|
The
threatening frosts were enough to get gardeners to hurry and pick
their tomato crops and tarp the plants to try and stretch the season.
One friend of the family boasted he'd brought in 300 pounds of tomatoes
and he hadn't picked them all!
The northern counties in Washington State got
enough rain by the start of October to green up pastures. Hay prices
were very high and horse and cattle feeders continued to scramble
to secure a good supply of hay for winter. Even poor quality hay
was selling fast and it was rumored that corn stalks were being
baled and shipped to California from Oregon.
Some rain arrived to catch fourth cutting alfalfa
hay still in the field which was bad news for the hay growers but
the rain was welcomed by those who had recropped fields to winter
wheat; as the Australian wheat crop failed due to bad weather and
world-wide wheat prices have soared. Mid-way
through October, the Central Washington fruit growing regions including
Yakima and Kittitas Valleys were seeing heavy morning dew but no
killing frosts, although at least near Ellensburg, the valley floor
had spotty frosts a week or so earlier.
|
Blueberry farmers, small growers and plot gardeners
wanting to expand their blueberry patches were underway with fall
plantings. The farm to market and fruit stand folks were setting
up their corn mazes and readying the pumpkin fields for U-Pick and
Halloween activity.
Throughout the Northwest, fall leaves were brilliantly
colored for all to enjoy before the coming winds and rains would
inevitably arrive to strip the trees bare for the bleaker days of
winter.
|
Excerpt
from An Autumn Holiday by Sarah Orne Jewett
 I
had started early in the afternoon for a long walk; it was just the weather
for walking, and I went across the fields with a delighted heart. The
wind came straight in from the sea, and the sky was bright blue; there
was a little tinge of red still lingering on the maples, and my dress
brushed over the late golden-rods, while my old dog, who seemed to have
taken a new lease of youth, jumped about wildly and raced after the little
birds that flew up out of the long brown grass—the constant little chickadees,
that would soon sing before the coming of snow. But this day brought no
thought of winter; it was one of the October days when to breathe the
air is like drinking wine, and every touch of the wind against one's face
is a caress: like a quick, sweet kiss, that wind is. You have a sense
of companionship; it is a day that loves you. - Deephaven
and Selected Stories and Sketches by Sarah Orne Jewett, 1881 [EBook
#15985]
It was after Patty Sessions had settled in Utah
in the 1840's that she had developed the Sessions
Plum for which Vicki Martin was searching. Vicki wrote, “I know you’re
specialty is apples/pears but do you know how to research getting this
tree?” Her three times great grandmother, Patty Bartlett Sessions, daughter
of Enoch Bartlett, developer of the much more famous Bartlett Pear, came
to Utah by covered wagon bringing with her fruit trees tied to her wagon,
the roots wrapped in seaweed which she kept moist even when water supplies
were short. Like her famous father, Patty Bartlett Sessions was a horticulturist
and had learned those skills at her father's knee.
Patty Bartlett Sessions spent a great deal of a very long
and productive life in Bountiful, Utah. She was well known for her midwifery
practice but also adept at gardening and horticulture. The Sessions Plum
was her best success, of which had been written as late as 1975, "is still
grown in Utah". The question remained, where is the Sessions Plum today?
The search for the Sessions Plum was underway. As with most tales of "lost
and found", those who had a specimen growing in their home orchard plots
did not even realize it was missing!
Vicki Martin was pursuing every avenue
in tracking down this heirloom fruit tree. A horticultural officer at
the Extension Service was not familiar with it but a 35 year nurseryman
at Valley Nursery claimed to have heard of it though did not know where
to get it. A reference to the Sessions Plum turned up in a book published
in 1975 titled The City Bountiful by Leslie Foy that reported Patty
Sessions Plum was widely available in northern Utah when the book was
published. More than thirty years had passed since then and the three
times great granddaughter of Patty Bartlett Sessions still was not any
closer to finding her ancestress’s tree.
Recognized for outstanding homegrown vegetables, including
rhubarb, potatoes and turnips, Patty Session won awards at the local Agricultural
fairs; yet it was the Sessions Plum, described in literature as "a
small, meaty, sweet fruit" that brought her kudos in the horticultural
field. But the kudos didn't last; although the fruit tree was propagated
and sold for awhile, it disappeared from the nurserymans' sales list and
faded into obscurity. Except that Vicki Martin knew about it, knew about
her famous ancestress who developed it, and wanted to find it. She was
on a mission.
