She was pregnant when she shook that tree.
I was almost 10 and can still remember.
It was a hot summer’s night when Mom had a craving so we hopped in the car.
We travelled to the other side of town… to an orchard on this vacant lot.
It was dark and just a little scary but we did stuff like that in the 1970s.
Well my sister and I, we weren’t very tall and the tree’s branches were out of our reach.
So before we knew it…we couldn’t even believe it…
Mom was up a tree trunk shaking apples free.
I remember the leaves rustling as apples fell to the ground in thumps.
My sister and I ran grabbing to pick them up stretching our t-shirts out like a sack to carry them in.
And when we picked as many apples as we could fit in our shirts, we drove off with one happy mom…
…I could tell by the crunch her apple made.
Picking the last of the apples from our local orchard… with my son and his friend (on the left). We have well-trained eyes.
When I was a kid we could always count on plenty of apples at our house.
And Mom baked the perfect apple crisp.
The Perfect Apple Crisp
What you’ll need:
6 Granny Smith apples, peeled and sliced (about 10 cups)
3/4 cup white sugar
1 tablespoon all-purpose flour
1-1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon nutmeg
Crumble topping:
2 cups quick-cooking oats
2 cups all-purpose flour
2 cups packed brown sugar
1 cup butter, melted
1 cup chopped walnuts or pecans
Pre-heat oven to 350 degrees. Place sliced apples in a 9×13 baking dish. Mix white sugar, 1 tablespoon flour, nutmeg, and ground cinnamon and sprinkle over apples.
For the crumble topping: Combine oats, 2 cups flour, brown sugar, walnuts, and melted butter and mix until all the topping is moist. Crumble evenly over the apple mixture.
Bake for about 40 minutes. Serve with vanilla bean ice cream. ModernHenHome.com
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