A Psalm for Apples

Photo courtesy of Lost Forest After Dark

It's apple time up here in Northwest Indiana.

I can think of nothing finer.

The trees in the orchards are hanging low with the weight of the harvest.

My little gnarly apple tree produced well this year.

I call it my Tree of Good Intentions.

Every year I intend to prune it and spray it.

Every year I don't.

Every year I pull off enough gnarly apples to make a crisp and a pie or two.

This morning I got carried away with the splendor of life and baked this beauty.

She tastes as good as she looks.

A good crumb to fruit ratio is really important to me, as it is to you, I'm sure.

This crisp has a bottom layer of crumb.

Yes, you read that right.

It takes it to a 'ho notha level'


Whilst baking it, I vacuumed (of course I did) and drank in the breeze coming through the windows.
I noticed the changing shadows on the floor - it's getting late in the year. I cleaned the fridge out    and blessed the birds with a lot of treats - and the worms too.


I said a prayer for Aaron at school and Glenny at work.
I thanked God for my life.


As soon as it cooled enough, I took a bite.


I spontaneously burst into song, and then wrote this Psalm, in praise of the apple.

A Psalm written for the apple, by Jayme Goffin, Psalmist and Chicken Whisperer

                           
Praise ye the apple! Praise it on the tree, praise it in the hand.
   Praise ye the apple in the bowl, and in the oven too -
      For the Lord our God has created it, and it is good, real good.


  Blessed be it's crispness, blessed be it's bite - blessed be your tree, without blemish or blight.
Blessed be your family when ye shall make a crisp and serve it warm from the oven, they shall rise up and call you blessed!

We thank Thee for your goodness that you graced us with apples.

   Surely, brown sugar and cinnamon will follow me for all the days of my life, and I shall dwell in the land of the orchard forever.

Apple Crisp

1 cup flour

3/4  cup oatmeal

1 cup brown sugar

1 t. cinnamon

1 stick of cold butter

Mix the above until well mixed and crumbly.  Press half of this mixture onto the bottom of a greased 8 x8 or 9 x9 pan.

Top with four cups of chopped apples.

In a small saucepan, combine one cup of sugar, 2 T cornstarch.  Mix.  Add one cup of water.  Bring to a boil and cook until it become clear-ish and thick.  Add 1 t. vanilla.

Pour this mixture over the apples, and top with the remaining oat/flour mixture.

Bake at 350 until it is brown and bubbly.