In researching the popular American Plum varieties of the
19th century, as described in Downing's Fruit and Fruit Trees of America
(12th edition, 1853), most had origins in England or France, or if originating
in the United States, were from the States of New York, New Jersey or
Pennsylvania. The Downing's did not mention any western plum varieties.
I wrote Vicki to tell her that I had checked in my old fruit texts for
a reference to "Sessions Plum" but nothing had turned up. Since Patty
Sessions had strong ties to the State of Utah where the Sessions Plum
originated, perhaps one of the local, horticultural experts there would
be of help.The name of Dr. Brent Black, Utah State University Extension
Fruit Specialist and Horticulture Scientist, was suggested as a contact
regarding the Sessions Plum.
We didn't hear back from Vicki for quite awhile but she
was being persistent! She searched local nurseries; she called the fruit
growers on a list that the Extension Service provided; she contacted various
web sites including ours and Seed
Savers Exchange; she talked to folks at Utah State University, and
then, finally, success! Joy Bossi, host of a popular Salt Lake City Garden
Call-in Radio Show, Joy
in the Garden, as well as a reporter for ABC 4's "Good Things
Utah" mentioned Vicki's search for the "elusive" Sessions Plum,
and the daughter of a Sessions Plum tree owner called in.
Nearly three months after the great-granddaughter, three
times over, of Patty Bartlett Sessions began her search for an antique
Sessions Plum tree, FruitFromWashington.com received this messager: "SUCCESS!...I
took my mother and a friend to pick plums...It is a small sweet plum with
small pits--similar to the italian prune but one bite size and not so
messy." She told us that the owner graciously consented for Dr. Brent
Black from Utah State University to cut scion wood in the Spring and propagate
a few Session Plum Trees. The Utah Botanic Garden would be a recipient
of one and descendants of Patty Sessions would be the recipients of others,
as the trees would be auctioned at a Sessions Family reunion in July.
Vickie is modest in her role of keeping the past alive.
" I just hope others who know of this type of achievement--Patty's
of course--in inventing a new but now forgotten plant will find the effort
to search it out and keep it going. We owe it to them!"
Resources for more about how to locate
endangered, antique and heirloom plants:
Vegetables and Fruits: A Guide to Heirloom Varieties and Community-Based
Stewardship. Volume
1 Annotated Bibliography.
Vegtables and Fruit: A Guide to Heirloom Varieties and Community-Based
Stewardship. Volume
2 Resource Organizations.
Vegetables and Fruits: A Guide to Heirloom Varieties and Community-Based
Stewardship. Volume
3 Historic Supplement.
More about the life and times of Patty Sessions can be
found in "Covered Wagon Women: Diaries and Letters from the Western Trails,
1840-1849," edited by Kenneth L. Holmes and published by the University
of Nebraska Press.
|
Month
of October and November
Featured Recipes
This group of traditional recipes are reprinted from Mary at
the Farm and Book of Recipes Compiled during Her Visit among the
"Pennsylvania Germans", by Edith M. Thomas.
FRAU SCHMIDT'S "HUTZEL BROD"
* 1 quart dried pears.
* 1 pint of pear juice.
* 1 Fleischman's yeast cake.
* 1 scant cup brown sugar.
* 2 eggs.
* ¼ teaspoonful soda.
* 1 pound of soaked raisins.
* ¾ cup of a mixture of lard and butter.
* 1 teaspoonful of fennel seed.
* Pinch of salt.
* 2 teaspoonfuls of ground cinnamon.
* Flour to stiffen, as for ordinary bread.
Cover one quart of dried pears with cold water and cook slowly
about 20 minutes until they have cooked tender, but not soft (the
night before the day on which the bread is to be baked). Then drain
the juice from stewed pears, which should measure 1 pint; when lukewarm,
add 1 yeast cake, dissolved in a small quantity of lukewarm water,
and about 3 cups of flour and a pinch of salt. Stand, closely-covered,
in a warm place over night to raise.
