The Midnight Society of Applesauce

Who lurks in the shadows of the kitchen late at night, hunched over a bubbling cauldron? What is that intoxicating spicy sweet smell in the air? Why are all of the doorknobs sticky?

Ah, welcome to the the Midnight Society of Applesauce! You can find us peeling and chopping cheaply-wrought apples deep into the night, long after attention-demanding babies have retired to their cribs. Why do we toil into the wee hours, night after night, concocting these addictive brews?

Well when else do we have time? Applesauce making is a new hobby of mine, which is super convenient since applesauce eating is a favorite hobby of Joe's. Unfortunately, it takes several hours from peeling to canning, and it kind of has to be done without stopping; i.e., without baby. It's all worth it, though, because this tastes SO MUCH BETTER than the yellow goop you buy from the store.

We go through so much of it, so I don't make small batches here and there--I've been learning how to can my wares the old-fashioned way. I love PickYourOwn.org for canning instructions and all of the great advice (and gifted tools) from across the street at the One Acre Homestead.

So far this year I have made around 7 or 8 gallons of applesauce (I've lost track because we've been eating it along the way and using it for baking), canned in quart-sized jars and freezer containers. I don't have any dedicated canning tools yet, other than the gifted funnel and jar tongs from my sweet neighbor, but they are definitely on my wish list for Santa this year. For those of you who haven't canned before, it involves packing hot sauce into a hot jar and then submerging the jars in boiling water for a certain length of time.


I like to throw some cinnamon in when the sauce is cooking. You wouldn't believe how great this makes the house smell.



Needless to say, after an evening in the kitchen with all this steam, my skin looks fantastic. Once removed, the cool air outside the jar does some suction magic and the jars seal. They make an awesome "PING" sound when they're sealed up.

A magic potion? A mystical elixir? Freakin' delicious? You too can strive to join our secret society...or you can be really nice and I might share a jar.

Nature Adjacent

After a whole day spent in airports/the car, I needed to get back outside and soak in some fall. There is nothing as spectacular as fall on the East Coast, where there is actually TREES and LEAVES and COOL, CRISP AIR and all those things that one traditionally associates with the autumn season. Not that I haven't enjoyed fall in Oklahoma, but it's just not the same.

We decided to take a walk around the now closed Dan River Mill. The old textile mill was the major employer of the people of Danville, VA for over 100 years. Much of the major infrastructure of the downtown area centered around the mill, like housing for mill workers, personnel offices, etc. When the textile company faced bankruptcy several years ago and subsequently was bought by an Indian chemical company, what to do with the empty mill buildings became a subject of heated debate in the community. Eventually, it was agreed to tear down the buildings and salvage as much material as possible to be used in other projects around the country.

We took a walk near the Schoolfield Mill section on Saturday, and I couldn't help but notice that throughout the various ruined structures, there were little glimpses of nature reclaiming the space.
This is the worker's parking lot across from the entrance to the mill. Besides the warping of the asphalt, the growth of grasses and weeds through the cracks is fairly impressive.

I love how the massive pine trees mirror the spacing of the old smokestacks.

This is the turnstile that workers went through every day to get to work. It also reminded me of pine tree branches.

This little tree was growing underneath the mill's electrical substation. It clearly has grown up since the mill closed, which is pretty remarkable considering it never would have been there if the substation still directed power to all of the mill buildings.

I was struck by the almost bovine colors of this rusting structure (housing for heating/cooling? I'm not an engineer, obviously):

See the holes worn into the rusted sections? I made up a little story to myself about how they were broken down by birds who now use them for shelters, but that is probably my overactive imagination again. Speaking of nests:


There were nests EVERYWHERE! I was so surprised--it's as if the people moved out and the birds moved in. I loved the way the seed pods (whirly-gigs) decorated this tree. I took some home with me to see if I can grow my own whirly-gig tree in Oklahoma.

If you look closely, you can see that this pile of bricks and structural elements (which has been there for about a year) is covered in grass. Yes, grass has literally grown up over the wreckage. Will this pile ever be moved, or will future civilizations find it after they excavate the area?

It should be said that we obviously were not able to walk throughout the site. There was a tall fence that kept me walking and positioning myself to try to come up with interesting photo angles (and, alas, hindering my efforts in most cases). I was interested in the way the fence played a role in the following two photos.

