Autumn 2024| Practical Self Reliance

Cozy apple cider season

I’m an autumn baby, and even growing up, this time of year always seemed crafted to make me happy. What people these days call “pumpkin spice season” is apple picking season to me, and the whole landscape smells like a fresh cup of mulled cider.

It could be the fact that there’s a wild apple tree around every corner, or just something about the way the light plays on the autumn leaves combined with a touch of the coming winter in the air this time of year that just feels so cozy.

It is a magical season, but my family knows how to make the season of my birth even more magical. My littles conspired together to throw me a miniature surprise party for my birthday this month, and watching them “secretly” plan it was the best part.

When your 7-year-old grabs you by the hand out of nowhere and says, “Mama, we’ve got to go pick mushrooms in the woods because… *pause trying to think of a plausible reason* …well, because mushrooms are amazing and we need them. It’s important, we need so many mushrooms, so we’re going to be in the woods a long time. Just you and me.”

And then your 9-year-old daughter, nodding fervently in agreement, says, “Yes, we need so many mushrooms. I’d come help, but I can’t…I have to stay here and um…*thinking* um… I’m going to stay here and clean the house. Make sure you get lots of mushrooms and take a long time.”

I felt like I was living out that scene in Sleeping Beauty when the fairies comedically rush the princess out the door to pick berries so they can bake her cake. It was hilarious and cute as all heck.

Of course, my babies, I’m always up for a walk in the woods. So off I went, and what a lovely surprise I came home to. Homemade maple cake and everything =)

Besides celebrating another trip around the sun, this Autumn has a busy one as always. Last time I sent a note, I told y’all that we’re building a house, and I’ll walk you through how that’s going shortly.

But for now, here’s what’s on my camera roll this autumn:

Our dolgo crabapple produced a bumper crop of sweet red fruits this year, so I went all out trying out new crabapple recipes. Classics like jelly and sauce, of course, but also pickled crabapples, liqueur, wine, juice, syrup, and butter. I’m still hoping to turn part of the sauce batch into fruit leather, too.

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Potatoes, for whatever reason, absolutely love our cool summers and they grow like weeds here. I plant them and then forget them for 3 months. At harvest time, 3 lbs of potatoes turns into about 60 to 80 pounds in each 4x8 bed. If you’re curious what we do, here’s where you can read about it.

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We had our first frosts this week, so I pulled the last of the tomatoes for a few more batches of pasta sauce. I tried out a lot of new recipes this year, and you can read about them here.

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The tomatoes didn’t all go to sauce; some went to new salsa recipes, too!

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Moles come closer to the surface and sometimes venture above ground in the autumn, both looking for food and new burrows before winter. We’ve seen quite a few wandering around in the open this year, and this little cutie got to be part of a hands-on homeschool lesson.

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The crabapples keep coming! Really, I was just looking for another excuse to post more puppy pictures.

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Foraging goldenrod. It’s often assumed that this lovely plant causes fall allergies, but it’s actually ragweed that’s usually doing it. Goldenrod happens to be a natural herbal allergy remedy.

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Amish Zucchini Flour. Dried zucchini is ground and sifted as a flour extender, and you can use it to replace about 1/4 of the flour in recipes. This works with cucumbers, too. A dehydrator helps, but back in the day they’d just cut them in slices and then pop out the seeds so they’d be in rings, then string them up on a bit of thread to dry in the sun.

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The pup’s hoping that we’ll drop something tasty. Zucchini flour works wonders in quick bread, but I’m pretty sure it’s not what he’s hoping for.

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Not autumn specific, but pineapple is one of my favorite fruits to can at home, and we found a crate of it on sale. The quality is SO MUCH BETTER when you put it up yourself, and in glass instead of tin. The storebought stuff is always a bit underripe and watery, and since it’s acidic, it gets a “tinned” flavor in the metal cans. In glass, it’s absolutely amazing and tastes nothing like the store-bought stuff ( in a good way). We use it in Thai curries and pineapple pulled pork all winter long, and I also happen to be one of those crazy people who loves pineapple pizza.

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While we were at it, I tried out a new recipe for pickled pineapple from Ball Canning. It has warm spices, and I think it’s going to be delicious as a relish on my holiday table. I also made a batch of spicy pickled pineapple with hot peppers for use on tacos and with fish.

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I’d always heard that flowering quince (Chaenomeles sp.) had unpalatable fruit, but apparently, like apples, it’s all about the variety. Some are tannic and astringent, and others are delicious. My friend Maria was selling some at her farmer’s market stand that she grew from seeds she brought back from Latvia a decade ago. They’re delicious! Apparently, they’re primarily grown for medicinal uses there, but they’re also very tasty. They make a jelly that tastes like lemon and green apple, with a little something extra that’s hard to put your finger on. They’re high in acid, and one of the most pectin-rich fruits I’ve ever worked with, so they hold promise in setting jams made with lower pectin fruits. Maria says she uses them as a localvore lemon substitute, making a syrup out of the juice for preservation. I brought home a few baskets full to pull the seeds for planting, so hopefully, we’ll have our own Latvian variety soon (they’re self-fertile and come true to seed, unlike apples).

Our own regular European Quince (left) next to the flowering Japanese quince (right) from my friend. Flowering quince have A LOT more seeds, and I pulled an average of 35 to 40 seeds from each tiny fruit. I now have over a cup of seeds for planting from this fun Latvian variety. If you’re up for planting them, let me know in the comments, and I’ll mail you out an envelope. They need to be cold stratified in moist sand in the refrigerator for at least 6 weeks before planting, but after that, they’re easy to grow.

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What are you working on, harvesting, or just plain excited about at the beginning of Autumn?

Until Next Time,

Ashley at Practical Self Reliance

PS. Here’s where you can read a bit more about some of the things I talk about in this newsletter:

• Growing Potatoes in Raised Beds

• 30+ Crabapple Recipes

• Crabapple Jelly

• 25+ Pasta Sauce Recipes for Canning

• 50+ Salsa Recipes for Canning

• Foraging Goldenrod