Tag: fruit

  • Apple Harvest

    The local radio (yes, I still listen to the radio) was discussing apples this afternoon.

    The public broadcaster hosts an afternoon general interest show where a pair or trio of hosts chatter about local news topics, update on weather and traffic, interview local businesses, and generally have a daily topic encouraging people to engage and discuss and drop comments onto their feeds to participate in said chatter.

    Today the topic was apples.

    I don’t know how it goes in your part of the world, but around here almost everyone has or knows someone who has an apple tree.

    Mine is a magnificent fifteen year old baking variety apple. She stands nearly as tall as my two-storey house, and this year dropped roughly two thousand greenish-red orbs of tartly sweet goodness into bowls, pails, dirt, grass, the neighbour’s yard, and even quite nearly onto the dog’s head.

    We made some pies.

    We froze some sliced samples.

    But in reality we just couldn’t keep up.

    I posted online with pleas for friends to come pick… but again, everyone has or knows someone who has an apple tree, so no takers.

    Next year will likely be a quieter year for fruit in our yard, the tree seeming to be a biannual giver of bounty.

    I didn’t call in or participate in the radio program, not by tweet or by text, but I did pause to listen, aligning my own experience participating in the growing of the local crop right in my backyard with countless neighbours around the city. It was a moment almost as sweet as a fresh backyard apple.

  • Haskap

    Four large lush bushes occupy various spots in my backyard. I planted these shrubs about eight to ten years ago as worked to fill my garden beds with as many fruit-bearing plants as could reasonably live adapted to this crazy northern climate zone.

    Lonicera caerulea is also known in some parts of the world as honeysuckle or honeyberry, but in Canada we tend to refer to this bush and it’s fruit as a haskap.

    My haskap bushes started to bear ripe fruit this past week and I’ve been eagerly plucking as many as I can before the robins eat more than their fair share. I don’t mind, but I do like to have a few of the tart-sweet berries before they all become bird food.

    I don’t know much about the haskap itself. For a few years a nearby university known for their horticultural work breeding plants that were slightly more adapted to surviving the long winters seemed to be mentioned frequently around greenhouses as I and my fellow local gardeners bought and planted each a few of the adapted shrubs. The work of that same university is responsible for the breed of my backyard apple tree which is now at least fourteen seasons growing in it’s current spot and has easily produced tens of thousands of apples. This is not a climate where anything that hasn’t been winter hardened will grow much past September, and only the best adapted of trees and shrubs survive our minus forty winters. The haskap, on the other hand, seems to thrive in these parts.

    The haskap is a little more subtle than my apple tree though.

    My metre-wide bushes usually produce only a cup or two of the elongated blue-purple treats, right around this time of the year, and by the time we graze our fill there is rarely anything left behind but scraps for the most persistent of the local avian population.

    I have a few varieties of berries in my backyard, yet these haskap are the ones that draw the most curiosity from visitors… but only those lucky enough to stop by during the short couple weeks when their colourful, oblong orbs dangle ready to be tasted.

  • The Great Big List of 50 Pancake Topping Ideas

    Saturday mornings are pancake mornings at our house. In fact, I was looking through some old videos yesterday (on my day off) and I had recorded some footage of my then-toddler daughter and I cooking pancake shapes and then smothering them in syrup. That is evidence enough that this has been a tradition for at least a decade around here.

    This morning was no different: chocolate chip pancakes on the cast iron grill topped with some mixed berries and a generous slog of maple syrup (…did I mention we live in Canada?)

    My plate looked particularly photogenic this morning, and so I took a shot before digging in. All of this, the old videos, the Saturday routine, the fresh fruit and maple syrup of course got me thinking about how we fall into routine and stick with the things that are comfortable. Chocolate chip pancakes are amazing, but we don’t veer far off course of the toppings list.

    So, if I someday soon decided to stray a little bit from my patriotic imperative of supporting the national maple syrup industry, here are some of the things I might consider as a good starting list of familiar, unique, interesting, tasty, and maybe a little off-the-wall ideas to add to or on top of my Saturday pancakes:

    1. maple syrup (obviously)
    2. powdered sugar
    3. butter
    4. strawberries
    5. chocolate
    6. fruit syrup
    7. banana slices
    8. chopped toasted almonds
    9. shredded coconut
    10. mixed berries
    11. peach slices
    12. hazelnut spread
    13. whipped cream
    14. caramel sauce
    15. crumbled bacon
    16. lemon sugar
    17. cinnamon sugar
    18. lox
    19. blueberries
    20. fruit compote
    21. vanilla ice cream
    22. dulce de leche
    23. peanut butter
    24. baked apple slices
    25. poached egg
    26. yogurt
    27. raisins
    28. toasted macadamia nuts
    29. cream cheese
    30. honey
    31. marshmallow cream
    32. crumbled graham crackers
    33. cottage cheese
    34. avocado slices
    35. grilled ham
    36. candied ginger
    37. nut butter
    38. apple sauce
    39. corn syrup
    40. ricotta
    41. raspberries
    42. canned pears
    43. lemon curd
    44. mango coulis
    45. pineapple slices
    46. grilled spam
    47. hot fudge
    48. rhubarb sauce
    49. candied nuts
    50. chopped candy

    …and now go check out my chocolate chip pancake recipe if you need some inspiration for where to put all these amazing options for toppings.