hello october

welcome october! oh and a harvest moon tonight!

time for cozy sweaters, baking, and sipping warm cider. 

and picking many fabulous apples of course!

we have it all, plus a recipe to share for apple cider caramels.

we invite you to pick our golden delicious, smoothie, idared, 

red delicious, jonagold red, empire and russet apples. 

we have oodles of pumpkins with personality too!

golden delicious

exactly as their name suggests..golden and delicious.

quite mellow, sweet and juicy, they are 

wonderful to enjoy fresh. i love baking with them too. 

their thin skin makes peeling unnecessary.

smoothie

a sweet, mellow lovely sister of the golden delicious.

also wonderful to enjoy fresh, or use in any baked dessert 

where you would use a golden delicious. 

 ida red 

these are my next favourite choice for baking after the cortlands are gone.  

i love their complex flavour and the lovely subtle pink in their flesh.

their hints of citrus flavours add a zing to pies and crisps. 

idareds are the absolute best for storing.. 

lasting until the spring in your fridge! really! 

red delicious 

juicy and sweet with yellow flesh, these are such a well known apple. 

they have cute distinctive bumps on the bottom that make them easily identifiable. 

red delicious will store for a couple of months very well. 

their thicker skin resists bruising..

a nice apple to tuck into a backpack and bring on a hike. 

jonagold red

we grow a couple of types of jonagolds.

these are spectacular. if you love honeycrisps, you will love these. 

our friend bakes exclusively with these sweet, juicy brilliant apples. 

empire

empires are such a fantastic little apple..

they inherited the best qualities of both parents; 

macintosh and red delicious.

they resist bruising, cook beautifully, and store well.

they are firm and juicy...a scrumptious blend of both tart and sweet. 

russet

you either love them or you hate them! 

they are not the prettiest apple we grow, but they are the quirkiest!

depending on when they are harvested, they can be tart or sweet with a mild nutty flavour. 

their skin is russeted..hence their name.

 similar to a pear in texture, russets are lovely fresh, 

in a salad, and dried. 

they are often include in the blend for cider.

apple cider caramels

sweet little tastes of autumn..

combining all the apple picking, sweater wearing, leaves twirling feels. 

this recipe is from the smitten kitchen cookbook, by deb perelman. 

4 cups apple cider

1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon

2 teaspoons flaky sea salt..i only know of maldon

1/2 cup unsalted butter, cut into chunks

1 cup sugar

1/2 cup brown sugar

1/3 cup 35% cream 

a neutral oil like canola for a cutting knife   

a candy thermometer 

 

line the bottom and sides of an 8 by 8 inch cake pan with 2 long sheets of parchment paper, crisscrossed.

stir cinnamon and salt together in a small dish.

boil the cider on high heat until it’s reduced to 1/2 cup..it will take 35 ish minutes.

remove from heat and stir in butter, sugars  and cream.

return to medium high heat with a candy thermometer and let it boil until it reaches 252 degrees.. 7 ish more minutes.

immediately remove caramel from heat and stir in the cinnamon and salt mixture...mixing well. 

pour this into your prepared pan. 

let it cool and become firm...2 ish hours.

 

lift it out of the pan using the parchment paper onto a cutting board.

using a well oiled knife, and oiled after each cut, cut caramel into 1 inch squares.

wrap in waxed or parchment paper, that has been cut in 4 inch squares. 

what a gorgeous fall gift...or perhaps a hallowe’en treat? 

they will store for a couple of weeks, but i think you will have them eaten before then!

i have made these a few times..

recently i forgot to stir in the salt and cinnamon while it was in the pot..

i swirled it in the prepared pan after..it was fine. 

another time the caramel was too firm to cut into neat little squares. 

(i think i boiled it a little past the 252 degrees.) 

i just cracked it into bite size pieces. 

that's the photo below. i can assure you it still tasted amazing!

the last batch i made was delightfully chewy!

i hope you are doing well in these times that are continuing to challenge us all!

 we know we are fortunate to be healthy and able to invite you to our orchard

 and perhaps forget about the pandemic for a brief moment or two. 

hugs,

laura

carl laidlaw orchards