More on Why I Didn't Post Yesterday

So what other (at least semi-related) gardening things did I do yesterday? Well I harvested of course. One of the things I picked was my English Thyme. It had grown nice and bushy again, so I chopped about a third of it off and dehydrated and processed it. I also had a lot of ripe super chilis that I started dehydrating. They take a lot more time than the thyme in the dehydrator. As soon as they are done I'll crush them.

Then I had to deal with the pile of apples on the counter. I bought two half peck bags, one of Macintosh and one of Cortland. Yes sadly another thing that is not grown here. Processing them would take a lot of time, but I have a friend that has the cutest little gadget. It peels, cores and slices the apples. Just put the apple on the tines and turn the handle. Voila. Quickly processed apples. I love the idea of people having gadgets like these. Not everyone needs to own one. I mean, really, how often will you use it in a year? But it is nice to have one in your group of friends. The kitchen tool I've loaned out is my Victorio strainer. It is another one of those tools that is really nice to have access to, but you don't use it that often.

The gadget isn't perfect. My friend told me that if the apple is soft it will turn the apple into applesauce. The macs were a little troublesome but not too bad. The other issue was the start. I found that the spring was a little bit heavy and it would dig too far into the apple (as you can see in the photo it is taking too much of the flesh off). So at the start I would slightly lift the peeler and then it would peel perfectly.

What did I make out of the apples? It was apple pie filling - well apple cobbler mostly. I rarely actually make pie crust. The apple cobbler I made a week ago, my husband wouldn't eat, which is sad since he love this more than I do. Even though it was made from macs, which mush down when cooked, he thought they were still too crispy. So now they have been precooked with a tiny bit of sugar and some cinnamon and I'll freeze them. I'm sure they will be mushy enough for him then.

Of course when the filling was nicely arrayed in their containers to freeze, I remembered that I was supposed to have defrosed my chest freezer a week ago. Ack. I usually do it when the weather starts turning colder. It gets covered in frost all summer long as the humidity in the air condenses. It would be best to do it when the heat comes on. That really dries the air out, but I keep putting more and more stuff up in the freezer and it is a better balance to do it now. So I spent a while defrosting my freezer.

I also keep a list of what I have in the freezer. I try to update it when I take things out and put things in. That way if I need broth, beans, squash or whatever I know if it is there and I know if I need to buy things. The list is always correct after I clean out the freezer and defrost it, but it does slowly get more inaccurate as time goes on. In theory it works great. In practice I'm not as good.