It looks as if this felled tree bough was trying to escape the mill, with half on either side of the fence. And this is my favorite:

This gorgeous little vine was growing (and blooming) along the outer fence. I could say something about hope or opening windows accompanying closed doors here, but I'll let you come to your own conclusions.

On a personal note, I snapped this picture of three generations of Cook/Thorntons (Joe, Dad & MaWat) huddled outside of the mill that sustained recent ancestors:

In a few years the rest of the mill will be torn down and our son will be grown up. Of course, I can't help but wonder what he'll find if he ever decides to return to this site.

Deep November

While we wait patiently for the temperatures to drop ever-so-slowly to the freezing point, the Animal Kingdom of the plains seem to be soaking in every drop of Indian summer.

The birds are reluctant to make the trek south.
The butterflies insist on drinking the very last drops of nectar to be found.

The cat languishes in the abundant, slanted afternoon sun.

Everything I have read suggests a harder than normal winter to come, but I guess I shouldn't believe everything I read. What are things like in your neck of the woods this deep into November?

Patience is a Myth

I am pretty much the least patient person I know. The result? I plan future events TO DEATH because it gives me something to concentrate on while waiting for the event to happen. I think most of the world is organized into people like me, and people who are supremely irritated by people like me.

We are now officially in the non-planting period of the year, when the temps are cooler and it's often foggy or rainy. I say "often" but I really just mean a few times last week and today. Up until yesterday, really, it was still pretty warm and bright here, which isn't necessarily a good thing since most of our plants need to go through a dormant phase brought on by cold weather.

That said, we've been trying to get a jump on the New & Improved Wat Ranch Vegetable Garden 2010, since we undertook this year's garden completely unprepared. About a month ago, I borrowed a lovely gas-powered tiller from my friends over at the One Acre Homestead, and tilled up the plot where our new garden will go. Recall from this post that our previous gardening space was about 6'x20' total, so approximately 120 square feet.
Behold, the New & Improved Wat Ranch Vegetable Garden 2010 Plot:
This takes up a 40'x50' section in the southwest corner of our yard. Yes, math folks, that is 2,000 square feet. In addition to being impatient, I also tend to overdo things on occasion. :) That little black box in the corner is our composter which may or may not need to be moved when we start planting.

The goal for this plot is to have raised rows that are about 3' across, which we will sow with companion plants to improve flavor and pest control. We're also hoping the companion situation will help shade heat-intolerant plants, which can be a major issue in our unforgiving summer heat. Maybe one of these days I'll get ambitious and scan in our hand-drawn plans for the garden.

Something I'm interested in trying is "green manure." Cow manure and packaged compost can get super expensive when trying to amend over 2,000 square feet, so I followed the Farmer's Almanac suggestions for planting clover and winter wheat as a cover crop. Not only will this crop help with erosion control during winter rains, but it will also fix nitrogen in the soil and when it is mowed and tilled under, will act as a fertilizer (and it won't stink or inspire ill-timed poop jokes).

Like my homemade seed spreader? It's a Parmesan cheese shaker. I experimented with this Dutch White clover, then once it germinated I realized I needed A LOT more. Bill found a local seed wholesaler, Warner Brothers Seed Company, that I bought a winter wheat mixture and red clover seed from. It's great finding local resources, and so far the product has been excellent. See?
This is about 2 weeks post-sowing and there's green stuff popping up all over. In fact, it's so green over in that corner of the world that it's making the rest of the yard look downright brown:

Almost the inverse of the first picture, isn't it? And yes, the grass has been mowed since this was taken. We got a major case of the October Lazies and hadn't mowed in several weeks. I mean, it's not supposed to be warm this late into the fall, so who wants to mow when there is football and indoor activities to be enjoyed? And if the green appears in patches, it's because I had 2 lovely assistants (aged 5 and 7) help me spread seeds until they "figured out how to do it faster" by just dumping out their spreaders in one spot. Smart girls.

