Monday, September 17, 2012

Harvest Festival 2012: Pt 2

THE ACTIVITIES!

Cider Making

We began with apple cider making. I thought at first that we'd turn it into alcoholic apple cider but a few things changed my mind. First, alcoholic cider has to age for a few months, so we couldn't have consumed it that day. Second, for people who didn't want booze, there wasn't anything interesting to drink unless we used the cider. Third, it was SOOOO GOOD that I questioned whether it'd be improved through fermentation. Blasphemy, I know.

All we did was buy a half bushel of apples (a sweet variety and a tart variety,) core them, and run them through the juicer. We skimmed off a bit of foam and heated the cider. Man, was it delicious! No need to add spices in my opinion.

Usually you don't need to core apples to run them through, but I was planning to make apple butter from the leftover apple mush, so it was necessary.

Lawn Art Contest!

This was perhaps the high point for me. There were three teams, 30 minutes, and very few rules other than don't smash my plants. Action shots below:








These pictures of the final products are courtesy of my dad:
Shannon & Jenni's spiral herb garden

One of Alex & Dave's three patio benches
Mom & Dad's Goldworthy-esque rock sculpture


I couldn't pick a winner, of course, because every entry was awesome. Now there is seating outside, a spiral herb garden for spring planting, and a super cool sculpture for the chickens and me to enjoy. Well done teams!!

Harvesting

We grabbed all the carrots, brussel sprouts, and a few radishes from the garden. Now it's ready for a fall planting of greens sometime this week. Thanks, team!


Mostly we just chatted and laughed like idiots. A pretty good way to spend a day if you ask me. 

No comments: