Sunday, September 24, 2006

Hedge trimming and apple butter

When I first moved to the UK about 14 years ago I knew that there would be things that would no longer be available to me. One of those things was apple butter.




Not being satisfied with this, I dug out all my American cook books and found a recipe for apple butter. You know what? I like my own homemade version better than any that I've ever tasted.



Recently I was given about a bushel of cooking apples. Half of them have already been turned into apple butter.



Later on in the week, I'll get the other half bushel peeled - peeler pictured above with the newly brewed apple butter - and cooked down. I'm out of cinnamon at the moment and will need to get some when I'm in town.



Yesterday saw the return of hedge trimming guy. He has promised to get to the other hedges before he leaves the area, but the front hedge has been trimmed. It looks better doesn't it?

Before



After - So straight too!!


Note: This is how our hedges are usually trimmed. Tractor with attachment. The tractor guy can get it done a lot faster than we can.

9 comments:

Jay said...

I've never tried apple butter. But, it sounds pretty yummy. A lot of homemade stuff is better than what can be found in the stores. The hedge does look good.

Anonymous said...

apple butter sounds wonderful - but how do you make it?

gawilli said...

Apple butter on warm toast. Yum.

We trim our little bit of hedges and it is always an interesting adventure. What usually happens is they start out great, and then by the time we get down to the other end they get smaller, then you have to try to even them out...get the picture? Your's look wonderful.

Peggy said...

Apple butter IS wonderful. As soon as this particular batch was finished, we ran out of sliced bread. They didn't even wait for me to get it all in the jars before making toast.

I'll put the recipe up on the Whitelees food blog.

Kell said...

I'm heading over to the food blog to get the recipe! I love apple butter.

Anonymous said...

You could totally sell that stuff, you know. Introduce one of the dazzling perks of über-cosmo Yankiness to primitive Scots culture!

Bob said...

Thats what I call a hedge cutter - I want one! I never heard of apple butter before but I'm going to look in to it now as I have loads of apples. I must say that this is a nice blog.

Peggy said...

The Apple butter recipe is now available on my food blog.

Davey, I have thought about marketing the stuff as I seem to be the only person in the whole of Scotland that makes the stuff. But then I'd have to spend most of my days peeling apples. Not a lot of personal growth to be had in that.

For those who have never had it, it is the best thing after butter that has ever been put on toast.

Peggy said...

UKBob, thanks for visiting. Come back again soon!