One last piece of business is garlic. I received 4 lovely bulbs of garlic in the mail (and forgot to snap pictures, so use your imagination), but unfortunately one of them was totally rotted through. I grabbed another questionable bunch from Lowe's, and planted everything that looked decent. So we'll see. I'm not feeling completely confident about this crop because I couldn't pin down a good planting time from my research, and the weather is so wonky....Anyways, this will be the garlic home for the next few seasons until it is ready for harvest mid-summer:
Godspeed little vampire killers!

Surprise Harvest

What do you get when you plant something during the wrong season, wait six months, and forget about them completely? You get this:

Yep, that is an actual cauliflower head peeking through. This cold-weather veg is meant to be planted in late winter or early fall in these parts, but we planted 3 of them in mid-spring. They didn't die during the summer heat, but they didn't do anything else, either. In the last month, they've taken off and when I went to visit them this morning, they were ready to harvest.

Aren't they pretty? I had no clue what to expect from these lovelies, but to give you a sense of scale, here they are next to a full-sized apple:

Pretty big. I broke them apart, blanched them and filled up a 1 gallon-sized+1 quart-sized freezer bags with them. I think I'll save the gallon for Christmas dinner (nothing like bragging about serving homegrown veggies in the dead of winter, right?). This surprise harvest has really encouraged me to try more cauliflower and broccoli in the spring (ahem, EARLY spring) and again next fall.

I am also fairly amazed by my die-hard pepper plants. They just won't quit. This is only part of what was growing out there today; I left several peppers on the plants to get bigger.

These will get chopped and tossed into the freezer.

My cherry tomatoes have also made a bit of a comeback as well. I think the Indian summer we're experiencing is to blame for the extra long tomato season:

I'm growing these in a large Tomato Tree (the kind where the plants grow out the side, not the bottom) but they're going in the ground next year. The tomato plants were more leggy and tall than they were productive, and these are actually the most fruits I've seen on this plant at one time the whole season.

Live and learn, and then harvest.

Fall: Best time for planting shrubs

Are you sensing a pattern by now?

After attempting to plant blueberry bushes this spring that consisted of a single twig in a bag of dirt, I was pretty discouraged. Continuing my trend of not researching plant needs or soil conditions, I literally just dug a hole and stuck the twig in the ground. Is anyone surprised when these little guys shriveled up and died on the first hot day in July?

When I saw that Lowes was selling berry bushes this fall, I jumped on it and bought up 9 blueberries immediately. The goal was to plant them along the front section of fence on the east side of the house. But a few weeks later, my friends over at the One Acre Homestead stumbled across the same bushes on sale for 75% off--which came to around $2 per shrub. Considering I spend about twice that much per pint of imported blueberries at the store, I jumped again.

These little beauties, known as "misty blue" now line the entire front east length, half of the west front length and then down the first few sections of the east side of our fence. I also picked up 4 "powder blue" bushes (also on sale for $2 from Atwoods) and planted them interspersed among the Mistys for cross pollination purposes. I actually did a little research and planted these with pine mulch at the root base and soaked the ground with a green acidifier, which these plants love.

Misty blue, which are already showing new growth and have started turning a lovely sunset color:

The powder blues, which were a bit worse for wear when I rescued them from the clearance section, but are thriving now that they're in the ground:

All told, there are TWENTY-TWO blueberry bushes that will one day grow into a hedge along the front of our fence. I can't wait to see what these do in the spring. Just for fun, we picked up 3 blackberries, too. Neither my husband nor I are big fans of blackberry, but they're so good for you, so we'll give them a try.


Another big sale item were crape myrtles. We found a purple one to match two that we already have in the front flower beds to balance out the colors. I'm all about balance.


Then we planted three "christmas tree" crapes (which should have white blossoms) and 2 "miami" crapes in front of our new, under-construction garden shed. I staggered the planting of these because they are so tiny, but they will one day be huge (hopefully).

Yes, that is construction debris all around the crape, but ignore that for now.

We've also added 5 new boxwoods around the side of the house and around the shed. The impulse buy was 5 gardenia bushes (seriously, who can pass up $1.75 per shrub?). I have no clue how these will do, but the picture of the blossom on the card was soooo pretty, and the greenery is super cute:

See? I told you the shrub post would be epic. If you're keeping track, you'll note that we planted 40 bushes around the property in the last 2-3 weeks. In related news, I'm adding "Digs a wicked hole" to my resume.

