Category Archives: local

Pick a Peck: Apple Picking!

Posted on October 14, 2012 by | 2 Comments
Share on FacebookPin it on PinterestShare on Twitter+1

Yesterday was such a perfect fall day here in New Brunswick. The sun was shining, the wind was blowing, the leaves are gorgeous, and it’s a perfect cool temperature. The perfect day to be outside – apple picking!

I hadn’t been apple picking since grade school. I was so excited to go. We checked around, and found lots of orchards nearby. We decided that we’d go to one called Charlotte’s Family Orchard, in Gagetown. We chose it primarily because it has honey crisp apples – one of my favourite apples for eating. We bundled up and off we went for the afternoon, giddy like a couple of kids.

After about 40 minutes of driving, we arrive at our destination. It was a beautiful drive, to a beautiful spot in Gagetown. We drove past a lot of this:

To arrive here:

We picked up a hitch hiker along the way.

Once we got there, the real fun started. We loved every minute!

They have so many varieties of apples at Charlotte’s Family Orchard: honey crisp, russet, cortland, macintosh, jonagold, paula red, ginger gold – just to name a few. They also grow corn, plums, cherries, pears, and pumpkins. Each of the trees are marked with a coloured ribbon to let you know what kind of apple tree it is.

We chose our baskets and set off into the orchard. We wandered for a few minutes in awe before we got down to picking. We also stopped to admire the view at the end of the orchard:

Then we got to picking.

They were so delicious!

And HUGE!

Some of the good ones were so high up!

We had such a good time. I can’t wait to go again.

We brought home 10 lbs of honey crisp apples (at $1.50/lb!), and 10 lbs of various other apples, mostly cortlands (at $0.69/lb). Yeah, we have a lot of apples. I can’t wait to try a whole whack of new recipes to use them all.

We also came home with a big bag of fresh cranberries, and a 50 lb bag of buttercup squash. Yup, I’ll be looking for squash recipes too.

If you get a chance to visit a local apple orchard, and support a local farmer, I very highly recommend it. It was beautiful, rewarding, and such a good time. A great way to spend a fall afternoon.

To find out more about New Brunswick apples and apple growers, or where you can pick apples near you, visit www.applesnb.ca.

Share on FacebookPin it on PinterestShare on Twitter+1

→ 2 Comments

Posted in local

Tagged ,

Weekly Grocery Box

Posted on July 12, 2012 by | 2 Comments
Share on FacebookPin it on PinterestShare on Twitter+1

It’s July, and that means we’re starting to see all kinds of seasonal produce in our weekly grocery boxes from Real Food Connections. I’ve tried lots of new things already this year, and the season is just beginning.

Today is a fun grocery box, and I’m excited to show it to you.

Let’s not waste any time.

Here’s what we got in this week’s box:

Our usuals:

  • 2L chocolate milk
  • loaf of homemade bread – this week we chose brown bread with raisins
  • a dozen eggs
  • cheese of choice – we chose cheese curds – squeaky, squeaky cheese curds
Also in the box this week (from L-R, top to bottom):
  • a large bag of organic salad greens
  • a bag of sprouts
  • kale
  • chicory
  • fresh green peas
  • a giant zucchini
  • baby salad turnips
  • chunky peanut butter
A note about the baby turnips: they are fantastic! They’re super crunchy like a radish, but a bit sweet like turnip. They are lovely little dippers and I’ve been using them as a vehicle for all kinds of good stuff like tzatziki and hummus. They’re really strong enough to stand up to them.
Not pictured: 
  • 2 pork chops
  • 4 apple cranberry sausages
  • 1 lb ground beef
  • 2 salmon filets

And now for something completely different, tea!

This is an iced tea blend called the Antarctica blend. Very cool. Ha! Get it? Cool.

Yeah, there was a joke in there.

Share on FacebookPin it on PinterestShare on Twitter+1

→ 2 Comments

Posted in local

Tagged , ,

The Frilly Garden 2012: 7 days in, 6 plants dead

Posted on June 13, 2012 by | 1 Comment
Share on FacebookPin it on PinterestShare on Twitter+1

I have bad news.

The watermelons didn’t make it. Not a single survivor. I blame the cold temperatures we had last week.

There’s more bad news.

We lost a tomato plant too. The wind snapped it near the beginning of the week. Efforts were made to revive it, but we failed.

