Dehydrating Apples For Snacks
Hello friends,
My parents dropped by our home one day in early March, and brought with them a 10 L bucket full of golden delicious apples off their tree for us. As it's also currently apple harvesting season in our garden, I added them to our growing pile of homegrown apples, and started thinking about what to do with them all.
Our apples trees are the varieties Ballerina Waltz, and Ballerina Flamenco, highly compact, columnar apple trees ideal for small spaces. These apple varieties are bred to be no more than 40 cm wide, and up to 4 metres tall, with all the branches being completely covered in apples in autumn, making them perfect for urban gardens, and also for hedges. I really do recommend Ballerina apple trees if you don't have the space for fully grown apple trees, and they come in different varieties, so you can pick which apple types you'll be harvesting and eating.
Ballerina Waltz is a crisp and juicy variety with a slight tang, suitable for eating fresh, dehydrating, and cooking.
Ballerina Flamenco are eating apples, which also make a lovely apple jelly.
After some thought I wrote a small list of apple making possibilities, and got to work, first of all making dehydrated apples for snacks. I filled a bowl with water, and added the juice of a couple of lemons (from our lemon tree), to stop the apples from turning brown while I processed them.
Once the some of the apples were all cut and soaked in lemon juice water, they were patted dry before placing on dehydrator trays. They were put in our dehydrator and dried at 60˚C for 5 hours, with them being flipped over halfway through.
The dried apple slices were then tested for dryness, before being stored in a plastic container.
Dehydrated apples are great snacks, whether at home, or for when you're going on a walk and you need a little pick me up. The three different types of apples I dried all taste very different, with the Golden Delicious apples being super sweet, the Flamenco apples being nicely balanced between sweet and tart, and the Waltz apples being quite tart. It makes for a nice mix, and it's a pleasant surprise as the apples are eaten.
Unfortunately we didn't use up all the apples sitting in the 10L bucket, so hubby made a huge batch of apple pie filling with some cinnamon, and I've stored it away in our chest freezer to use over the coming autumn and winter months.
Have a wonderful day
Julie-Ann
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Rearranging the South Side Garden
Hello friends,
This summer I wasn't very happy with my south side garden. The blueberry bushes weren't getting enough sun, and didn't produce many blueberries, and the gooseberry bush as always didn't produce very nice fruit for us to eat.
As I was tidying up our blackcurrant bush after we finished harvesting its fruit, the gooseberry bush beside it poked me in the butt for the very last time. I was sick of getting attacked by it, and also since it wasn't producing any good fruit, it was time to pull the whole thing out from the ground. Before you can say "where's my garden fork", I had started cutting the gooseberry bush back so I could access the inner part of the plant.
I did indeed get out my garden fork, and dug out the gooseberry bush within in a matter of minutes. The hardest part was shoving all the gooseberry bush cuttings into a green waste bag without getting stabbed by it as I did so.
With the gooseberry plant out of the ground, I turned my attention to the blueberry bushes. I dug them out and transplanted them into large orange pots which recently held dahlia seedlings (before I made the decision that I didn't want to keep them in my breeding program). After filling up the pots with potting mix, planting the two blueberry bushes, and giving them an appropriate blueberry fertiliser (acid based), I moved the pots into their final positions on the patio.
Now the blueberry plants get all day sun, and they are much happier, even putting on new growth within their first week. Their small amount of fruit from this season have finally started changing colour, after staying green all summer long. I now just have to keep remembering to water them regularly so they don't dry out.
As for the empty spaces in the south side garden, I used some of my flower farming earnings to invest in two hydrangea bushes. The south side garden gets more shade than anywhere else in the garden, and also we need some privacy on that side of the house due to a nosy neighbour. I chose the paniculata hydrangea, Limelight, for the gooseberry spot, and it has conical shaped lime green/cream flowers which are popular in the floristry industry, and as a bonus it also reaches up to a height of 2 m tall.
