Pies

We are going to the Oregon City Farmer's Market on Wednesdays. This week we will bring the following pies:

Whole Wheat and Butter Crust:

Apple Raspberry

Rhubarb Custard (very good!)

Lemon Meringue

Sugar Free Apple

Gluten Free, Egg Free, but not dairy free: (Made with butter)

Apple

Rhubarb

Last week I made a dairy free pie using Earth Balance shortening (margarine). It was an acceptable crust. (We like our butter.)

Thinning the apples

We had a great fruit set, eventhough the blossoms were very late this year. Looking forward to a great harvest. A great fruit set means lots of time out in the orchard thinning the apples, so they can get to an acceptable size. When a tree has 300 tiny apples on it and you have to take off all but 100 of them, it is a tedious job. The sunshine feels good, though. The reward is picking the wonderful fruit in....wow! As early as 8 weeks from now!

What's Available Now

Actually, nothing is available now. We had a few Akane and Gravenstein apples in August and early September. There aren't enough Jonagold to talk about. We have a very limited amount of Melrose; they aren't ready for another 3 or 4 weeks. Unfortunately, I'm not the only farmer with difficulties. I am watching the farms in the area and it looks like poor crops for most farmers. They have no idea how they will harvest the cauliflower due to the very wet fields.
We do hope to have a great harvest of Braeburn apples, the 3rd and 4th weeks of October. They are smaller than they have been other years, but they are plentiful.