Its such an amazing trip every single time I visit S Carolina or London! The boys make sure their mother is taken out to visit places she can write about for her magazines. So this time since it was Fall, Annika booked our visit to our favourite Jetta Farms. One can go apple picking for 35$ a basket and you can eat as much as you like while picking! Been told to do it for my farm by the boys -- open it up for chickoo and mango picking but I'm reluctant as its a massive undertaking. Plus Jetta makes money on Cider donuts and all sorts of produce including warm Cider and pies. You can make a whole days outing like we do -- buying food and enjoying the day out. I ant do that in Hoskote unless I am present to oversee it.
Its a fun trip and of course I got a great story for my mags. The apples had been damaged when young by a freak hail storm. To heal themselves, they grew a bump around eat hit!
The Depot where we took our harvest.
Looked a bit like chicken pox and not very appealing, but we were educated on the issue once we were taken to the orchard. I was curious and so bit off the lump to see it was exactly that! a growth by the fruit to heal the 'wound'!
The lumps and bumps on the fruit
Reading up on the phenomenon, I wanted to be sure before I wrote a story for any magazine. Yes! Nature is wonderful in helping to heal the fruit rather than leave it open to attack from a virus or fungus. The apples were perfect to crunch into. Fresh and juicy unlike the powdery ones we get in India. I bought a huge bottle of apple cider vinegar as I love it in all meat dishes and ofcourse the hot and sweet Brinjal pickle which Mum used to make and I do now.
Hammered by sharp hail stones
We walked around picking a whole variety of apples and took the basket home. I had brought some apples from Davids tree which Alaina and me made an apple pie with but she insisted we make one with Stevia so we made the first one with Stevia and I scoffed the whole thing alone!
Alaina is 11 and a fine chef already!
It was Alaina who quickly found the shell of the pie in Aldis and said it saves tons of time. Then I sliced the apples and quickly sauteed them with cinnamon and Stevia. Oooh! the smell of cinnamon is enough to make me salivate. A squeeze of lemon"!: said Alaina will give the final flavour and it did!
Then we pushed it into the oven for a few minutes and then I could enjoy apple pie after years. Being diabetic means a lot of food I do not touch, but this one time sorted my cravings till the next time Alaina makes me something with Stevia! Its so very sad that Mum and Dad cannot enjoy these kids like I do. I know they would have loved them like they did my David and Andrew! There is so much the boys remember of their years with them and I am truly grateful.
The tractor what took us around the farm