The following morning, add ¼ teaspoonful of baking soda, dissolved
in a little warm water, to counteract any acidity of batter. Cream
together sugar, butter and lard, add eggs one at a time, men the
well-floured, diced pears, also raisins, cinnamon and fennel seed,
and enough flour to stiffen as for ordinary bread. Knead well, let
rise; it will require some time, as the fruit retards the raising
process. When light, turn onto a bake-board, cut into four portions,
mold into four shapely loaves, place in pans, brush with melted
butter and when quite light, place in a moderate oven and bake one
hour.
This bread will keep well several weeks, if kept in a tin cake
box. This recipe is much simpler than Aunt Sarah's recipe for making
"Hutzel Brod," but bread made from this recipe is excellent.
"LEMON APPLE" PIE
Grate the yellow rind from a lemon (discard the white
part of rind), grate the remainder of the lemon, also pare and grate
1 apple. Add 1½ cups of sugar, then add 2 well-beaten eggs. Pour
this mixture into 1 large pie-tin lined with rich pastry; place
on a top crust, pinch edges, moistened with water, together; bake
in an oven with a steady heat. When pie has baked sift pulverized
sugar thickly over top and serve cold. From these materials was
baked a fair sized pie.
APPLE CUSTARD PIE
To 1 cup of hot apple sauce (unsweetened) add a tiny
pinch of baking soda, 1 tablespoonful of butter, 1 cup of sugar,
grated rind and juice of half a lemon or orange, 2 egg yolks, ½
cup of sweet cream and 1 large teaspoonful of corn starch.
Line a pie-tin with pastry, pour in this mixture
and bake. When the pie has cooled spread over top a meringue composed
of the two stiffly beaten whites of eggs and two tablespoonfuls
of pulverized sugar flavored with a little grated orange or lemon
peel. Brown top of pie in oven.
FLORENDINE PIE
To 2 apples, cooked soft and mashed fine (after having
been pared and cored) add the yolk of one egg (well beaten) one
minute before removing the cooked apple from the range. Then add
1 small cup of sugar, a piece of butter the size of a hickory nut,
1 teaspoonful of flour; flavor with either lemon or vanilla.
|
Line a pie-tin with rich pastry crust. Pour in the mixture and
bake in a quick oven. This makes a delicious old-fashioned dessert.
APPLE TART
Line pie-tins with rich pie crust, sift over each 1 tablespoonful
flour and 2 tablespoonfuls sugar. Place on the crust enough good,
tart baking apples, which have been pared, cored, halved and placed
(flat surface down) on the crust. Put bits of butter over the top
and between the apples, about 1 large tablespoonful altogether,
and sprinkle about 2 tablespoonfuls of sugar over, add about 1 tablespoonful
of cold water when pies are ready to place in oven. These pies should
be baked in a very hot oven.
When apples are soft take pies from oven and serve one pie, hot;
stand the other one aside until quite cold. To the stiffly beaten
white of one egg add one tablespoonful sugar. Stir together and
place a spoonful on the top of each half of apple and place in oven
until meringue has browned and serve pie cold. Peach tarts may be
made in a similar manner, omitting the meringue and substituting
peaches for apples.
"FRAU" SCHMIDT'S RECIPE FOR APPLE BUTTER
For this excellent apple butter take 5 gallons of cider, 1 bucket
of "Schnitz" (sweet apples were always used for the "Schnitz"),
2½ pounds of brown sugar and 1 ounce of allspice.
The cider should be boiled down to one-half the original quantity
before adding the apples, which had been pared and cored. Cider
for apple butter was made from sweet apples usually, but if made
from sour apples 4 pounds of sugar should be used.
The apple butter should be stirred constantly. When cooked sufficiently,
the apple butter should look clear and be thick as marmalade and
the cider should not separate from the apple butter. Frau Schmidt
always used "Paradise" apples in preference to any other variety
of apple for apple butter.
AUNT SARAH'S SPICED PEARS
Bartlett pears may be used, pared and cut in halves and core and
seeds removed, or small sweet Seckel pears may be pared. Left whole,
allow stems to remain, weigh, and to 7 pounds of either variety
of pear take one pint of good cider vinegar, 3 pounds granulated
sugar, a small cheese cloth bag containing several tablespoonfuls
of whole cloves and the same amount of stick cinnamon, broken in
pieces; all were placed in a preserving kettle and allowed to come
to a boil. Then the pears were added and cooked until tender. The
fruit will look clear when cooked sufficiently.
