Our week that was: Llanerchaeron and National Apple Day

It’s been a busy old week – one that was full of apples! Firstly, we took a trip to Llanerchaeron, a nearby National Trust property where there’s a walled garden full of different species of ancient apple trees amongst other plants.

As well as admiring them, I spent a fair amount of time picking them, chopping them, shredding them, juicing them and cooking them. After attending an apple event at nearby Hafod, we decided it would be a great idea for our local Women’s institute to hold something similar – so we did!

Llanerchaeron

We booked a day with our dog sitter so that we could get out and do something a little different. We drove to Aberaeron to visit Llanerchaeron, just a few miles inland. It’s a Georgian property, designed by the famous architect, John Nash.

The Trust has decided to leave the house as it was left to them; i.e. with any of the later additions such as furnishings and the art nouveaux/art deco fireplaces. Having said that, much of the ‘bones’ of the house remains remarkably untouched – so there were fabulous 18^th century doors & windows, coving and other plasterwork, flooring and so on. This untouched aspect was particularly the case in the service areas – and it was these spaces that we especially loved. The old service kitchen, pantry and cobbled outer courtyard were very atmospheric. There were separate rooms for cheesemaking, brewing, bread proving & baking, butchery, salting, laundry and so on – plus simple bedrooms for some of the staff.

In the grounds were stables, tack rooms, animal pens and the like. Also, lovely, walled kitchen gardens and small ornamental lake that were open to wander around.

We took lots & lots of photos – both inside and out – have a look at some of them below…

National Apple Day

A couple of weeks ago, I told you about going along to an apple event at another nearby National Trust property, Hafod. We decided it would be a great idea for our local Women’s institute to hold something similar. The lovely people that we met at the Hafod Walled Garden agreed to allow us to borrow their apple juice making equipment; a shredder and a fruit press.

Our WI event was planned for Saturday 21st October – which just happened to be designated National Apple Day – completely unintentional on our part! The rain held out for the most part, and we had lots of visitors come to the cottage to enjoy the homemade apple cake, apple cookies, mulled apple juice and other apple-themed delights.

A few of the WI members spent the previous week picking apples in local gardens and orchards… and some of the people who came along brought apples from their own gardens. We had a well-planned and executed conveyor system where we chopped, shredded, pressed and bottled the apple juice… over half a dozen large sackfuls.

Our week that was: Apple Day

We’re into October – summer has had her last hurrah – no more unexpected yet very welcome hot, sunny days. Thoughts are turning to what to do on my birthday next month, what we’ll do for Christmas and whether I’ll leave filing our online tax returns to the last minute… again!

This weekend, I attended the 2^nd annual Apple Day organised by the Hafod Walled Garden Group. The garden is located within the National Trust-owned Hafod Estate, a place we often go, but never to this hidden area that’s down off the signposted walking routes.

I saw the event advertised on their Facebook group, and organised to attend with a friend from the village. We both wanted to learn how to make apple cider vinegar. We filled a couple of large trugs with apples (many of the gardens in the village are laden) and set off.

Before long we were part of the conveyor belt of people – chopping apples, putting them through an electric shredder before finally extracting the juice with the manual press. All very physical work, but very enjoyable!

When all the apples had been turned to pomace, we set off back home, each with a litre bottle of fresh apple juice under our arm.

One of the Hafod Walled Garden Group members has posted some lovely photos of the day on her Instagram account – you may even catch a glimpse of me in there somewhere!

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Our week that was: Apple picking, a play date and moon missions

We’re still playing catch-up here on the blog after another fun-filled week – time is whizzing by in a flash. It does, doesn’t it, as you get older?

Apple picking

One of my friends from the Women’s Institute has a garden with an orchard. She invited a couple of us over to pick some of the apples, as she’d never be able to make use of them all.

The apple trees are old, rare Welsh heritage varieties such as Baker’s Delicious and Cadwaladr.

As well as apples, there were a few, much less commonly found trees in the orchard… including these walnuts that were almost ready to harvest.