Fall: Best time to plant flowers

Okay, maybe not the BEST time, but certainly a good one. I mean look at these:

Is there anything more festive than a mum? Probably, but I can't resist these pretty balls of autumn color, especially when most other colors are dying and browning for the winter. This year I've replaced my summer geraniums (to be discussed in a later post) with mums in all of my containers and window boxes around the front of the house. My goal is to eventually plant these in the ground once the flowers die back, and see if they make a comeback next year. They should, because I bought all "garden" mums, instead of "container" mums, which are supposed to be grown indoors and normally only last one season.

I've had fun planting spring-blooming bulbs, though the warmer temps we've had in the last week (70+) are causing them to sprout a bit. I hope this won't kill them when our first frost FINALLY arrives.

This is what last year's planting produced in the spring:

There were some bright red tulips, too, but those popped out later. I've added bulbs all along the flower beds, whereas last year I only had them in the very front section (the most my 6-months-pregnant body could handle at the time). I can't wait to see the show come March!

Another fall tradition that I hope to end is the planting of pansies. I LOVE the look of cheerful little pansies along the sidewalk in front of the house. Last year we planted them, and I kept expecting them to die back when the temperatures climbed in the summer. A few of them did, but several stuck around all year (super pansies?). I now think that with a bit of watering in the summer, we can keep these little guys going as perennials. We planted in all of the front flower beds, and I found a pretty rose-colored bloom to alternate with the traditional dark purples, yellows, and whites.


I've mentioned my geranium containers, which also contained marigolds. A few of these survived to keep the new mums company in the containers. With the fall comes a new generation of seeds, and happily these container marigolds threw out several seeds that have sprouted here and there in the front beds:

You can't beat free flowers, right? Especially ones that are so beneficial for the garden as a natural pest-repellent. I'm actually planning to plant these in and around the vegetable garden next year.

And although these aren't technically a fall flower, I'm so pleased with the rose bushes in the front, too. These were planted by the previous owners of our house, and frankly looked on the verge of death last year. We haven't done anything to them except some minimal pruning and occasional weeding, but we've been paid back immensely throughout the late summer and into fall so far:

Everytime I think these girls are done for the season, I see new buds forming and opening. They first bloomed way back in May, when I cut a few off and placed in an old Parmesan cheese shaker-turned bud vase. Here it is mid-November and they're still going strong.


The other major fall planting project has been shrubs (!), but I'll give those their own post. It's a doozy!

Fall: Best time to plant trees

Last year, as my husband and I were adjusting to "Life With a Yard" from our previous "Life In a One-Bedroom Apartment," we eagerly hit up the local garden centers in the late spring and attempted to plant a few trees. We knew they had to be watered "until established," but I really had no idea what that meant and I was too busy trying to hold down my lunch in the early throes of pregnancy to be bothered with religious tree-watering. The result? Several trees that did not survive our regular 100+ Oklahoma temps.

We decided to try again in the fall. I was in my second trimester, and therefore felt like Super Woman. We planted a peach tree and a pear tree, and I watered them without fail at least once a day. I think I felt a connection with nurturing these new trees and the growing baby inside me. That's probably why I almost evicted my younger dog for yanking the peach tree out of the ground SEVERAL TIMES and dragging it around the yard like a large bone. Miraculously, this is how it looked in the spring:See the pretty pink blossoms? Unfortunately, we were hit with a random hard freeze just days after these pics were taken (March), so the blossoms and new leaves were zapped.

The pear tree did similarly well:

Lesson learned. Trees and shrubs planted in the fall do much better in our climate because they get a chance to really establish root systems and moisture reserves before hunkering down to survive the blistering summer heat. Happily, this also coincides with fall clearance sales at local garden centers and nurseries, where trees and shrubs are marked down to about 75% off. Combined with the cooler temps which make it more pleasant to garden, fall is definitely prime time for landscaping projects.
We added 2 lovely apple trees to our collection, in the hopes that they will help pollinate each other and maybe even produce fruit one day. We also added a second peach, for the same purpose:

Maybe one day we will have a mini orchard. I would love to be able to grab fruit from the backyard instead of making the drive into town to gamble on whether the scarce produce selection will have anything decent.

Pumpkins!!