Remove from the hot syrup with a perforated spoon. Fill pint glass
jars with the fruit. Stand jars in a warm oven while boiling syrup
until thick as honey. Pour over fruit, in jars, and seal while hot.
For more heirloom recipes see
the FruitFromWashington.com Heirloom
recipes page.
|
World War I Period Poster by the U.S. Food Administration,
ca. 1918. "Eat more corn, oats, and
rye products- fish and poultry- fruits, vegetables, and potatoes,
Baked, Broiled, and Boiled Foods. Eat less wheat, wheat sugar and
fats to save for the army and our allies." Source:
National Archives at College Park, MD. See more Harvest
and Food Fighters Posters from
World War I and World War II. |
From James Whitcomb Riley's "WHEN THE FROST IS ON
THE PUNKIN"
Then your apples all is getherd, and the ones a
feller keeps
Is poured around the celler-floor in red and yeller heaps;
And your cider-makin's over, and your wimmern-folks is through
With their mince and apple-butter, and theyr souse and saussage,
too! . . .
I don't know how to tell it - but ef sich a thing could be
As the Angels wantin' boardin', and they'd call around on me -
I'd want to 'commodate 'em - all the whole-indurin' flock -
When the frost is on the punkin and the fodder's in the shock.
|
|
The
FruitFromWashington.com
Archive Feature of the Month
 |
| Title: Planning for an adequate home
grown food supply brought to this New York woman, as
to hundred thousands like her throughout the country,
a realization of the economic value of farm produced
food and fuel, and a keener appreciation of the advantages
of farm living. (1942) FDR Library ID #: 48223933(219).
Courtesy of the Franklin D. Roosevelt Library Digital
Archives. |
The FruitFromWashington
Archive Feature metaphorically blows the dust off of an
image or document from our past and brings it to the light
of day for a new audience to see.
|
|
|
FALL -
THE THREE APPLES
The old apple tree stood in the
orchard with the other trees, and all summer long it had stretched
out its branches wide to catch the rain and the sun to make its
apples grow round and ripe. Now it was fall, and on the old apple
tree were three great apples as yellow as gold and larger than any
other apples in the whole orchard. The apple tree stretched and
reached as far as it could, until the branch on which the three
gold apples grew hung over the orchard wall. There were the three
great apples, waiting for some one to pick them, and as the wind
blew through the leaves of the apple tree it seemed to sing:
"Here in the orchard are apples
three,
Who uses one well shall a treasure see."
And one morning Gerald came down
the lane that passed by the orchard wall. He looked longingly at
the three gold apples, wishing, wishing that he might have one.
Just then the wind sang its song again in the leaves of the apple
tree and, plump, down to the ground, right at Gerald's feet, fell
one of the three gold apples.
He picked it up and turned it round
and round in his hands. How sweet it smelled, and how mellow and
juicy it was! Gerald could think of nothing so good to do with such
a beautiful ripe apple as to eat it. He put it to his mouth and
took a great bite of it, then another bite, and another. Soon there
was nothing left of the apple but the core, which Gerald threw away.
He smacked his lips and went on his way, but the wind in the apple
trees sang, sorrowfully, after him:
"Here in the orchard are apples
two,
But gone is the treasure that fell for you."
And after a while Hilda came down
the lane that passed by the orchard wall. She looked up at the two
beautiful gold apples that hung on the branch of the old apple tree,
and she listened to the wind as it sang in the branches to her:
"Here in the orchard are apples
two,
A treasure they hold for a child like you."
Then the wind blew harder and, plump,
an apple fell in the lane right in front of Hilda.
She picked it up joyfully. She had
never seen so large and so golden an apple. She held it carefully
in her clasped hands and thought what a pity it would be to eat
it, because then it would be gone.
"I will keep this gold apple always,"
Hilda said, and she wrapped it up in the clean handkerchief that
was in her pocket. Then Hilda went home, and there she laid away
in a drawer the gold apple that the old apple tree had given her,
closing the drawer tightly. The apple lay inside, in the dark, and
all wrapped up, for many days, until it spoiled. And when Hilda
next went down the lane and past the orchard, the wind in the apple
tree sang to her:
"Only one apple where once there
were two,
Gone is the treasure I gave to you."
