Happy Birthday Tasha Tudor!
I just love this picture of Tasha Tudor and some children picking berries. It reminds me of her simple ways. Above all things, she lived off the land and made use of everything she grew. And wasn't it a beautiful life? Sometimes I think the simplest, quietest, humblest things are the very best things. Picking berries is an art in itself which probably ended in making jelly or jam, and what is better than homemade jam spooned onto a slice of hot buttered toast? Simple, but good.
Today my daughter, G., and I worked in the kitchen all day making apple sauce and apple butter. G's hubby picked the apples from their neighbor's tree, a Cortland Apple Tree, which I am in want of now. The Cortland produces the prettiest red blushed apples -- a cross between a Ben Davis and a McIntosh apple. (I looked it up.) The tree is beautiful. I think it would be considered a semi-dwarf which makes it easy to pick and quite compact and loaded with fruit. The apples are white fleshed and sweet. We hardly added any sugar to our apple sauce and apple butter. We could have probably made it totally without sugar, but we decided it added a little more depth of flavor with the addition of sugar. The sauce is a creamy color and not as gold as the photo shows here. The grandgirls enjoyed their small bowls of sauce as we had scrapings and left-over globs that did not round out our jars. G. and I had a piece of hot toast with a sampling of the apple butter scraped out of the roaster at the end of its baking. Oh, so good! Even though we did not plan to celebrate Tasha Tudor's birthday with our apple saucing, we did it quite by coincidence, and we honor her just the same. We honor all those who continue the simple arts of home making that Tasha held dear.
For the record, today we made 40 pints of apple sauce and apple butter combined. More to come since we haven't totally picked the Cortland entirely. Good for us! What are your favorite homemaking arts?
Oh, your apples sound like perfect food!
ReplyDeleteI love my Tasha Tudor books. She was like you; she was a scholar and a brilliant homemaker.
It looks so pretty and what a nice apple tree. I wish I could grow a apple tree here but it is too hot. You know I have never followed or read Tasha Tudor. I need to look for some of her books.
ReplyDeleteOh, I do love them all! I enjoy canning fruit, all yarn work, and soap-making. But if I had my druthers ... I'd have a large LOOM and spend time making fabric. And I'd have sheep and my own (clean) wool, and I'd spin that. And I'd wear red petticoats like Tasha :) I LOVE her Heirloom Crafts book. I'm assuming you have that one?
ReplyDeleteI need the two of you at my house stat!
ReplyDeleteOh the apples and pears that are going by the wayside this year.
I did make a wonderful pear crisp today that I was able to use up 13 ripe pears on... Sigh. Delicious!
Love that I have bloggy friends that keep canning alive!
Oh, your sauce and butter looks delish. I like your apple red gingham, too. Is fall in the air? We are thinking the thoughts but the reality seems a little ways off.
ReplyDeleteCooking is definitely my favorite household art! I made a big batch of spaghetti sauce this weekend with lots of yummy veggies from market hidden inside. There' not much prettier than jars lined up from the fruit of your labor, is there?
ReplyDeleteLove to see where you're canning; I love to can but haven't done a lot since Dave died. I'm trying to eat down my freezer, pantry and cellar. Happy Birthday Miss TT!
ReplyDeleteI'm making mustard pickles right now. Our apples will be ready for picking in a couple of weeks. There are some early varieties right now but we usually wait until October before we pick ours. I'm looking forward to a nice apple crisp made with Cortlands - delicious!
ReplyDeleteHoly moly! That's a lot of apple butter!
ReplyDeleteWe always pick cortlands at our local orchard, they're super tasty.
I love Tasha Tudor too, her little corgis are so sweet.
I find something new in the borders of her pages every time I read A Time to Keep.