Apple picking
Eye of my apple
Originally uploaded by sfllaw.
I just woke up from sleeping in all day. I was so tired when I went to bed that I'm amazed at how refreshed I am. Sleep, beautiful sleep.
Let me back up a bit. Yesterday, Saturday, we arranged to have an apple bee. So I rented a car, drove to vierge-en-trop's flat and picked her up along with callmepavlov, cpirate, and drkeys. We drove south to Mont-Saint-Grégoire, about 50 km south of Montréal. There, we got lost a bit before finding la Cidrerie Leo Boutin, which advertised tempting apple cider.
We parked the van and examined our options. We opted to pick apples first, so we paid for some plastic bags and went out back. I went around tasting the various apples from various trees: Lobos, Cortlands, Paula Reds, Empires, McIntoshes, and Spartans. I was greedy, so I had bought two large plastic bags, which we filled with Cortlands and Paula Reds. I knew I wasn't going to eat them all fresh, so I wanted plenty of apples for processing. Unfortunately, many of the trees were diseased, or had fruit that had been blackened. But we managed to get the best ones. And I got to climb a tree.
Apple pies
Originally uploaded by sfllaw.
After we picked our fill, we went inside to taste the ciders available. Many of them were quite delicious, so we made some purchases. Then we tried to have a meal, failed, and decided to go back to Montréal instead. This was a great idea, as we got to eat at Café Santropol. After a very tasty lunch, we dragged our apples to my apartment and started to work.
We peeled and sliced and peeled and sliced until our hands ached. I rolled out pie crusts and crumble topping like there was no tomorrow. And the food processor whirred constantly as it ground up apples. For dinner, we had a salad, ravioli in pesto, and apple crisp. The crisp was especially savoury because we had made it by hand, and also because of the generous amounts of butter used.
The apartment smelled of warm apples and cinnamon at this point. In the end, we ended up with about six litres of homemade applesauce, nine pies, and seven apple crisps. It was warm in the apartment, so I threw open the windows, letting in the rainy autumn air. I managed to stay awake until 4:00, tending the oven, when everyone else left with their spoils in hand. I hurt all over and was barely able to stumble to bed. By the time my head hit the pillow, I was already dreaming apple-scented dreams.