We’ve decided that we’ll use the mound we had for watermelon for our peppers instead. We’ll put some black landscaping fabric on the mound before we plant the peppers. The landscaping fabric serves two purposes: it will keep the earth warmer, which is great for plants like peppers, and it will help keep the weeds down. We may do the same for our tomato rows. Then we’ll probably put natural mulch over the landscaping fabric – the mulch will keep the fabric in place, and further warm the earth and keep the weeds down.

This week brought our first round of weeding. Yes, you really should weed your garden often. It took me about 2 minutes to do the whole thing, which really isn’t bad at all. If you stay on top of it, it’s much less painful. I take a big ice cream bucket around with me and put the weeds in it, then dump them elsewhere when I’m finished.

Check out this week’s weed haul:

Surprising isn’t it? I didn’t think I’d get that much either.

Now, for the most exciting news of the week! I always like to finish on a high note…

My husband made me a new (well, re-purposed wood new) herb box! All made from re-purposed wood from an old play structure we had in our back yard. I love that the wood is weathered. I love that it’s nice and big and can hold lots of lovely herbs. I loved that I actually got to help put some nails in it. I especially love that we got to make it together.

Here is our collection of annual herbs. They are growing so quickly!

Italian Flat Leaf Parsley.

Barbecue Rosemary. I have no idea why it’s called barbecue rosemary. If anyone knows, please tell me.

Purple Ruffled Basil. Like regular basil, but with a bit of a clove taste. And purple! and ruffley! It looks a bit sad in this picture, but we had just watered it, and it was having a little nap after it’s drink.

Genovese Basil. The classic. Think pesto. I just love touching it when I walk by – the aroma just brings good feelings.

Cilantro. Our newest addition. We got it a week ago, when it was only about a centimetre tall. I have a new love affair with cilantro – I’m going to give this one some extra love.

Here is this week’s garden photo. It’s not filling in much yet, but you can bet it’s going to.

All in all, we spent an entire afternoon outdoors working. I think a little reward is in order, don’t you?

Cheers, y’all.

Share on FacebookPin it on PinterestShare on Twitter+1

→ 1 Comment

Posted in local, The Frilly Garden

Tagged

Home Grown on CBC NB’s Shift: The Frilly Interview

Posted on June 8, 2012 by | Leave a comment
Share on FacebookPin it on PinterestShare on Twitter+1

It’s been a big week for The Frilly Apron.

You could say I really got my frills ruffled.

Yup, it blew my hair back.

Yesterday I had the pleasure of being interviewed by CBC Radio’s Shift.

The experience was a very exciting one. Everyone I spoke to from the show was quite fantastic, and very supportive. Somehow they also managed to make sure I didn’t sound like an awkward smurf.

Thank you so much, Shift!

Surfers, please give their site a visit – it really is full of great content covering a lot of interests and topics. Give them a follow too @ShiftNB.

You can listen to my interview here:

shiftnb_20120607_55290

Share on FacebookPin it on PinterestShare on Twitter+1

→ Leave a comment

Posted in local, The Frilly Garden

Tagged ,

Back By Popular Demand: The Box!

Posted on June 7, 2012 by | 1 Comment
Share on FacebookPin it on PinterestShare on Twitter+1

It’s box day!

I look forward to picking up our local food box from Real Food Connections every single week. Apparently, The Frilly Apron’s readers look forward to it too – there were quite a few of you wondering where my weekly photo of our food box was last week.

No worries, we got our food box last Thursday – it’s just been a little busier around our house than usual these past couple of weeks, and I didn’t get a chance to post about it.

Never fear box lovers, the weekly box post is back.

Just as a bit of an aside, I was a bit too excited to get purple ruffled basil in this week’s box.

Ruffles! Basil!

I’m in love.

Here are the other lovely things we got this week:

~ ground chicken
~ cheddar and bacon sausages
~ venison stew meat
~ beef stir fry strips
~ sharp cheddar
~ eggs
~ milk
~ homemade multigrain bread
~ honeycrisp apples
~ lentil sprouts
~ tomatoes
~ carrots (!!!)
~ 3lb russet potatoes (the BEST russets I’ve ever tasted)
~ mushrooms
~ organic garlic powder (local garlic powder = very surprising and cool)

We also added on some peanut butter and pate.

Oh, and worm castings. Not for us of course, for the growing veggies in the back yard.

Share on FacebookPin it on PinterestShare on Twitter+1

→ 1 Comment

Posted in local

Tagged ,