Apples, Asters and Persian Pottery

The middle of October and the season showing its changes every day. Some days it’s warm and the sky is bright blue, other days it’s raining and the wind gusting through the trees. There is a nip in the air and we had a light frost a few days ago.

Wet, windy days are perfect for working in a warm kitchen with the fabulous aroma of cooking apples. Our lovely daughter gathered a basketful for me from our tree. What could be nicer in miserable weather than cooking up something delicious.

I have been simply stewing apples and adding sugar to make a melting, mouth-watering treat to have warm with vanilla ice-cream or cold with Greek-style yoghurt.

Apples make more than pies or crumbles. My Apple and Cinnamon Squares are a favourite way to enjoy these wonderful fruits. If you have cooking apples in your garden or have some from a generous gardener, try my recipe. Easier than an apple pie and also makes a good pudding. Full instructions are in my Earthy Homemaker’s Cookbook if you have it but here is my simple recipe if you don’t. This is a slightly different version.

You will need a large baking tin. I use a roaster with a vitreous enamel surface measuring 30 x 25cm (12 x 10 “)

Apple and Cinnamon Squares

Cooking Apples
200g Caster Sugar
4 large Eggs
200g Self-raising Flour
2 rounded teaspoons Baking Powder
30g Bran
200g Sunflower Oil
3 tablespoons Sugar for sprinkling
2-3 level teaspoons ground Cinnamon

Lightly grease the baking tin.
Prepare enough apples to cover the bottom of the tin and slice into a bowl of salted water.
Heat the oven to 180C/ 160C for fan oven.
Put the caster sugar, eggs, flour, baking powder, bran and oil into a mixing bowl and mix well.
Drain the apples and arrange in the bottom of the tin.
Spread the cake mixture on top to cover the apple slices.
The mixture might seem a bit stiff but will absorb the moisture from the apples.
Mix the sprinkling sugar and cinnamon together and sprinkle over the surface of the cake mixture.
Note: You can, instead, sprinkle the cinnamon and sugar over the apples before adding the cake mixture, as in my original recipe,  but sprinkling on the top of the mixture creates a lovely sweet, crunchy topping.
Bake for 30 minutes.
Allow to cool completely before cutting into squares.
They are even nicer the next day and they also freeze well.

The tomato plants in the greenhouse look bedraggled and sad but they're still producing lovely tomatoes. I will keep them going until the nights are too cold. The ones in the polytunnel have been gathered in. Some are red and some are still green. A basketful will keep for weeks as they slowly ripen. There's no need to put them with a banana as often suggested. Tomatoes give off enough of their own ethylene gas to enable the ripening process.

I’ve planted “All the Year Round” cauliflowers in the tunnel where the tomatoes grew over the summer. In the other tunnel I’ve planted my favourite kale. It’s called “Red Winter” although it only has a purpley tint on its frilly leaves. The Spring cabbages are growing well now after an early setback when some kind of caterpillars were feasting on the young plants. Surprising because they’re in the tunnel and the door is kept closed. Creatures always find a way in!

Parsnips and celeriac are ready now to enjoy and I have a few carrots although the carrots are a bit small. I never seem to sow the seeds thinly enough. Overcrowded carrots never grow to full size. You would think I’d mastered that one by now! Still plenty to learn.

The asters are delighting me with their beautiful colours. Such lovely flowers and visited by lots of insects including butterflies. I haven’t managed to snap any butterflies on them yet this year but I’m still hopeful.

The rudbeckias have been lovely and even as they fade they have a gentle beauty.

I have a lovely Salvia shrub which gives me pleasure every year. It has scarlet flowers. It’s not “Hot Lips” because that has white as well as red but I’ve never known the variety name. It doesn’t matter because I love it. I cut back to new growth in spring and it never fails to please. I should take some cuttings because nothing lasts forever and I’ve had it for a few years.

Here are some other lovely views in the garden right now.

The garden is having a last fling before frost crumbles everything to dust. Then the plants can rest and so can the gardener. October is a winding down month when there are still pleasures but signs of decay and dormancy.

Here is a little poem I composed a year or two ago about October.

October Days

Sunny spells and sudden rain,
Rustling leaves and drooping flowers.
That time of year is here again
With daylight's fleeting hours.

Spider webs are glistening wet,
The moss is emerald green.
Sombre clouds, a constant threat
And whipping winds are keen.

Then the sun bursts through again,
Golden light upon the wall,
Glowing on the windowpane
where the raindrops fall.

Scents of earth fill the air
Damp morning mists arise,
The trees are almost bare
As the restless wind sighs.

We will gather in our winter fuel
To keep us safe and warm
And plan for Spring's renewal
To ward off Winters harm.

And finally, here is my favourite vase. I bought this some years ago from Chough Studio Pottery in Cornwall. I had my eye on it for a week or two in the online shop and finally succumbed to its charms. I would love to know more about it but its history remains obscure. I even wrote to the British Museum for information but they weren’t sure of its origins. They suggested it may be a Qajar vase from Persia but couldn’t help me further. It doesn’t really matter because I love the shape and the design.

With you again in two weeks’ time. Meanwhile enjoy the changing season with its capricious weather. Bye for now.