Wordless Wednesday Dried Apples

dehydrating apples

dried apples

Creekside Farms Apple Quince Wreath with Hanger Review

Apple Quince Wreath

I received these products for free to facilitate this review.

Creekside Farms hand makes artisanal wreaths with freshly hand picked and naturally air dried herbs and flowers. They are located in California's Monterey County where the climate is warm and dry which is ideal growing and drying conditions for their herbs and flowers. They are also grown naturally without harmful pesticides and dried in small bunches upside-down on wire racks in their warehouse. Once they are ready, the ornamental and culinary herbs and flowers are used in their lovely wreath designs. Creekside Farms has wreaths for all sorts of occasions like weddings, baby showers, fall, and Christmas. They also have some wonderful smelling culinary and ornamental herb wreaths to brighten up anyone's kitchen or home.

Apple Quince Wreath fresh from the box.

The wreath arrived zip tied to the inside of the box it came in. The hanger was wrapped in a bag zip tied to one side on the inside of the box nestled beside the wreath. The zip ties were a bit annoying to get off of them, but I realize it probably was the best way to attach them so that they wouldn't move around much inside the box while being shipped. It also comes with a card that has information about Creekside Farms on one side and care instructions on the other. When I opened the box the wonderful fragrance of the wreath emanated into the room.

I am very glad they sent me a metal wreath hanger with my wreath. It is very handy to have so that I could hang the wreath from my doors. Once I freed the wreath and hanger from the box I selected one of my hallway doors to hang it from. Some of my doors won't hold it, however; because they have a tight seal and won't close while the hanger is over the top. So when purchasing a wreath with a wreath hanger make sure the door you will be hanging it from will take a wreath hanger. If you don't want to hang it from a door it can also be hung by other ways on a wall or over a mantel.

I received the Apple Quince Wreath with hanger to review for free. I got to pick it from an assortment of gorgeous looking wreaths from the Creekside Farms website. I wanted a harvest wreath that would go well with my farm home style. It was hard to choose just one wreath as I thought they all were very pretty. Since their Fall Wreaths are in season now I thought that the Apple Quince Wreath would be a festive decoration to deck my halls for autumn harvest and Thanksgiving. This particular wreath is made with fresh Eucalyptus, Salal, and Juniper and decorated with Quince slices, pine cones, Tallow berries, faux apples, Curly Willow, Artemisia, Sweet Annie, and cinnamon sticks. The one I recieved didn't quite look as neatly made as the pictured one from their website, but it was still very beautiful. I love the circle of green with the browns, oranges and reds peaking through. The bright orange quince slices and cheery red faux apples really stands out among the other foliage. The wreath looks very nice where I placed it and every time I go past I love taking in a big whiff of the lovely aromatic smell.

You can purchase this and other lovely wreaths from the Creekside Farms website. Get a 15% discount when you use the code ABEL.

You can also follow Creekside Farms on Facebook and Twitter.

DISCLOSURE/DISCLAIMER: I received these products for free to facilitate my review. My thoughts are mine and my family's own opinion and have not been altered by anyone else. I did not receive any other compensation for doing this review.

Target Breakfast Twist #PlatefullCoOp #spon

The information and prize pack have been provided free by General Mills through Platefull Co-Op. to facilitate this post.

Breakfast is an important start to your family's day, but all too often, it's rushed, hectic, and…monotonous. Target has brought some family favorites together and made some interesting yummy combinations for quick and easy throw together breakfasts. These are simple twists on traditional breakfasts and there isn't anything complex about these recipes. These are great to help fuel your day.

