Saltspring Island's Apple Festival

It was all about apples last Sunday on Saltspring Island.  Their annual apple festival was taking place all over the island and we took the ferry over to spend the day.  We started off in their community hall with  displays of over 200 varieties of apples.  Fascinating to see all the different types.  

I got to taste some baked in a pie.  Mine was baked with Wolf apples and it was excellent.   The pie ladies are a Saltspring Island institution.  This year they baked something like 300 pies.

There were lots of people checking out the apples, some from Victoria and some locals.  I think these two might be locals, based on their dress and hairstyle.  (Saltspring is one of the last bastions of the 60s counterculture, although I have to say Victoria has its share as well.)

After visiting the Fulford Hall displays we drove around to visit some farms.  This one had some beautifully colored varieties of apples.

As well as eggs.  These eggs are from various types of chickens who spend their lives outdoors on "The Indolent Poultry Farm."

At other locations we got to try apple tarts...

Wander around old fashioned farms....

See children's encounters with the farm animals....

And taste different varieties of apples...

  

... plus other delicious treats.

We had a lovely time!

If you're out this way the first weekend in October, don't miss Saltspring's Apple Festival.

Laurie Colwin's Roasted peppers

We came back from our trip to the Okanagan with a bag of sweet peppers--red, orange, yellow and pale chartreuse.  After I'd given some away I still had a bunch so I decided to make roasted peppers.  I learned about these from food writer,  Laurie Colwin, in her lovely book "Home Cooking."  She calls them pimientos and they end up like the jars of roasted red peppers that cost so much in the gourmet stores.  But mine are even more colorful. It's so easy to do that I can't figure out why I've never done this before.

Here's how you do it.  Put the peppers whole in a pan and put it under your broiler at highest heat.  Watch carefully and turn them as they start to wrinkle and darken.  Keep turning until all sides are nearly black.

When they're done, flatten them and remove the seeds (saving the lovely juices for adding to a pasta sauce perhaps).  Laurie suggested running them under cold water to rinse off the seeds and membranes so I did that.

Here they're drying off on a paper towel.  Then cut them into strips, add a little olive oil and keep them in your fridge to use with sauces, stir fries, crostini or whatever you want.

I used some on these slices of zucchini that had been floured and cooked in good olive oil.  Then I laid the pimientos on top and added a few slices of garlic clove, then a bit of oil.  The garlic cloves are removed before serving, they are just to give an essence of garlic flavor.  This was one of the nicest things I've ever eaten.

By the way, Laurie Colwin was a writer who loved food and words.  She wrote several novels and collected stories but my favorites are her two collections of essays on cooking:  Home Cooking and More Home Cooking.   I have both these books and find her recipes simple and delicious.  Sadly she died in 1992 when she was just in her 40s. Her books are still available.

Flowering Maple

The other day I took a walk in the gardens at Government House with my friend Heather.  She had invited me specifically to see this astounding flower.  Its Latin name is Abutilon, commonly known as the flowering maple.  It's a shrub, not a tree, and it has the most stunningly beautiful flowers.

 Isn't is lovely with its bell-like shape and the varied colours? You can see the maple-like leaves in the photo below.

These photos show two varieties.  I can't decide which I like best.  Which do you prefer?

A beautiful day

I just found a link to this little ten minute film on a blog I follow ( Life in the Second Half) and it was just the break I needed today.  I am filled with gratitude for the blog community and the way these inspirations can be shared.  So I'm sharing it here so you can be inspired to gratitude today yourself.   Here's the link:   A beautiful day.

Some foods from Italy

I'm preparing to make some foods with the peppers, apples and peaches we brought back from our trip to the Okanagan.  In doing so I took a look again at some of the photos from our trip to Italy in June. These are an inspiration to me for my new approach to cooking and eating.



Here are three incredible plates of food  we had for lunch one day--risotto with peas, timbale and a salad with oranges, fennel and olives.

More salads and pizza.  The bottom one is an Italian favorite called Pizza Quattrostaggione.

 

These delicious pasta purses were served to us at a lovely restaurant just outside Lucca.    

                                                     

And last, but not least--gelato.  We had this delicious Italian ice cream each and every day we were there.  Harry loved the lemon but I tried absolutely every kind possible.  After eating gelato we have completely lost our taste for ice cream.  I'm researching recipes for peach gelato.  I'll keep you posted on my progress.

Along the Okanagan River

 Oliver calls itself the wine capital of Canada but it has other charms as well.  For me the Okanagan River is also a big draw.  We've walked part of an 18 km trail along the river that goes from Oliver to the north end of Osoyoos Lake.  I love walking beside rivers with their reflections, especially when there's blue sky above, and even better when the leaves begin to turn colour.

Our campground was right beside this hiking trail, which goes through some lovely country, with old barns, pedestrian bridges and vinyards.  Next time we come we're bringing our bikes to do some cycling along the river.

In places the river is very peaceful and obviously a place for kids (and dogs) to swim.

In other places it runs faster.  This sign was beside a bridge with underwater weirs (whatever they are!)--and obviously it's not a place to fool around.

Along the stretch beside the town of Oliver are signs warning against camping, but clearly some people ignore it.  We saw a few people camping and signs of campfires as well.  Oliver is in the middle of harvest time in the orchards, the fields, and the vineyards and we've seen itinerant pickers around.  These guys were picking tomatoes.

Perhaps some of these pickers camp along the river, and I can't say I blame them.  Here's a spot where someone had a little campfire.  Can you think of a more beautiful spot to camp?