Here are some links to things that I may or may not get around to mentioning on the Mike Nowak Show Sunday, Sept. 2. But if I do, here they are.
Apple growing and picking
Kuipers Family Farm, Maple Park
Midwest Fruit Explorers, a backyard fruit growing club that will have its Fall harvest Festival in October at the Chicago Botanic Garden.
The Indiana Nut & Fruit Growers Association, a group of fruit and nut enthusiasts in Indiana.
Backyard Fruits from the University of Illinois Extension.
Apples & More, University of Illinois Extension site with growing advice and list of you-pick farms.
Pick Your Own, a list of you-pick farms.
Green events in Evanston
Green Arts Show, Evanston, Sept. 7-21
Evanston Green Living Festival, Sept. 29
Misc. garden-, conservation- and plant-related events
Illinois Mycological Society Show and Sale, Sept. 2, Chicago Botanic garden, Glencoe
(A story I once had fun writing about mushrooms)
Douglas Tallamy, author of "Bringing Nature Home," speaks Oct. 20 in Bolingbrook at the invitation of the DuPage County chapter of The Wild Ones. Free, but you have to register.
Garfield Park Conservatory Harvest Days Celebration, Sept. 8 and 9
Openlands Water Trailkeepers Des Plaines River Cleanup Day, Northbrook and Deerfield, Sept. 15
HERE IS THE LONG BUT DELIGHTFUL AND READ-WORTHY ORIGINAL POST:
It's been a busy summer, during which I have shamefully neglected many things, including this blog. As penance, I have to spend the Sunday morning of Labor Day weekend filling in for Mike Nowak on his gardening-and-greening radio show, the Mike Nowak Show, from 9 to 11 a.m. tomorrow, Sept. 2. The show airs on WCPT, 820 AM and 99.9 FM south, 92.5 FM west and 92.7 FM north. Heather Frey, formerly the show's producer, will return to co-host.
Of course the big garden issue this summer has been the
drought. Recent rains, including the remnants of Hurricane Isaac, may have
taken the edge off, but that doesn't mean we can forget about the effects of the blisteringly hot and dismally dry summer, especially for trees and shrubs. Doris Taylor, who runs the plant clinic at The Morton Arboretum, will be with us to talk about how we can
help trees, especially, recover and how to care for them through the fall.
(Full disclosure: I'm about to start a new job as a writer at the arboretum. I'll still be freelancing and speaking on the side; learn more at thegardenbeat.com.)
We'll also hear about the Green Arts Show starting next
week in Evanston. Ideas about sustainability and the environment provide both
ideas and materials for the artists in this show – last year the big hit was a portrait made from salvaged plastic bottle caps. Peter Athans and Anne
Berkeley will be in the studio to give us the highlights.
Apple-picking time has come a little soon this year, another
gift of our extreme weather. Fruit crops took a big hit from that bizarre week
of 80-degree days in March and the survivors are ripening early. We'll hear about the
state of the apple crop from Wade Kuipers, whose family has a farm and you-pick orchard in Maple Park, out west of Aurora.
Sitting in for the goofing-off Rick DiMaio to deliver the gardener's weather report will be Patrick Skach, who contributes climate data for the National Weather Service and the College of DuPage Meteorology Department.
What about Mike? He's out West, doing some filming
for his TV show, Dig In Chicago, in Denver and hiking in the Dakota badlands and I don't
know here else. He will be back, no doubt snakebit and
sunburned, next week.
If you have a comment or a garden question during this
week's show, please call in while we're on the air at 773-838-9278 (773-838-WCPT
for those who like to get cute with phone numbers). Or you can tweet at
@mikenow or to me at @chicagogardener.
I'm especially looking for apple memories and ideas from
listeners. Apples are strongly associated in my mind with the change of seasons -- at least they were, back when fruit had seasons and apples weren't shipped in from Chile in
June. We would pick apples every fall when I was young; my mother was fond of
piling all the kids in the station wagon several times a year for rambling
fruit and vegetable foraging expeditions all over northern Indiana and southern
Michigan. There used to be a lot more family-owned orchards and fruit and
vegetable stands where you could buy or pick many different varieties of not
only apples but plums, peaches, nectarines and pears.
One favorite dessert in my family is a simple, moist, fruity
apple cake, almost more apples than cake, that was one of the first things I
learned to bake. Since it can be mixed up in a large bowl by a small child with
a wooden spoon (as long as a grownup dices the apples and handles the oven part),
it has long been a gateway recipe in my family.
My mother, Lee Botts, has a vivid memory of learning to make
apple cake in the middle of a huge dust storm in Oklahoma in 1936 or 1937
(drought summers are not a new thing), stirring it in a bowl with a wooden spoon,
with sheets covering the windows and dust blowing in under the kitchen door. We
think my great-grandmother probably brought the recipe when the family
moved from Missouri to homestead in Oklahoma at the turn of the 20th Century.
The recipe has changed a bit: We no longer peel the apples –
the bits of peel add flavor and color and maybe even some vitamins -- and we've
reduced the sugar.
Use firm, not-too-sweet, flavorful apples, not candy-sweet 'Red Delicious' or mushy 'Macintosh.' I use 'Jonathan' apples whenever I can get them. Jonathans are
my favorite all-purpose apples for their perfectly crisp texture and intense
flavor, bright and spicy and not too sweet, but they are not the best keepers. Sometimes I use a mix of apple varieties.
It's a good idea to make this in a heatproof glass
pan if you're not going to eat it all right away, because if you make it in a
metal pan and it sits a while, the acid in the apples will cause both the pan
and the cake to discolor.
The recipe doubles
just fine in a 9-by-13-inch pan. I've also been known to bake it in paper-lined
muffin tins, like cupcakes; that's a good way to take it to the office or for
potlucks. Also good for breakfast.
Apple cake
From Lee Botts and her Rutledge family forebears
Preparation time: 45 minutes
Baking time: About 30 to 40 minutes
Yield: One 9-inch-square cake pan
1 cup flour
1 teaspoon each: baking soda, ground cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon ground cloves
1/2 teaspoon each: freshly grated nutmeg, salt
3/4 cup sugar
1/2 stick (1/4 cup) butter, softened
1 egg, beaten
1 teaspoon vanilla
2 1/2 cups unpeeled, cored, diced apples
1. Heat the oven to 350 degrees. Combine the flour, baking
soda, cinnamon, cloves, nutmeg and salt in a bowl; set aside. Beat sugar and
butter with a mixer on medium speed (or use a wooden spoon and a large
bowl) until creamy. Add the egg and beat until light and fluffy. Add the
vanilla.
2. Add 1/4 cup of the dry ingredients to the mixture,
beating just until mixed. Repeat with remaining dry ingredients. Stir in the
apples. The batter will be quite thick. Spread the batter in a buttered
9-inch-square pan. Bake until cake is golden brown and a toothpick inserted in the
center comes out clean, about 30 to 40 minutes, usually, depending on your oven. Cool in pan on
a rack. Cut in square or rectangular pieces to serve.
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