We spent less than an hour apple picking, after which I returned home with two large sacks, heavy with fruit, with not much of an idea of what I was going to make with them. A pie and an upside-down cake are most likely; I have so many apples, I can attempt things I’ve never done before; apple juice, apple jam, hard cider?

Play date for Barley

A few weeks ago, we encountered a lady out walking her dog near the Arch near Hafod. After a tentative 30 seconds or so, we were all really pleased to see that her dog, Tala, and Barley hit it off splendidly. They’re about the same size and possess the same energy levels. They got on so well, in fact, that we agreed to meet the following week in the same place for a doggie play date.

The afternoon of the play date was a welcome chink of lovely, warm sunny weather in an altogether damp and dreary week. Tala & Barley loved it; tearing through the woods, chasing each other for most of the hour-long circular walk. We hope it will become a regular occurrence.

For All Mankind

We’ve just binge-watched 3 series of For All Mankind. The series proffers an alternative world history that hinges on the ‘space race’ not ending with the USA landing on the moon in 1969. The series broaches many subjects such as male chauvinism, feminism, sexuality, politics, technology and conspiracy theories. And I’ve just found out – there’s going to be a series four at some point in the near future!

Cakes & Bakes: Toffee apple tarte tatin

Did you watch Bake Off this week? It was pastry week and the ‘signature bake’ was to create a savoury tarte tatin. So I used that as a bit of inspiration and decided to make a toffee apple tarte tatin. Here’s how it ‘panned’ out…

I’ve been spending the past few weeks making use of all the ripening fruit from our garden; plums, damsons and now apples. We don’t know the type of apple this is – we think it’s an ‘eater’ rather than a ‘cooker’, although it’s a bit on the tart side.

I was going to make a ‘plain’ apple tarte tatin, but I fancied a bit of extra bit of caramelisation. Sweet, gooey, sticky and chewy.

As a tarte tatin is an ‘upside-down’ cake, you want to lay the fruit on the base of the pan in an attractive pattern.

I could have done with making a little bit more pastry. I felt like I was stretching it across the top to thinly. But hey, it’s a rustic tart, a couple of cracks didn’t detract from the splendid taste and flavour.

Slice & serve with thick cream or vanilla ice cream. We’ve really been enjoying all our recent autumnal desserts; warming, hearty, filling and delicious; what will next week bring?

Click here to save the recipe to Pinterest!

Toffee apple tart tatin

2019-10-16 17:35:44

Serves 4

Cook Time

30 min

Cook Time

30 min

For the pastry

110g/4oz plain flour
50g/2oz butter, cubed (room temperature)
pinch of salt

For the toffee

25g butter
25g Demerara sugar
1tbsp golden syrup
½tsp ground cinnamon
2 large or 3 medium apples, cored, peeled and sliced into segments

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Instructions

Pre-heat your oven to 180°C/350°F/Gas mark 4

For the pastry

Sift the flour and salt together into a medium-sized mixing bowl
Using your fingertips, lightly and gently rub the cubes of butter into the flour. When the mixture looks uniformly crumbly, sprinkle a tablespoon of cold water evenly over the top
Using a round-bladed knife, repeatedly cut through the mixture, which will begin to form larger lumps. Bring the mixture together with your hands to form a smooth ball of dough.
Cool the ball of pastry, in a ziplock bag, in the fridge for half an hour

For the toffee

In a heavy-bottomed, cast iron skillet pan, melt the butter, sugar and golden syrup. Cook for a couple of minutes, stirring occasionally
Sprinkle in the cinnamon and stir to combine
Arrange the apple segments into an attractive pattern on top of the toffee mixture in the skillet pan

To bring together

Roll out the pastry into a 1cm thick round, with a slightly larger diameter than your skillet
Cover the apples with the pastry, gently pressing it down and tucking it down the sides
Cook for 30-40 minutes or until the pastry begins to brown
Cool for a couple of minutes and loosen the edges with a sharp knife if necessary
Flip over, apple-side-up, on to a serving plate

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