Preserving Fall - My Favourite Season!

 My favourite season is Fall! I wanted to make this Buttermilk Basin pattern for two years now, this time I finished it in time to enjoy it! I still have the outside pennies,  pumpkins to stitch down, & leaves for the sunflower to do. I love the wool appliques & warmth that they visually give you.

 I use the blanket stitch from the Babylock sewing machine & added a black glass bead for the crow's eye.

 I will need to make the corn's kernels with french knots & maybe more glass beads on the sunflower.

 I have a fondness for grey squirrels as I had one for ten years, the squirrels here in northeast NB are a reddish colour & so small compared to ON grey & black squirrels. I'm going to add a curly stem to the pumpkin.

 I was pleased with the playing of the sewing machines 'fancy stitches' on the scarecrow's hatband.

Grape Jelly

 The grapevine was plentiful with grapes this year! It is only a couple years old & this is the first picking of grapes from it. Bill brought in quite a few & sampled them to say that tasted great!

 They were easy to remove from their stems after soaking in lemon juice to remove any particles.

 And the finished grape jelly jam!

 I made my own jelly bag from flannel & disposed of it & the grapes outer shell after it drained out.

Apples Mmmm

Jocelyne & I went to MacDonalds Heritage Farm yesterday only to find out it was closed for the Fall season now. Rats, I've wanted to see it for years now & will have to wait till next spring when it opens again. We did, however, go to Negauc to a furniture store, clothing store, & fabric store & saw roadside Fall produce for sale. I wanted local apples & there they were! I picked up two bags with around 35-40 apples. I think that size is about 1/2 a bushel.

Oh my, it sure looks yummy, I needed to sample to see the amount per pie.
I was able to get six pie fillings out of those apples with leftovers of seven apples to eat for snacks.

I watched some Youtube recipes & came up with a combination of my own with their ideas as a base.

 I really liked Rada's idea of placing foil inside the pie plate, then plastic wrap onto of the foil.

 Recipes usually called for 5-6 cups of apples however with the cooking they always shrink so I used a full eight cups of apples.

 After peeling & coring/slicing with the gizmo, I put the apple slices in cold water with the juice of one lemon whilst I worked on peeling more until I had 8 cups of apples.

 Then the coating was mixed. I used 1/3c white sugar, 2/3c dark brown sugar, 1/2tsp nutmeg, 1- 1/2 tsp cinnamon, 1/2tsp salt, 2 TBSP flour. Add apples coating them all well with the spices & sugar combination.

Then place inside the awaiting pie shell dish & gently push into the form of the plates shape banging down gently to remove any large air pockets. Place in the freezer like this for 4hrs or overnight, then fold the plastic wrap & foil over the frozen shape of the pie & place in a freezer bag. An apple pie filling is now ready for a pie or an oatmeal apple crisp in the future, made with fresh Fall apples!
It's good for one year in the freezer ready for the Fall apple dessert of your choice.

 I always use a pie bird in my pies to help the steam release from the pie.

 Eight cups of apples can get juicy that's why the flour was added & the spillage was prepared for. lol

The smell of apples & warm spices always makes me think ... Mmmm pie

Outside Fall Sights

 The geraniums are in full bloom & frost is called for again tonight, I cover them with a blanket & it helps that they're on the front porch.

 The Limelight hydrangeas are doing well too, even after Hurricane Dorian's visit, they just don't stand as high as they once did. Loads of bloom here!

 There's still colour in the Anniversary Garden & butterflies too!

 The butterflies & bees just love the late bloomers. Thank you, Leslie & Nicholas, for the gift of these flowers that we are still enjoying!

 I love this view as I come up the drive when I come home.

 The Boston's are still jumping into their swimming pool to cool down after a hard run of fetch the stick or ball. The days are getting shorter on sunlight but when it is here Fall is beautiful!

 The front Fall garden's, still singing their blooms!

 Rexton the Manx enjoys sitting in here perch, you can see it in the window it looks like a 'y'. She is there in the afternoon when the sun shines in the sunporch & she watches what is going on in the garden with the movement of butterflies, bees, & birds.

The scarecrow is now on the porch to greet the visitors & welcomes & thanks to you for your visit today!

Have a great week wherever you are & taste & smell what this season has to offer you!
Thank you for visiting!
Cynthia