What a gorgeous September we are having. Mellow sunny days followed by crisply cool nights—perfect for sleeping with open windows. And perfect for whetting the appetite!
It seems that our long-time favourite apple orchard, Myers, did not survive Covid, much to my dismay, but we are fortunate here in southern Ontario to have many more. I’ve begun frequenting Bennett’s, which has a good variety of apples and baked and jarred goods. As usual, when confronted with such bounty, I bought entirely too much and have spent the last week making Curried Parsnip Apple Soup, more Ratatouille and baking Pumpkin Cake with Brown Butter and Cream Cheese Icing and Pumpkin Pie with a No-Roll Crust for an early (even for Canadians) Thanksgiving Dinner for the family. I also succumbed to the temptation of some unusually coloured sunflowers and dahlias.
The deep purple tones in the dahlias brought to mind some inexpensive Ikea ARV dinner plates I had lurking in the basement. They served a perfect frame for Juliska Emerson salad plates.
I decided to run with the jewel tones and used dark tartan napkins and a deep blue runner.
I elected to use a silver centrepiece to hold the hefty flowers and continued that theme with silver chargers and ornate cutlery, enhanced with antique Webb wheel-cut goblets.
I even hauled out the silver open salts. They don’t usually see the light of day until Christmas.
It is a real combination of blingy silver and glass alongside the humble Ikea plates and homely sunflowers. But I think it works!
It was a fun challenge!
Today, Glenn and I are heading into Toronto to visit our former stomping ground, The St. Lawrence Market, to pick up what proved to be a very elusive fresh turkey. Because we are celebrating Thanksgiving two weeks in advance of the official event, fresh birds are not only thin on the ground; they’re practically impossible to locate. It does give us an opportunity to visit our favourite cheese shop, though, Alex Farms. We will undoubtedly come back laden with cheese, in addition to the defunct Tom Turkey.
One more look at the table, and then I need to get my skates on.
Have a good day, folks.
Dear Helen, Ordinarily I have no place in my heart for sunflowers, and these colours really shouldn’t work together, but you’ve done it again. Webb crystal and Rose Hunting Ancient tartan with sterling, Juliska, and purple Ikea?–It’s almost moody…I’d like to see what would happen if you substituted another flower for the sunflowers…it could change the entire thing! Hope your turkey hunt goes well. Do we get some shots of the day? Today our tree’s hazelnut harvest is going into my yearly Hungarian Torte extravaganza, which starts with shelling and roasting a pound of nuts–a labour of love to celebrate fall. Happy Turkey!
I’m intrigued by what we could do with other flowers, too, Beatrice. Thanks for naming the tartan—I didn’t know which one it was.
Turkey was procured and turned out very well. It was fun visiting our old haunt and we enjoyed lunch of peameal bacon on a soft bun (A Canadian version of the bacon butty) while we were there. The Market is famous for them.
I took a few quick shots of the table and got some good ones of the traditional family gathering on the porch steps plus the girls in the porch swing. I’ll get those posted this week.
Fresh hazelnuts—lucky you! I understand that the shells practically peel off when they are very fresh. Is that true? I hope the torte turned out well. Sounds divine! I love hazelnuts.
Oooh…it’s been donkeys years since I had a bacon butty…shades of Onslow! The nuts must first be rescued from the oachkatzl (a Bavarian name for the lovely local charcoal cousin of the English red squirrel). They have huge bushy tails, creamy undersides, and long ear tufts. They move in when the nuts mature, climbing to the tops of the trees. They steal the one or two perfectly ripe nuts in each cluster of 2-6 (*crunch*crunch*crunch*–that’s how I know they’ve arrived) and drop the rest of the cluster on the ground. Then I run after them, shake the tree, and harvest all the nuts and collect the remaining fallen bits before my neighbour runs over the clusters with his car.. If the nuts are ripe, one glancing blow with a meat mallet, and the nut pops out. Then you must boil them in baking-soda-enhanced water, pop the skins off, and roast them until they sing. Finally they are ready to use, and what a difference to store-bought–fragrant, rich, toasty! I never knew about them until we moved into this house with an old tree. The torte centre is filled with marilllen (tiny local apricot) jam with Cointreau and is frosted with hazelnut buttercream, decorated with dried apricots and more nuts. It looks like something you’d see in a Viennese cafe. Once a year it’s a treat or the neighbourhood, as we can’t possibly eat it all (although it freezes beautifully).
Beatrice,
I found pictures of the charcoal ochkatzl—utterly beautiful, though somewhat diabolical, like all squirrels.
The gathering and processing sounds like quite a production, but oh-so worth it for that delectable torte! Your neighbours must be in heaven during the annual hazelnut fest. Thanks for all the information. Fascinating.
Best,
Helen
The plaid linens and sunflowers are so lovely for Autumn!! Have often said we’d like to live in Toronto and it’s nice you went there in our stead.
Autumn in Canada is the best season, I think; this year we are having an especially warm fall, so it’s extra enjoyable!
Side note: sorry to hear your apple orchard didn’t survive the Pandemic. Here in WI, our Strawberry farms closed forever in our area. Going to get apples tomorrow, actually, and will bring you along in spirit!
I hope your apple quest was successful. Aren’t they delicious when freshly picked? YUM.