GREEN ORCHARD, HARVEST HILL — Next door to the Rhymes farm, at the top of the hill, sits the orchard everyone in this valley has an opinion about. Mrs. Adams is too old now to do the harvesting herself, but she still gets her sticky little fingers into the baking — and Matta will tell you her apple whatevers are the absolute BEST.
First, The Orchard
The trees are Waabach trees, raised by the waters of the Manna River, and their fruit comes out sweet in both scent and taste. One tree in the middle — the Green Tree — is the only one raised on the magical waters.
“That tree is the only one in these parts which holds apples tasting of honey cinnamon.”
And there is a rule, which the whole orchard hangs on: if an apple hits the ground before it is caught, it turns brown and rots on the spot, and the old wives say it can ruin next year’s harvest besides. So at picking time five or six people stand in a circle around the trunk with baskets and wait. Once the first apple falls, the rest come within a day or two. And whoever catches that first apple gets a year of good luck.
The year Petra caught it, Mrs. Adams won best pie — and won the next several besides.
The loaf that spoiled a goose
Apple Bread
After Petra caught the first apple, Mrs. Adams showered her with apple bread for an entire week. Matta was not complaining.
PICTURE GOES HERE
A dark, dense loaf on a board, one end cut, steam still coming off it — and a goose in the corner of the frame if you want her there
What's In It
- Waabach apples, chopped rough, not grated — you want to find them
- Flour
- Brown sugar and a spoon of honey
- Butter, melted
- Buttermilk
- Two eggs
- A spoon of soda and a pinch of salt
- Her autumn spices
How It's Made
The apples are picked one day and baked the next. Never the same day. That is not fussiness — it's the whole method.
- Chop the apples rough and leave them in a bowl overnight with a scatter of the brown sugar over them. By morning they'll have given up a good deal of juice. Keep that juice.
- Beat the eggs, the melted butter, the rest of the sugar, the honey and the buttermilk together, then stir in the apple juice you saved.
- Fold in the flour, soda, salt and spices — only just until it comes together. Beat it hard and you'll get a rubber loaf.
- Fold the chopped apples through last.
- Into a greased tin and into a moderate oven. Do not open the door to look. A loaf this wet will sink in the middle if you let the heat out early.
- It's done when a straw pushed into the middle comes out clean. Let it sit in the tin a good while before you turn it out, or it will break in half.
Where You'll Find It
At the Adams farmhouse from the first picking right through to the end of autumn. Also, for one memorable week, fed almost entirely to a goose.
Autumn, by the basketful
Honeyed Apple Cookies
Soft, spiced, and handed out to anyone who stands in the catching circle. Which is most of the reason half the town turns up.
PICTURE GOES HERE
A cooling rack of soft, humped cookies flecked with grated apple, on the Adams kitchen table
What's In It
- Waabach apples, grated skin and all — the everyday orchard apples, not the Green Tree ones
- Honey, a good pour of it, instead of half the sugar
- Butter, soft
- One egg
- Flour and a spoon of soda
- A pinch of salt
- Her autumn spices — and that is all she will say about that
How It's Made
- Beat the soft butter with the honey and the sugar until it's light. Honey takes longer than sugar alone. Keep going.
- Beat in the egg.
- Grate the apples straight into the bowl, skin and all, and fold them through before they have a chance to go brown.
- Work in the flour, soda, salt and spices. The batter will be wetter than you expect. That's the apple, and it's meant to be.
- Drop it in spoonfuls onto a greased tin, well apart, and bake in a hot oven until the edges take color but the middles still look underdone.
- Off the tin and onto a rack straight away. They finish setting as they cool, and they stay soft for days — if they last days, which they do not.
Where You'll Find It
At the Adams farmhouse all through autumn, and pressed into the hands of every last person who helped with the harvest.
Cooling on the windowsill
Apple Pie
Her apple pie, plain and proper. The very same pie she carries to the Fifer Pie Contest every year — a contest Mrs. Adams does not intend to lose again.
What's In It
- Waabach apples, peeled thin and cut thick — and for the contest pie, Green Tree apples only, caught and never fallen
- Sugar, and less than you'd think
- A spoonful of flour to hold the juice
- Her autumn spices — except in the contest pie, where the Green Tree apple already tastes of honey cinnamon and adding more is how you lose
- Butter, cold, for the crust
- Flour, salt and ice water, also for the crust
How It's Made
- Peel the apples thin and cut them thick. Thin slices go to mush.
- Toss them with the sugar, the spices and the spoonful of flour. Leave them be while you make the crust.
- Cut the cold butter into the flour and salt, bring it together with ice water, and handle it as little as you can stand to.
- Line the tin, pile the apples in high, and lattice the top — strips over and under, not a solid lid. A lattice is not for looks. It lets you see the fruit and it lets the steam out so the bottom doesn't go soggy.
- Bake slow and long. Every year somebody at the Fifer bakes theirs fast and hot and serves the judges a raw apple in a pretty crust.
- Cool it completely. A warm pie will not slice clean, and a slice that will not hold its shape has never won anything.
Where You'll Find It
Cooling on the Adams farmhouse windowsill all through autumn. And once a year on the judges’ table at the Fifer Pie Contest, where she lost three years running when nobody caught the first apple — and she has not forgotten a single one of those years.