Platefull Co-Op has sent me a selection of favorite items so that I could create my own unique spins on breakfast and share them with you:

• 1 pouch Nature Valley® Protein Granola (Crunchy Oats 'n Honey)
• 1 box Nature Valley® Granola Bars (Crunchy Oats 'n Honey)
• 1 box Honey Nut Cheerios® Medley Crunch™ cereal (Honey Nut Cheerios, crispy flakes, and clusters made with real almond slices)
• 1 box Trix® (Wildberry Red Swirls) cereal
• 1 package Quaker® Oats (old fashioned)
• 1 jar Jif® peanut butter (creamy)
• 1 package Nutella® (Hazelnut spread) mini cups
• 1 pouch Grandma Hoerner’s® Big Slice™ apples snack (kettle cooked apples: slices, chunks, and sauce)

I decided to only combine the ingredients in the kit together and see what I could come up with. In my first recipe I emptied the pouch of Grandma Hoerner’s® Big Slice™ apples snack in a small glass ramekin and sprinkled some Nature Valley® Protein Granola and some Quaker® Oats over the top. The second recipe I took one Nature Valley® Granola Bar out of the box and since it was already divided into two bars inside the packaging I spread Jif® peanut butter on one and one Nutella® mini cup on the other. The one with peanut butter I also sprinkled Honey Nut Cheerios® Medley Crunch™ cereal on top and the one with Nutella® I placed some Trix® cereal on top. The kids and I enjoyed our easy breakfast twists.

Big Slice Apples, Granola & Oats

I especially loved the Grandma Hoerner’s® Big Slice™ apples snack. This particular one that I received was Cherry Vanilla flavored and had luscious cherries, chunky apples, and real Madagascar vanilla. It was so delicious, especially with the little bit of crunch that the granola and oats gave!

Granola Bar Cereal Treats

These granola bar treats that I made were good, but too sweet for me. My kids loved them though. I love the Honey Nut Cheerios® Medley Crunch™ cereal by itself and with milk in a bowl just fine for breakfast. I am not too much of a peanut butter fan, but the Nutella® I love!

Target Breakfast Twist Event
You also find special savings on these products at Target – and even more inspiration by visiting Target.com/BreakfastTwist



DISCLOSURE/DISCLAIMER: The information and prize pack have been provided free by General Mills through Platefull Co-Op. I received products and information for free to facilitate this post. My thoughts are mine and my family's own opinion and have not been altered by anyone else. I did not receive any other compensation for doing this post and promo.

The Harvest - September and October 2012

During the month of September and October we were very busy picking, harvesting, foraging, gathering and wildcrafting. We picked apples and pears off our trees and grapes off our vines. We picked plums from the neighbors trees that they wanted us to help ourselves to and I gathered up fallen walnuts from both our many Black Walnut and English Walnut trees. I have also been trying to educate myself about the flora and fauna in and around Portland and Rainier Oregon, where I live. I am learning a lot about canning and dehydrating too.

We made Golden Plum fruit leather in my dehydrator and it turned out a to have a gorgeous stain glass look to it. All I did was wash them, peal the skins off, pit them and mush up the plum fruit in a bowl or if they were really ripe I just mushed them with my fingers and spread the mush out on the fruit leather tray somewhat. It is fine if it has juice in the tray with it because that will get dried also. So yummy and without any additives or extras.

We canned pear sauce and dehydrated pears too. I don't have a proper water bath canner or a good canning rack, but we used what we had and got the job done. The dried pears turned out really chewy, but still really good.

I have a handy dandy Pampered Chef apple peeler that gets the job done quickly if I want apples peeled and cored. My Nesco American Harvest Food Dehydrator is perfect for making yummy apple chips! The kids helped load them onto the trays and then they were dried. We like to bag them up and freeze them. They stay crispier this way.

We have different varieties of grapes that grow on our grape arbor. The grapes are really good straight off the vine too. We made both white and red grape juice. After we plucked a bucketful of each variety off of our grape vines we washed, sorted and de-stemmed them. I used my Vitamix to blend it a little in batches then we placed it all in a big pot on the stove to boil while stirring. Then we strained it all through our strainer (we don't yet have a food mill) and bottled it.

We gathered and foraged loads of walnuts from our trees that had fallen to the ground too. I don't have pictures of the walnuts yet, but I will get some.

We also love to visit local orchards, farms and "u-pick your own" places to get things we haven't yet grown at our place. Since I am still learning I love to take photographs of plants and identify them to see if they are edible or medicinal or useful in another way. This is a fun hobby of mine that I want to soon get really good at.

What have you picked, harvested, foraged, gathered and/or wildcrafted this year? Have you made anything special out of the things you got? How have you preserved your harvest?