Tend your orchard very well in the fall. Prune and apply insecticides to prepare for winter. In late February tend your trees once more. Feed them and if needed prune them after the winter weather. In spring the orchard will put on its best dress to show off for you.
In late spring your orchard will show signs of fruit. The fruit will grow and grow and grow all throughout the summer.
At the end of summer the fruits will begin to ripen. When you can smell fall in the air some of the fruits will ripen before the rest.
Send your husband out to pick some of the early ripened fruit with his handy dandy fruit picker.
Pick a small bucket full. Bring them in and wash them.
Peel and core the apples. I stopped at about 7 cups of sliced apples -just over a dozen apples.
Soak the apples in lemon juice or fruit fresh to keep them from turning brown.
Mix together in a large bowl:
1/4 cup flour
1/2 - 2/3 cup sugar
1/4 cup brown sugar
1 Tbsp cinnamon
1 dash of salt
Drain the apples from the lemon juice/fruit fresh water. Toss them in the dry ingredient mixture. Then pack them into a pie shell.
Dot the top of the apples with 2 - 3 tbsp of butter. (I do not use butter substitute or margarine. I use real butter.)
Cover pie with dough top. Brush with egg wash. Cut slits in the top of the pie to vent the steam while baking. I also sprinkle with coarse sugar to make it pretty.
A note here about pie crusts: Unless you are hell bent on perfecting a homemade crust and have lots of time to learn to do so I suggest the deep dish frozen shells from the local grocer. There are so many to choose from and they are almost always fail proof. They come in packs of 2. Lay them out and let them begin to thaw while you prepare everything for the pie. Once the deep dish is filled use the 2nd crust from the package as the top crust. Ease it out of the tin, lay it over the pie and pinch the edges together. As good as from scratch and far quicker than making pastry dough.
Bake at 425 degrees for 40 - 50 minutes (maybe longer -depends on your oven). If the edges of the pie are browing to fast make a ring of foil and cover the edges.
Cool. Serve with vanilla ice cream or whipped cream.
Speaking of apples - Steven is the apple of all our eyes.
*Start to finish this pie takes 6 - 8 months to complete. If you do not have an orchard and go out and procure some apples, your pie could take as little as 30 minutes to prepare and 40 - 50 minutes to bake.
**P.S. This is the first time since Steven was born that I actually feel like myself. Imagine that. 9 months + 6 months = a very long time.
***P.P.S. They ate the whole pie. I'll bebaking another one today and one for Steve to take to work to share. Imagine a kid telling you that your pie is better than any pie Mrs. Smith's could bake. LOL
