Skip to main content

Apple Festival

...otherwise known as, why I didn't post this weekend =).

We were up in the mountains at a Lutheran camp for apple festival. The basic idea is that a bunch of people get together to harvest apples from the wild apples around at the camp, and then we make apple cider, apple crisp, apple pie, apple muffins... This is along with typical camp things like campfire, crafts, songs, and so on.

Last year there was a great apple crop. We walked to a few known trees, the counselors climbed them, shook down lots of apples, and the kids picked up the fallen apples and put them in the counselor's backpacks. I am sure we had more than a hundred pounds... Michael would have a better estimate of how many we got.

Unfortunately, this year was not a good year for apples at the camp (due to a wet, cold spring and a dry, hot summer). So a crop of apples miraculously appeared on the front lawn at the main lodge! The kids ran around collecting the apples that were nowhere near any apple trees... There were even conveniently empty boxes that just held all of the apples... I hear that they had a good time: I was back at our room, trying to get Luke to take a nap.

This was a very relaxing weekend, little schedule, just playing with kids, talking with old and new friends. Eleanor is already planning next year =)

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Why you should study the history of math

  Why you should study the history of math In the mid 1300s a fad made its way around Italy. Mathematicians would challenge each other to “mathematical duels”. They would post problems for their opponents to solve, sometimes along with their solutions in coded poetry. The winners would get support and funding from rich patrons, the losers would descend into obscurity. One such contest, between Fiore and Tartaglia, involved a new method for solving the cubic. In order to win, Tartaglia worked day and night to find Fiore’s method---unfortunately, Fiore did not do the same and only knew his own method and no others. (*Recall that the formula for solutions to quadratic equations of the form use the quadratic formula, Giorlamo Cardano---physician, philosopher, astrologer and mathematician---convinced Tartaglia to share his method and promised never to reveal it. Then Cardano figured out a more general method, and wanted to share it, but was blocked by his promises. Fortunately (for Cardan

Southern butter mints---vegan edition

After the last post, we started to be able to see what the fuss was about.  The ones made with twice the butter were the best candy I have ever tasted.  Ever.  So then we started experimenting.  How long do you pull it?  Longer than you think.  And then pull a minute or two after that.  Suddenly every single batch was creaming, pretty much right after we would cut them. I tried adding less than double butter and I think they taste much better (more delicate, according to one taste tester). The latest experiment we did involved using Earth Balance instead of butter.  It cooked pretty much the same as usual, although I was distracted right at the moment I had to pull it off the stove so it cooked maybe a bit longer than usual.  Amanda and I each pulled a quarter, while Luke pulled the bigger half.  Luke's really wasn't turning very fast---perhaps because it was too hot when he took it off the marble.  Mine was turning faster than Amanda's so we traded for a while.  Aman

Southern Butter Mints part 1

Some friends of ours have a granddaughter getting married (and she's a friend of ours as well) and so I agreed to help out with the shower.  Apparently this is to be a "southern" shower, full of tradition and elegance, but not too far over the top. Among things that are needed for a shower are punch with great grandma's punch bowl, sandwiches with cream cheese and green pepper jelly, and southern pulled butter mints.  "Ah, nobody can make those anymore.  We used to know someone, but the tradition needs to be passed down."  Like a fool, I said that I'd be happy to give it a try.  I suffer greatly from "I got a PhD in math, how hard could X be?" where X is something like gardening, or quilting, or cleaning, etc.  It's always harder than I think it will be. "We'll call Mrs. X who makes these, maybe she'll pass down the method.  I hope you don't hate me!"  I was actually planning on doing research online, watching a fe