Apples & horses on a sunny winter's day ❄️
There is a field not far from our house where apples have been left on the trees presumably because they are too small to be sold, so this week we picked a whole bunch more in order that we can make fresh apple juice every morning with the new juicer we bought today! The tiny apples you can see in the shot above are crab apples and we have been using them to make apple cider vinegar. I will show you the process for ACV at the end of this post.
So, here we are! Cold but happy :)
These trees have a net which you can see tied up along the top. In the summer the net is unravelled to prevent birds from feasting on the juicy sweetness of the fruit.
There were hardly any red ones left. And most of them pretty soft. Though incredibly tasty! Check out these two which look so much like giant cherries ;)
The green ones were plentiful and one does not have to work hard before they have more than they can carry.
Esteban enjoyed using them to test his throwing abilities. Normally I wouldn't be happy about this, but most of these apples will go to waste, so why not?
Don't be fooled by the sunshine, it is still incredibly cold here. Grass which hasn't yet been touched by the sun remains frozen.
Which makes children want to lick it apparently!
On our way home we said hello to a friend's horse.
She is such a beauty, we really love her.
Hello Belle :)
Esteban offered her an apple but she didn't seem interested.
In fact, horses prefer if you stomp on apples first. Easier to eat with those big jaws of theirs.
I noticed these wonderful 'flowers' on the walk home. Such an energetic display of life.
And then I spotted this tree which felt like a perfect example of death and the inevitable cycle for everyone & everything blessed enough to experience life. I noted too how the ivy was still thriving, despite the evident 'death' of its host. Of course, nothing ever really dies. It just recycles.
So, here are the apples we ended up with, tucked away with a few other things in the winter tent in our courtyard.
These ones were too soft or too eaten by birds for us.
But obviously there is no waste in this house so these apples were used to make ACV.
Apple cider vinegar
All you have to do is cut up the apples you don't want and throw them cores and all into a glass container.
Add one tablespoon of sugar for every cup of (filtered) water and fill the vessel once full of apples.
Leave with a breathable cloth attached to the top and give it a stir with a wooden spoon once a week. After one month filter off the apple pieces and you're done.
Drink a little bit of your ACV (mixed with water) every day for optimum health.
So, that's it.
I have many other things to tell/show you but will save for the next post.
Love & Light everyone 🥦
The previous few days were similar in my country (Hungary) too. Today was a little warmer with maximum daylight temperature of 5 °C. The snow is started to melt.
By the way, you have a lot of fruits on the trees, considering that we are in the winter. There are fruit trees in the garden of my current rent, and in/around my village, but currently none of them contains any fruits. They have a lot of fruits in the summer.
Have a nice day. All the best. Greetings and much love from Hungary.
I would say it is not normal to find this variety of apple still on the trees now but apparently these farmers made enough money already to not care about picking the little ones. So really, we are just lucky to live where we do!
Each day a little bit more sunshine enters our courtyard and I can feel the summer coming, but it is certainly a test getting through winter.
Hope you are keeping warm. All the best!
So cool to have fruit to pick when its already so cold and Belle is beautiful.
Yeah right. Coolest thing ever!
And we are happy to have Belle. She is so very friendly :)
The kids must be so happy
What a day, looks fun and productive. Didn't realise apple cider vinegar was that easy! Saved this post and will attempt to make it next time I get a harvest off my trees 🙏🏽
Like you, I also had no idea how simple it was. Until last year! Since then I have drunk one tablespoon of ACV every morning and am pretty sure this is a habit which will continue forever now that I know how to make it :)
Interesting to note that the only difference between ACV and cider production is the addition of fresh air to the fermentation process.
Definitely will do it now. I have ACV bottle and drink it occasionally in the AM but now I can make it on my own a bonus for sure. The only problem is affording extra apples. I buy organic and the prices of things in England is rocketing but the universe will provide. Hope it is quick though haha. Thanks 🙏🏽
I love seeing you Sam and your family out and about, making sure nothing goes to waste in the community. You are an inspiration my friend and you are providing such a wonderful upbringing for your wonderful kids xxxxxx
We certainly do our best to collect up that which others don't appear to want. Not sure what the farmers would have to say about it if they caught us however??? People around here are a bit weird and they probably wouldn't appreciate it!
But yes, we do our best and I am grateful for your positive words as ever.
Sending hugs xxx
Just a tip from a Canadian guy...
It's okay to lick frost off things. Just be careful though, never try that with metal. It looks like a great idea at first. : P
!LUV
@drutter(1/3) gave you LUV.
Ohh look, frossssst.....
(Dumb&Dumber! ;)
You wouldn't happen to have a cuppa warm water would ya........?
Excellent Sebby. I will show them this clip to illustrate what happens :)
Yeah, good tip! I will mention this to them. Errr... though this will probably only make them want to do it! haha. I suppose we all have to find out the hard way in the end ;)
Hey cuddlekitten. All good in the hood?
Frost licking? Odd...greetings from hot sunny nz where we don't even get frost in winter. At least not here by the sea!
Do you ever miss it? The frost & the snow I mean?
Oh and while I have you here I wanted to ask a few questions:
Now that I am actively being downvoted too I felt fired up to write a post about it, especially knowing what has happened to you. But I realise that in doing so I may well put an end to any potential rewards I could make here. From what I can tell they are only downvoting me a small amount on my family related posts & comments, but a bigger amount (-$20) on my truth seeking posts.
Do you think if I call them out in a dedicated post this will trigger them to increase the downvote quantity on everything I do? What was it that triggered them put an end to your personal rewards here? What are your thoughts on trying to instigate some kind of change here on hive? This would be my goal. But would I be wasting my time in your opinion?
Sorry, that was quite a lot of questions in the end. And I can't even upvote your comments to say thanks! Which is nuts to me. And there is something rotten in Denmark.
There are parts of NZ that have snow in winter and I have had a play in it, and frost does occur here even in Wellington once you get away from the coast, but no, I like a climate that essentially never goes below zero, it's my definate preferece. It's also generally not too hot either - now is the hottest, getting up to high 20's, but I like to stay between 15 and 20 deg most of the time. We do have a lot of wind though, to a degree that most people would hate.
I'll give you a better answer to the second question soon - but in short, at this point, no I don't think we can win this battle on Hive, and that is why I'm now so behind VYB. I called out the account behind my Hive downvoting knowing my Hive rewards were over and out, and looking ahead to a new front end.
If you speak out you will be blacklisted with every post and comment you do downvoted, which as well as wiping your rewards, also drops your rep over time. But long term this may help VYB which we are seriously aiming to develop as a downvote free platform with a valuable token limited to 21 million total - like Bitcoin (and unlike Hive!)
https://www.vybrainium.com/vyb/@frot/my-ever-changing-relationship-with-hive
Here we arrrrre....
Cold but happy ;)
Love you guyyyz 🤗
Love you too bro 🍌
P.S. - Apple seeds can be toxic to horses too ...so good idea to stomp them, and remove seeds....
Ah! Haven't spent much time around horses in my life, so I greatly appreciate the tips of a man who has! I will take a knife next time and do it the proper way :)
Wow love the horse pics
Hey there! Am pleased you came along for the ride ;)
We look forward to having a horse of our own one day.