Foraging for Food

It's been a summer of foraging. Foraging for what? Well you wouldn't believe how many people in this town have fruit trees and just let their fruit go to waste. It's quite astounding. In fact, there is a whole orchard on our street, and the people who own it never pick a single piece of fruit ever.
So we asked if we could have some and they said:Take whatever you want.

I made a jar of the most delightful Apricot jam the other day. Soon I will turn the neighbor's apples into applesauce and apple butter. Remember my recipe for Apfeltaschen?

I wonder who ate the missing slice?

Have you ever had an applesauce pie? If not you must try it. I am not the piemaker in this household. My husband is a Weld County Blue Ribbon Piemaker Champion. He created the pie you see in the picture. And it was oh so delicious!

The pie gets this kind of yummy crust on top that tastes like caramel. It's good with regular applesauce but there is this amazing crabapple tree.We keep it's location a secret. It has delightful tiny red apples that are tart and sweet at the same time. I think I talked about it before.

It's a bit labor intensive to make applesauce from those tiny apples. But the results are simply stunning. Even if it breaks my fingers I do I'll do it again next year. I made 6 jars crabapple butter to put away for the winter. I froze 3 packages to make more pies.

I am so very proud of myself. Any trees in your town that have fruit falling down? I think it never hurts to ask...

Hunting and gathering is a lot fun. You should try it some time!