Garden Mentor With Corn to Share

September is the season of harvest. Today is the date of our harvest moon. It’s hard to believe summer is nearly gone, but so it is. A week from today is the autumnal equinox! During the harvest season I find myself sharing my garden coaching skills with neighbors. In return, I have the pleasure of sharing in their harvest!

Fresh Picked!

Over the weekend, I celebrated harvest with many of my neighbors. I’m very inclined to work on building relationships within my community, so I don’t hesitate to introduce myself to neighbors I don’t know. And, really, it has paid off. My best friends live next door. We are as close as family (but perhaps we get along better than some families). We share meals together, which means this time of year we put together many fresh harvest potlucks.

On Friday we got together to share a meal and visit together around the the firepit after dark. Bob and I offered to bring fresh, sweet corn from our abundant crops. Just before heading over to dinner, I went into the garden and harvested one ear per person. So, by the time we sat down to eat, our corn had only been off the stalk for about an hour!

Fresh Blueberries

When I walked to our neighbor’s for dinner that night, I noticed that their blueberries were laden with ripe fruit. My friends are always generous with their fruit, so I didn’t hesitate to ask if I could pick some. The next day, I hit the bushes with a large bowl in hand and cleaned the bushes. Of course, I took half of the harvest to my friends before heading home to gorge myself on fresh, sweet fruit!

Fresh Apples!

Later that day, while walking the dog, we stopped in on a neighborhood garage sale. One of our alley neighbors saw me and asked if I wanted some apples from her overflowing tree. Each year for the last 3 or 4 she has generously shared her fruit. The next morning, I grabbed the garden cart, a bucket and a ladder to harvest from her tree. First I cleaned up the windfallen fruit from the ground and then I worked on the fruit highest in the tree to save her the effort.

Dried Apple Rings for Winter

While I was picking, she came out teasing, “Thief! Thief!” We laughed, and she told me the tree had been planted in (probably) the 1930s. When she moved into the house about 20 years ago, she found just a stump that sent up a single shoot. Fortunately for her, the resulting sprout has turned out to be a tree that produces wonderful fruit. She keeps it organically, so there are worms in some, but the fruit is sweet-tart, making for great eating, baking and drying apples!

Native Huckleberries - Yum!

Later, I paid a visit to another neighbor who lives in a landscape containing almost all edible plants. I knew they had no idea that the strange black berries on their evergreen hedge were actually native huckleberries**. When I asked if they’d mind sharing, they were happy to learn about the bushes and to share the fruit. I spent at least an hour painstakingly removing the tiny, ripe berries from the shrubs. They’re a bit seedy and the skins aren’t as soft as their cultivated blueberry cousins, but the fruit is fantastic!

Fall Harvest Bowl

Over the weekend, I continued to pull tomatoes out of the garden, pick corn for pasta salads and pinch back basil to use fresh and to freeze. The harvest is abundant this time of year. I know that soon my fresh options will be much less interesting. Chard, lettuce, kale, evergreen herbs, cabbage, and peas are starting to kick in for the cool weather, so fresh foods will still be available. I’ve started germinating some fava beans to plant in a couple of beds that need their soil rejuvenated…more on that later…But, the big harvest season is on the wane. I intend to enjoy it for all it’s worth!

In addition to drying about 2 dozen apples yesterday, I also made a bisquit-style apple cobbler. I’ve decided that it makes a better breakfast than a dessert…maybe that’s because I was more hungry this morning when I ate it than I was last night. Decide for yourself. Here’s the recipe (adapted from Fanny Farmer Cookbook):

Ingredients:

• 12 T. Butter, melted
• 3 cups peeled and sliced fresh apples
• 1 T. chopped, crystalized ginger
• dash cinnamon
• dash salt
• 2/3 cup raw sugar (I use raw because I like the crunchy texture it imparts)
• 1/2 cup 1/2 and 1/2 (or milk)
• 1 egg
• 1 1/2 cup flour
• 2 t. baking powder

Apple Breakfast Bread

Preheat oven to 350F. Pour 4 T butter into deep pie plate and spread to grease the pan. Toss apples and ginger together. Arrange sliced apple/ginger combination in pan. Sprinkle dash of salt, cinnamon and 1/4 cup of sugar over apples.

Pour remaining butter into mixing bowl. Beat in half and half and egg.  Combine remaining dry ingredients in small bowl then beat into wet mixture. Drop in clumps over apples to completely cover.

Bake at 350F for about 40 minutes until toothpick comes out clean. (Check to be sure top doesn’t burn; cover with foil if it gets too brown).

(**Just a quick note: If you don’t know what a plant is, don’t assume you can eat the fruit. There are many evergreen shrubs out there with little black berries this time of year. If you aren’t 100% sure that something is what you think it is, don’t take the risk of poisoning yourself by eating it.)