot of time over the last week freezing strawberries.  We bought close to 200 pounds of late berries at the fruit auction and cleaned, chopped  and then froze them.  (They just would not have fit into our freezer space without pureeing them).  We will make jam and wine with these, once we have some extra time. 

Fortunately, we also got the best strawberry cupcake recipe from a friend this week –  just in time for the 4th of July holiday – and we had all the ingredients:

Cupcakes:

  • 2 1/2 cups flour
  • 1 teaspoon baking soda
  • 1/4 teaspoon salt
  • 1/3 cup buttermilk
  • 1/4 cup vegetable oil
  • 1 teaspoon vanilla
  • 1 1/2 cups sugar
  • 1/2 cup softened butter
  • 2 eggs
  • 1 cup finely chopped or pureed strawberries

Preheat oven to 350 degree F.

Mix flour, baking soda and salt, set aside.
Mix buttermilk, oil and vanilla extract, set aside.
In a large bowl beat sugar and butter at medium speed for about 3 minutes, until light and fluffy.   Add the eggs, one at a time and reduce the speed to low.  Alternately add flour mixture and buttermilk mixture, mixing until just combined.  Gently fold strawberries into batter.  Do not overmix!  Spoon mixture into 24 paper-lined muffin cups and make 22-24 minutes.  Cool on wire rack. 

Strawberry Frosting:

  • 1/2 cup (1 stick) butter
  • 3 1/4 cup powdered sugar
  • 1/4 cup pureed strawberries
  • 1 teaspoon vanilla

Beat all ingredients with mixer at low speed until combined, then increase speed to medium and beat for 3 minutes, until frosting is smooth and creamy.  Spread on cooled cupcakes and enjoy!

Alternatively, you can bake them as mini-cupcakes.  Reduce the baking time to 15-18 minutes, depending on your oven.