Tasty and Free Yard Apples

A little critter munch - can be easily cut out!

It's that time of year when the fruit is plentiful in Virginia.  I'm amazed at what can be found around our house.  My all time favorite fruit, Black Raspberries, began coming in first.  Surprisingly, a patch of native wild Raspberries that we didn't mow down this year started bearing fruit.  Our Peaches bear heavy one year and then light the next.  Sadly this was the low volume year.  Right on its heals are the "Yard Apples".  It's an old fashioned term that you don't hear much that often but it certainly describes what's tumbling around yards this summer.  Fruit trees can bear at differing times of the year depending upon the variety.  We no longer have any "baking apples" in our yard and I certainly miss them.  There are plenty of the "garden variety" (unknown) apples dropping from three huge trees on Forsythia Hill.

My neighbors that moved to Hawaii had mature Blueberry shrubs that had millions of perfectly beautiful berries ripe for the picking.  I've been harvesting for a good month, freezing some and eating most, and they are finally ending their profuse production cycle.

Another neighbor never harvests apples from their mature trees.  At least the deer and their new babies enjoy the bounty.  It is sad that not even one apple is taken inside to be made into applesauce, cake, or just eaten fresh!  Our apples are eatin' apples and are not the best for cooking but with some experimentation I've discovered in what recipes they work best.

Below the imperfection is the beautiful fruit.

Don't let those imperfect apples go to waste.  It saves money and often they are better than store bought. 

Apples are one of the most heavily sprayed fruits on the market if not organic and most likely if there is a neglected tree in your neighborhood they have not gone to the expense of spraying pesticides.

-Rebecca