Last of all, Rudolph went down the
lane one fine fall morning when the sun was shining warm and the
wind was out. There, hanging over the orchard wall, he saw just
one great gold apple that seemed to him the most beautiful apple
that he had ever seen. As he stood looking up at it, the wind in
the apple tree sang to him, and it said:
"Round and gold on the apple tree,
A wonderful treasure, hanging, see!"
Then the wind blew harder, and down
fell the last gold apple of the three into Rudolph's waiting hands.
He held it a long time and looked
at it as Gerald and Hilda had, thinking how good it would be to
eat, and how pretty it would be to look at if he were to save it.
Then he decided not to do either of these things. He took his jack-knife
out of his pocket and cut the gold apple in half, straight across,
and exactly in the middle between the blossom and the stem.
Oh, the surprise that waited for
Rudolph inside the apple! There was a star, and in each point of
the star lay a small black seed. Rudolph carefully took out all
the seeds and climbed over the orchard wall, holding them in his
hand. The earth in the orchard was still soft, for the frost had
not yet come. Rudolph made holes in the earth and in each hole he
dropped an apple seed. Then he covered up the seeds and climbed
back over the wall to eat his apple, and then go on his way.
But as Rudolph walked down the lane,
the orchard wind followed him, singing to him from every tree and
bush,
"A planted seed is a treasure won.
The work of the apple is now well done."
- TELL
ME ANOTHER STORY THE BOOK OF STORY PROGRAMS BY Carolyn Sherwin Bailey
1918 MILTON BRADLEY COMPANY SPRINGFIELD, MASS. Title: Tell Me Another
Story The Book of Story Programs Author: Carolyn Sherwin Bailey
Release Date: October 29, 2006 [EBook #19661]
|
Receive
our e-mail web letter.
|
Quick
Click Highlights for Fall
•
Grocery
List •
Calorie
Search • Fruit
Calorie Search •
Searchable recipe database
• Virtual
Art Gallery of Fruit Still Life, Farm & Orchard Scenes
• Fall Garden Tips •
Fruit
Tree Pest Management •
Computer wallpaper by Katie Eberhart: Fall
Orchard Images •
Fruit
Crate Label Screensaver
• Ellensburg,
Washington - Badger Pocket Web Cam •
Harvest Time Literary Quotes
•
Washington Kindergartner
Postcard Exchange Project • Weather
Links
find the very best of land
in a beautiful Valley of matchless climate with opportunities too numerous
to mention, with prosperity on all sides of him and where, finally, there
is absolute assurance that a normal amount of ability and industry will
be met by that friend we are all seeking. INDEPENDENCE! - The
Coast Alaska and Greater Northwest, May 1908.
|
 Vanderbilt
Country Estates is located on the south hills of the Kittitas
Valley in central Washington
Vanderbilt
Country Estates (VCE) is located within the orchard districts of
the south hills of the Kittitas Valley in central Washington, on
the eastern side of the Cascade Mountains. Covenants are attached
to land sales to protect the overall quality of the entire development.
VCE features amenities such as a pedestrian and equestrian trail
system for the private use of members of this rural development.
Phase II lots that are available are about three acres to about
seven acres in size and prices vary accordingly. New residents may
either farm their own open land or have it farmed for them contractually
to preserve the current tax status. (Click
for more). Telephoto
view from Vanderbilt Country Estates - Photo by Urban Eberhart
|
Kittitas County, Washington - Vanderbilt Country Estates Natural
Areas Preserved for Wildlife
|
Webmasters -
We invite you to link to our site. Drop us a line and let us know who
you are so we can create a reciprocal link! Or you may already be included
in one of our garden links or recipes
links pages, in which case we hope we can have a reciprocal link.
Choose from our link graphics
or text or create
a text link to a FruitFromWashington.com page that's pertinent to your
site.
|
For
information on what apples and pears are ready to ship now, and to place
an order by phone, call Big Apple Country & Gifts during business
hours at 509-925-2900
or if you are in the Ellensburg area, stop by their fruit stand at 1711
S. Canyon Road (at the south freeway interchange).