Part of being environmentally responsible AND being healthy is eating seasonally. I've been trying to actually start watching the weekly sales ad from the local grocery store for produce sales. Late summer and early fall seems to be the best time for fresh local produce, so I've been trying to stock up on fresh veggies and batch cook meals for the freezer.

I've never really cooked squash before, and I experimented with it a bit to make some baby food for my son. When it went on sale for $.55 per lb, I got as many different kinds as I could. The pumpkin is what I experimented with the most. It's very important to get "pie pumpkins" or small, dense pumpkins--NOT the big carving pumpkins. Pie pumpkins are full of flavor and nutrients, whereas the carving pumpkins are not good for cooking (though you can roast the seeds--I like to toss mine in Old Bay, cuz I'm a good MD girl).

I started by breaking down the pumpkins, scooping out the pulp and seeds, and roasting them in an inch of water in my Dutch oven for about 45 minutes.



Scooping hot pumpkin flesh out of the skin is not quite something I've mastered, so I am open to suggestions. After the flesh is scooped out, I mash it with a hand mixer and then it is a ready ingredient for a number of tasty dishes. I'll talk about the top three below.

Spiced Pumpkin Butter with Pecans

Using this recipe from cooks.com, I attempted to try a butter full of autumny flavor, even though I've never cooked or eaten pumpkin butter before. It was not an awful first try, but next time around I'll follow the directions regarding the orange zest, instead of throwing all of it in.

First, I added spice, honey, and orange zest/juice to the pumpkin mash and put the whole mixture in the crockpot.


I let it cook down all day. The house smelled AMAZING--I'm telling you, even if you don't end up eating this stuff, I recommend making a batch the morning of a holiday get-together just for the awesome smell. At the end of the day, I added a bit more mash to freshen up the pumpkin flavor. Check out the color difference after a day of cooking:While the fresh mash was being integrated into the mixture, I toasted some fresh pecans. The place to get these is in the PRODUCE SECTION of the grocery store, not in dusty, old bags that they put in the baking aisle.
These got chopped and mixed into the butter (those that survived my munching--so good right out of the oven!). I think if you're going to do something with the butter right away, definitely reserve some of these as a topping.

Current wisdom says that you can not home can pumpkin because there is not enough acid to keep bacteria from growing. However, pumpkin (and pumpkin butter) can stay refrigerated for up to 6 months and frozen for up to a year (so sayeth the internet). So far my favorite use for this stuff is as a spread for fresh, warm brownies:
The chocolate compliments the pumpkiny-citrus flavor SOOOO well. Yum!

Pumpkin Ravioli


So, after eating a million pumpkin-butter-topped brownies, it may be time to cut back on some calories, right? This recipe for a pumpkin-stuffed ravioli is very healthy and is a few hundred calories less than a traditional stuffed pasta dish. Because it's made with the flavorful parmesan (albeit a relatively small amount), it takes on a cheesy flavor and the texture is similar, too.

I made a huge batch using soy wonton wrappers (found in the refrigerated section of the produce aisle). I mixed up the pumpkin mash, parmesan cheese, and a bit of black pepper. I spooned a heaping teaspoon onto each wrapper:
Then I moistened the edges:

And I folded the whole thing into these cute little envelopes, placed on a baking sheet lined with parchment paper:
Granted, there are many different ways these can be folded up, and these need to be tight or they come loose while being boiled. I was able to throw the baking sheet in the freezer and then transfer the raviolis into a freezer bag once they were hardened. I made about 100 raviolis. A moment or two in a pot of boiling water is all it takes to cook these, toss in a little herb butter, and you have a healthy, seasonal, original dinner!

Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Muffins


Perhaps the simplest, tastiest use for the pumpkin mash has to be this awesome recipe for pumpkin chocolate chip muffins. There are 2 secret ingredients that make a huge difference. Secret flavor: cinnamon. It perfectly complements the chocolate so that you don't have to overwhelm the muffin with them. Secret texture: yogurt. It makes these muffins so smooth and velvety without the fat of oil, and adds a nice boost of calcium and protein, too.


I used half white flour and half wheat for an extra nutritional boost, and broke out my mini-muffin pan for built-in portion control. These freeze beautifully, if they last long enough to make it into the freezer. I actually handed these out on Halloween (to families we know) and they were much more popular (and healthier!) than candy.