hello september

what bliss to be open once more!

 it’s lovely to see our favourite guests again…

and so many new families too. welcome!

we are still picking macintosh apples

and ginger gold apples

we have just started picking gravenstein apples.

they are wonderful and complex…crisp, juicy, sweet and tart at the same time!

 exceptional to enjoy fresh and brilliant for baking, sauce and cider. 

usually at this time we are picking our bartlett pears, but they are taking their sweet time to ripen.

 mother nature is indeed the boss! we will offer pear picking next week.

 i’ll share that incredible recipe i promised last week then too.

rose, an elderly, dear customer kindly shared her recipe for apple cake with us.

 she even gave me her phone number in case i needed help! how cute is that? 

1 cup of sweet butter (unsalted)
1 cup of sugar
2 1/2 cups of flour
3 teaspoons of baking powder
zest from 1 fresh lemon (this is important!)
1 egg.

about 6 or 7 apples...tart is good! i used macintosh last night.

mustu, granny smith, cortland or ida reds will be excellent too.

a titch of cinnamon, and a sprinkling of sugar...depending on the tartness of the apples

preheat oven to 350˚ 

butter and flour a 9x13 baking dish.

mix together the butter and sugar. add the egg. 

we added a generous tablespoon of vanilla paste to this. 

combine the flour and baking powder together. add this to the butter mixture. 
mix well. divide in half.

roll out the dough on a floured piece of waxed paper.  

we kinda cheated and rolled it between 2 sheets of waxed paper. 

roll up the dough onto your rolling pin and unroll the dough into the prepared baking dish.

peel apples and grate coarsley into a bowl. 

we peeled and sliced the apples into tiny pieces. 

add lemon zest and toss with a little cinnamon and sugar.

pour onto the dough already in the baking dish and distribute evenly.

roll out the remaining dough on the floured wax paper 

and then place the dough on top of the apples.

bake for about 40 minutes.

while warm, sprinkle the top with vanilla sugar.

i brought this apple cake out to the barn this morning to share

 and i didn’t get a chance to take a picture...it got eaten too fast! thank you rose! 

see you soon, 

warm farm hugs, 

laura

carl laidlaw orchards