On Friday night, I climbed up and down:
Tossing down apples, until we filled four boxes, weighing a total of 103 pounds.
Then we came inside and warmed up by a fire:
Saturday, approximately 80 pounds were put up (33 pints of applesauce, 7 quarts of apple pie filling, 7 quarts of spiced applesauce), 20 pounds will be delivered to the food pantry later today:
There are still more apples on the tree and we’ll get to those soon, more will also be donated and/or freecycled.
Sunday we puttered, finishing a few small but long overdue projects, including installing some carpet bars, covering up the last of the holes in the drywall, and touched up some caulking in the bathroom. Then we baked.
Sourdough Date Almond
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1/2 Cup chopped, pitted dates
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1/4 Cup Coffee Liqueur
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1 Cup Whole Wheat Sourdough Starter
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1/2 Cup Warm Water
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1 Tablespoon Olive Oil
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2 Tablespoons Sugar
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1/2 teaspoon Salt
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1/2 Cup Chopped Almonds
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2 Cups Unbleached White Flour
Soak the dates in the coffee liqueur for ten minutes.
Mix together the sourdough starter, almonds, water, sugar, salt, olive oil, and soaked dates (including the liquid). Begin adding the flour, a little at a time until a dough begins to form. Knead the dough until you have a soft, elastic ball. Allow the dough to rise in a towel lined basket or in a greased bread pan for about an hour. Bake at 425 degrees for 30 minutes or until it sounds hollow when tapped. Enjoy!
This recipe was inspired by a cake recipe I saw not too long that had the dates soaked in coffee liqueur. I had some extra starter after making our regular loaves and figured I’d try a sourdough bread using that soaked date idea. The bread turned out great (if I do say so myself), it is dense but oh so yummy.
Doing Not Thinking Update: I did nothing, this week and don’t expect to do anything this coming week as my Aunt & Uncle are coming to visit! Be sure to check on the other participants who are accomplishing great things!
{ 11 comments… read them below or add one }
Wow. That is alot of apples!!
Sounds like you were BUSY!
That sounds like a great weekend at home!
Boy! would I like a box of those beautiful apples….I’m drooling…..Ginny
What a marvelous fall weekend–and I love the pictures. There’s nothing quite as content as a cat by a woodstove.
It only takes an hour for that bread to rise? Your starter must be more energetic than ours–it takes us about 8 hours for a batch of dough to doubl. Although come to think of it, we usually use a cup for two to three loaves, so the beasties have to work a lot harder.
You looked BUSY! I finally broke down and made no-knead bread, and you know what? It’s just as good as they said it would be. Go figure.
Glad you had a good weekend.
How wonderful that you donated so much to the food pantry! What a great idea!
We were just making fun of our co-worker last week for picking 70lbs. of apples but after reading this post, 70lbs is nothing comparing to yours! I wish I have an apple tree.
I did just can up some apples last weekend. I’ll be canning up some more but would like to try canning some apple pie filling. Do you mind sharing your apple pie filling recipe?
I happen to luck up on some Apples, how do you make and preserve your apple sauce? I’d like to know your easy recipe ..thanks, Ginny
That bread looks so good!
What a great idea to donate some of the apples to the food pantry. I am finishing the picking on our old trees (part of our land-now in scrub forest was an old apple orchard) and I think I will do the same!
have fun with your guests this week!
We got an apple picker this year. So much easier than the ladder. Essentially it is a long pole with a small basket at the end that has a claw on it. Works like a charm and isn’t too expensive.
The bread looks wonderful! I’m so impressed by it.