Raspberry Tarts

These tarts are super easy. I went out and picked some wild raspberries yesterday in the woods behind our house. I already picked raspberries at a local berry farm and have 8 jars of jam and 2 very large bags of frozen raspberries in the freezer so I wanted to make something different. Raspberry tarts it was.



I couldn't find a recipe that I like so I just winged it.

2 cups of raspberries (fresh or frozen)
1 cup of sugar.

I started by mashing up my raspberries in a sauce pan. I added the sugar and brought the mixture to a slow boil. The heat does not need to be very high. Simmer for about 10 minutes and remove from heat. Set aside to cool. This is very similar to jam so I imagine ready made jam can be used as well.




I made a traditional Pastry Crust.

1 cup of cold shortening
2 1/2 cups of flour
1 tsp of vinegar
dash of salt

Cut shortening and flour together with pastry fork until the mixture resembles small peas. Add vinegar and salt and mix together. You may need a bit of cold water to pull it together. Form into a ball and place in fridge to cool.

When ready, form dough into small balls and place in mini-muffin tray. I use this neat tool that presses the balls into tart cups. It makes the job super easy and great for kids.



Bake for 10 minutes at 375F, until slightly brown. Let cool slightly. Remove from pan and cool on a baking rack. Spoon in some of the Raspberry mixture and let set.

And your done! Enjoy!

Apple Pie!

So here is the apple pie I made with our foraged apples... I came up a bit short since the apples were smaller than usual so I just pulled a few from the fridge. Apple pie is pretty easy.

The crust is 1 cup of shortening, 2 cups of flour, a dash of salt, and enough cold water to make it moist enough to roll out.

The filling is just apples, a bit of sugar, cinnamon, all spice and voila!

Now... for a bit more pizazz here's a few hints to make it memorable.

- add extras to the apple filling like coconut, walnuts, almonds. Adds some nice new flavours.

- use canape cutters to cut out small hearts, pumpkins, leaves etc from the top of the pie crust. The hole makes a great vent from steam and the cut out pieces make nice decorations on top.

- apple pies can be frozen before cooking. Just wrap in plastic wrap and tin foil and place in freezer. When ready to bake let it de-thaw for a few hours on the counter and then bake as normal. I always make a few apple pies and apple crisps at this time of year and freeze them. Nothing tastes better than fresh apple pie in January!

Enjoy apple season! One of my favourite times of year!

Foraging

The idea of foraging for food is an old one, but one that is almost frowned upon nowadays. Somehow our society has equated foraging with scavenging or dumpster diving. While pockets of people are still passing on these age-old skills a lot of people without a mentor to guide them are hesitant to start.

What plants are edible? What if I mistake a poisonous plant or berry? Some people are sure that the work they expel while hunting down food is too much, especially when a supermarket, just down the street, is filled to the rafters.

While intrigued with foraging, I am one of those who does not have a mentor and so it was one of the things on the bottom of my skills-to-learn list but I did know I wanted to learn.



The kids and I got a crash course yesterday when meeting up with friends to hike a local trail. Right at the start of the trail I spotted two trees with bright red apples on the branches. The trees were hidden by smaller trees and bushes all around. Looking from the trail you would not have noticed there were apple trees without looking up.

My daughter was sure they were "crappy apples" but I didn't think so. After our walk the kids were hungry but I didn't have anything besides water, so I joked about them climbing the apple tree for a snack. And they did! My daughter was the first one to bite in and she said they tasted so sweet!

We spent nearly an hour picking apples by any means necessary. Both of the trees were so densely covered with neighbouring plants one trunk could not be accessed. Left to their own devices the trees have grown gnarly, and their branches were high. There were thorn bushes as well but getting threw that was half the fun.



The kids climbed as far as they could, they began using sticks to nudge apples from the spots and eventually when all that were in reach were gathered they began throwing the sticks and collecting whatever fell.

We gathered enough for an apple pie, I am sure. Even though some are a bit scabby it will peel and the fruit inside is quite sweet. In the end, it was such a good day and I was so happy coming home with my backpack full of 'found' apples that I felt closer to self-sufficiency.