In the blueberry bushes position, I planted the paniculata hydrangea Sundae Fraise, which has creamy flowers which transition to strawberry pink flowers in autumn. It is a stunning hydrangea which reaches 1.5 m tall, making it perfect for giving us some more privacy on that side of the garden.
This wasn't a planned gardening project when I started out pruning the blackcurrant bush, but I'm very pleased with how it has turned out. Hopefully in the future I will get bigger blueberry harvests, and the hydrangea plants will provide us both privacy and flower farming income in the years to come.
Have a wonderful day
Julie-Ann
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Unwind Fibrecraft Retreat 2026 Haul
Hello friends,
On the weekend of Friday the 6th of March I excitedly went along to the 2026 Unwind Fibrecraft Retreat, a three day biennial fibre festival held in my hometown of Dunedin, New Zealand.
It's a chance to catch up with fibre friends from all around New Zealand, and to also attend talks and workshops, along with some shopping from local New Zealand indie dyers and yarn sellers. And after saving up my crafting pocket money for 6 months, it was time for me to buy a bunch of fibre and yarn to keep me all stocked up for a year at least.
First up, was doing a quick reconnoiter of all the traders to see what was for sale, and to start planning what I wanted to purchase...
Then it was shopping time, and luckily as part of the Unwind Retreat you're given a bag for carrying all your pretty new yarn, fibre, and accessories.
First up I bought two autumnal shades of 100 gram skeins of fingering weight merino dyed yarn by Dark Harbour Yarns. I have no idea what I'll do with them, but for now I'm happy to pat them periodically.
Next we have three 100 gram fingering weight skeins of merino/nylon sock yarns from Purple Sprouting, with the one on the left even containing sparkles. I plan to make two pairs of socks with the left and middle yarns for myself, and the skein on the right is to make a pair of socks for my sister for her birthday.
I also bought 400 grams of fingering weight merino/silk singles for a light weight jersey project for myself for this winter.
Next up is 20 grams of Corriedale fiber in the shade Tequila Sunrise from a new NZ fiber seller, Deep Creek Woolworks.
I also bought two fiber batts from Dark Harbor Yarns, in green and blue shades made from corriedale/merino/silk. My plan is to spin them separately and then ply them together.
I bought the book "Maths for Knitters" by Kate Atherley from Holland Road Yarn Company, and I can't wait to dive in and see all the knitting information inside.
From The Yarn Queen I bought a pair of cat knitting needle protectors along with a new KnitPro needle measurer.
And finally, it's not a yarn festival without the traders giving away small goodies. Extra knitting stitch markers, tape measures, buttons, and even small skeins of yarn are always welcome.
Overall it was a great weekend with fiber friends, and doing some shopping, but as always as an introvert, I was pleased to be back home in the peace and quiet with my husband and kitties. And now I'm looking forward to a serene autumn quietly knitting and spinning in my craft room.
Have a wonderful day
Julie-Ann
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Regent 24 Hour Secondhand Booksale For 2026
Hello friends,
Recently hubby and I went along to the Regent 24 hour secondhand book sale, and I bought a pile of books for around $20, with the proceeds going to the upkeep of the Regent Theatre in Dunedin.
First, I managed to grab a 1960s copy of Pride and Prejudice with some great black and white illustrations of the story. As a Jane Austen fan, I like collecting editions of her work.
Next I picked up a bunch of NZ Gardener, NZ Lifestyle Block, Kiwi Gardener, and Organic NZ magazines that I haven't read before, and they were a great deal at $1 each.
And finally I purchased a number of crafting and gardening related books for $2 each. The copy of Botanica's Roses I picked up was a huge tome weighing in at 3.3 kg with over 700 pages of descriptions and photos. I felt sorry for hubby who lugged it around the book sale for me.
Overall I'm very happy with my haul of books. It was a shame I couldn't find many fiction books I was looking for, but I'm very pleased with all the crafting and gardening books I got. All I have to do now is find the time to read them all...
Have a wonderful day
Julie-Ann
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