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Harvest Recipes It’s
harvest time in the mountains. Orchards are full of mouth-watering apples, huge
fields are full of cabbage, sugar cane is being cut and prepared for molasses
making. Other fields, full of corn are being cut and ground into silage to feed
dairy cattle through the winter. Thousands of pumpkins of all shapes and sizes
are ripe and chestnut trees have burrs that are popping open to drop their shiny
brown nuts to the ground. All of these things are cultivated, add to them the
wild chinquapins and fox grapes and it makes for a busy time of year. All
along our roadsides, there are big, commercial produce stands and small family
operated ones alike, inviting you to share in our harvest. You can also visit
the orchards and buy apples by the bushels. They just don’t come any fresher
than that. As
for the cabbage crops in this area, mountain grown cabbage is the best, sweetest
cabbage grown anywhere in the world. You can buy it here, where it is grown, for
a fraction of the supermarket prices, by individual heads or fifty pound
bags. If you’re thinking what would I do with 50 pounds of cabbage, I’ll
give you some good ideas. First, there is a good country kraut, freezer slaw,
stuffed pickled peppers, and chow-chow. All these things could be put up to last
you all winter. You might want 100 pounds instead of 50! Pumpkins
are good keepers, lasting many months just as they are. It’s best to keep them
in a cool place (as for most produce). I’m sure you already know the joy of
homemade pumpkin pies, but have you ever tried pumpkin bread or pumpkin butter?
Pumpkin butter is made like apple butter. Farmers years ago used to grow
pumpkins in their corn fields both for eating and for storing away in their
barns and cut up in winter months to supplement the hay they fed their cows.
Pumpkins gave the cows their extra nutrients needed to keep them healthy through
the winter months. We
hope you will come spend a weekend at harvest time. You’re bound to enjoy it
and save a lot of money if you take advantage of buying the produce direct from
our local harvests. We hope you enjoy these recipes. You might like to try some
of them as side dishes for Thanksgiving. COUNTRY
KRAUT Good
country kraut is made in an earthenware crock. (The size of your crock will
determine the amount you make.) Cut
up fresh cabbage in the size and shape you like best for kraut. If it is
shredded smaller, it will ferment faster. When you have it chopped, add salt to
your taste and squeeze it in your hands thoroughly to bruise it. Keep doing this
until you have the cabbage packed down tight and it has released enough water to
cover it. Then place a flat plate on top of it and sit a milk jug of water (or
any heavy object) on top of the plate. This is to keep the cabbage under the
juice. It will turn brown if it isn’t under the juice. Cover and sit in a
fairly warm place until it is fermented as sour as you like it. Then fill clean
canning jars, put on lids and can in a canner for about 20 minutes. If
you like it hot, you can add layers of hot peppers in the cabbage as it is being
made. Most country people add the cabbage stalks close to the top of the crock
and eat them first as a delicacy. Also: You can stuff the cabbage mixture into
green peppers and pickle the peppers along with the kraut in a crock.
Chop
or shred cabbage, add salt and let stand one hour. Then squeeze all brine from
cabbage. Add shredded carrot, green pepper, mustard seed and celery seed to
cabbage. In saucepan combine:
Boil
one minute. Cool to lukewarm and pour over the cabbage mixture. Divide into
portion sizes you wish in plastic bags and freeze. PERSIMMON
PUDDING (Editors
Note: This is my own grandmother’s recipe) 2
cups persimmon pulp, seeded
Add
this to persimmon mixture and beat well. Melt ¾ stick of butter in baking dish.
Turn dish to coat it with the butter. Pour batter in pan. Bake one hour at 300
degree oven. MOLASSES
PUDDING This recipe was given to me by Mrs. Oma Handy of Meadows of Dan, Virginia. It isn’t exact so it’s for those of you who cook by “feel.”
and
enough flour to make a decent batter. Add ginger and nutmeg to taste and bake
the same way you would a pound cake. PUMPKIN
BREAD
Grease 2 loaf pans and pour batter in them. Bake at 350 degrees for one hour and 15 minutes. I like spices so I usually put in cinnamon and ginger in equal amounts with the nutmeg. APPLE BROWN BETTY This recipe is for an apple cobbler. It's quick and easy and delicious! Most old time mountain people planted apple trees before they built their houses on a piece of land. Mountain people know a hundred different ways to fix apples and Apple Brown Betty is one of the best. Cut up enough apples to fill a 9x9" casserole dish about 1/2 to 2/3 full. (You can also use canned apples in this dish.) Sprinkle the apples generously with white or brown sugar. Sprinkle nutmeg and cinnamon over apples to your taste. Stir the sugar and apples with a spoon. (If using canned apples, you might still need to add sugar if they have been canned in a light syrup.) Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. While you are waiting for the oven to preheat, in a 3 quart mixing bowl, put one stick of margarine or butter. Cut in 1 cup of sugar until the mixture is crumbly, then add one cup of flour and cut it in also. The mixture should look crumbly. Pour this mixture over the apples and cut up more butter on top. Take a spoon and poke some of the topping down into the apples. Do not fill dish too full because when the apples start cooking, they will make juice and bubble over in the oven. The baking time is usually between a half hour to 45 minutes. It depends on the size of your dish. Bake until the top is golden brown, but still soft and the apple juice is bubbling up through it. Apple Brown Betty is best eaten hot out of the oven with a scoop of ice cream and/or caramel syrup on top. Back to The Mountain Laurel Home Page
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