|
Post by mogal on Sept 15, 2023 21:39:25 GMT
I have a friend who works for a food pantry sort of deal in town. Monday she called to tell me they'd gotten an extra pallet of organic bananas that they couldn't get rid of to their usual clients and if they couldn't just give them away to whomever was interested, they had a farmer who took such items to feed his pigs. She offered me all I wanted saying she'd rather feed people as pigs. THEY WERE BEAUTIFUL BANANAS. I thought of another woman we both know who has small kids and several relatives living with them currently, plus my own neighbors. We ended up leaving with 4 boxes, each weighing 40#. We dropped one off at the mutual friend's house, we distributed 2 among my neighbors and kept one to freeze and dehydrate. No telling how long it will take us to use all these bananas but by freezing and dehydrating, we won't be buying bananas any time soon.
Also, our apple trees have made a wonderful crop and I have one batch of apple butter cooking in my 18 qt. roaster right now. I've already made 19 qts. of juice and 35 pints of apple sauce using a steam juicer I got from a friend's moving sale several years ago. I want to dehydrate as many apples as I can since they are so versatile and then there are the 2 long storage varieties that will be good for 6-8 months. I think about the years when we've had late frosts that nipped all the blooms and about the 7 fat years and the 7 lean years and prefer to preserve all I can that is available this year.
|
|
|
Post by Woodpecker on Sept 16, 2023 13:57:34 GMT
It's like you won the banana lottery mogal, Wow that's wonderful you your apple trees have abundant fruit, that'll keep you busy!
|
|
|
Post by mogal on Sept 16, 2023 14:05:06 GMT
The people who built this house were absentee owners for a long time, living here only on weekends. After retirement, they mostly played golf, not interested in gardening, etc., though they did have enough land to keep cattle for a while. Anyway, the landscaping was mostly juniper and yews. I started planting fruit trees, pecan trees, etc., almost as soon as we were unpacked. This was back in '97. Now most of the yews and all the junipers are gone but we have some nice edible landscaping that changes with the seasons unlike those evergreens. Love living on this place!
|
|
|
Post by solargeek on Sept 18, 2023 2:54:40 GMT
mogalDo you have to peel all those apples and how do you stand doing it? We had a likely tiny apple crop this year compared to yours but I have been busy making apple crisps and freezing them. I’m using an 8 x 8 aluminum pan and they’re freezing up beautifully. But I hate the peeling !!! Why can’t we just leave the peel on, the parts that are good at least?
|
|
|
Post by Tallpines on Sept 18, 2023 8:41:02 GMT
mogal Do you have to peel all those apples and how do you stand doing it? We had a likely tiny apple crop this year compared to yours but I have been busy making apple crisps and freezing them. I’m using an 8 x 8 aluminum pan and they’re freezing up beautifully. But I hate the peeling !!! Why can’t we just leave the peel on, the parts that are good at least? I am lucky in the fact that my DH has an unusual fascination with our mechanical apple peeler! Its a life long quirk of his. He cannot walk down the aisle at the grocery store without pushing the button on the coffee bean grinder! Even as a toddler ~~~ He did not sleep with a favorite blanket of stuffed animal. He preferred to sleep with his mothers hand cranked food grinder! He looks forward to the chance to use the apple 🍎 peeler. And, I am happy to let him go at it ! .
|
|
|
Post by mogal on Sept 19, 2023 12:51:39 GMT
Solargeek, when I dehydrate apples I use a mechanical apple peeler, the type that clamps onto a table and while you turn a crank to advance the apple into blades that peel, core and slice. If it's a good apple, I either cook them for sauce or butter or put them into a gallon or larger sized container to make apple scrap vinegar. If I'm juicing apples or cooking them for sauce or butter, I just cut them into chunks, peel on, cook and put the pulp through a Victorio strainer. Since I put the pulp through a second time, there's not much left for apple scrap vinegar so either the chickens or goats get it.
Tallpines, my DH isn't so keen on the peeler after a few apples but he's a real gem to pick then wash the apples for me, bless his heart.
Once in a while, I dehydrate the peels and use them with a cinnamon stick to flavor tea or water kefir.
DH's birthday is next month and he'd rather have an apple pie or cobbler for that as any cake.
|
|
|
Post by countrymom22 on Sept 23, 2023 19:54:24 GMT
Oh wow! What a blessing all those bananas are to those families! It was so kind of you to think of them when that opportunity arose!
I swear I can smell the banana bread right now!
|
|
|
Post by mogal on Sept 24, 2023 3:39:16 GMT
Countrymom22, I don't think I can bear the sight of a banana at this point except for the kind my grandma used to make with vanilla wafers and cooked vanilla pudding layered with slices of banana. DH requested that when we went to get the bananas. Once it's gone, I don't want to see a banana for a while.
DH did some grocery shopping for us yesterday and told me he'd gotten us some bananas. He'd forgotten the list and couldn't remember all that was on it. He was kidding me about getting more. At least I hoped he was.
|
|
|
Post by countrymom22 on Sept 26, 2023 0:43:10 GMT
mogal, your mention of your grandmother's banana pudding recipe brought back memories and made me want some! A good friend of mine used to make the best banana pudding that I have ever eaten. She said it was her mother's recipe and she wouldn't share it. Unfortunately, due to illness she now lives in a nursing home and can no longer cook. I don't think she ever gave the recipe to her daughter, but I hope she finds it in her mother's things at some point. Recipes passed from generation to generation are such a blessing. What I wouldn't give to sit on the porch and chat with her again over a bowl of that delicious banana pudding!
|
|